Ace Of Spades by Faridah Àbìké-Íyímídé
Oct. 6th, 2025 10:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Welcome to Niveus Private Academy …
Where money paves the hallways, and the students are never less than perfect. Until now. Because anonymous texter Aces is bringing two students’ dark secrets to light. Talented musician Devon buries himself in his rehearsals, but he can’t escape the spotlight when his private photos go public. Head girl Chiamaka isn’t afraid to get what she wants, but soon everyone will know the price she has paid for power. Someone is out to get them both. Someone who holds all the aces. And they’re planning much more than a high school game …
17-year-old Devon “Von” Richards is a scholarship student at Niveus Private Academy who lives in a poor neighbourhood with his single parent mother and two younger siblings, Eli and James. Money is tight and knowing that his mum struggles to meet bills, he doesn’t tell her anything that would give her more stress. Instead he keeps his head down at Niveus where his only friend is fellow scholarship kid Jack (although even he has been pulling away from Von recently) and focuses on his music. A gifted musician, he wants to win a place at Julliard and needs to nail his audition piece so he’s grateful for the support of his favourite teacher, Mr Taylor, who smoothes things out with other teachers when Von skips their classes to focus on his music.
Despite being the only other black student at Niveus, 17-year-old Chiamaka Adebayo is the polar-opposite of Von. Her parents (an Italian father and Nigerian mother) have money and she’s among the most well off of the students plus she’s a straight A student with her sights set on Yale and medical school and the most popular girl at Niveus. As she and Von enter their final year, her key objectives are to become Head Prefect and to finally start dating her best friend Jamie, who she thinks would make a perfect partner for her.
When the school year starts, Chiamaka is delighted to be made Head Prefect but everyone is shocked when Von is named as one of the 4 Senior Prefects - Von most of all. Shortly after the new principal, Headmaster Ward, has announced their roles, a text message is sent to all students by an anonymous account called Aces outing Von as gay and attaching a photo of him kissing theatre kid Scotty. Aces is targeting Chiamaka as well, sending out more text messages that reveals each of their secrets.
Forced to team up, they try to work out who is targeting them and why, but it isn’t long before they discover that something sinister is going on at Niveus Private Academy and they will have to be very careful who they trust …
Faridah Àbìké-Íyímídé’s debut YA thriller is billed as GET OUT meets GOSSIP GIRL for good reason. It’s a searing high concept novel where racism meets conspiracy to create an intense choking claustrophobia as Aces racks up their campaign against Von and Chiamaka. That said, it doesn’t nail the final quarter and there are holes in the conspiracy if you think about it too closely but it has pace, it makes you think and it still feels of the moment.
This is a high concept YA thriller that got a lot of publicity when it was first released in June 2021 and it’s not hard to see why. It very much taps into the concerns about racism and in particular structural racism that people of colour face and Àbìké-Íyímídé’s foreword explains the circumstances that led her to write it, which gives it a lot of important context.
There is a lot to like about the book. Àbìké-Íyímídé uses Von and Chiamaka to explore how sexuality and class can be used as additional weapons against people of colour. I believed in the way Àbìké-Íyímídé’s uses Von’s fears of his mother’s reaction to his homosexuality as a reason why he can’t bring himself to tell her what’s going on and how she reinforces that by showing how concerned he is about not adding to her financial stress. I equally liked the way Àbìké-Íyímídé’s shows Chiamaka’s drive and ambition and how she has a plan in place to get what she wants. Àbìké-Íyímídé also does a great job of slowly building a choking claustrophobia and fear on the part of both Von and Chiamaka as Aces starts their campaign and they begin to worry about what will be revealed next and what the reaction of the people in their school, their friends and teachers will be.
That said, I think it’s inevitable with conspiracy plots that once Von and Chiamaka start digging into what’s going on and who Aces is that the cracks start to show and while Àbìké-Íyímídé maintains a good sense of pace so that you roll with the revelations, it’s still one of those books where once you’ve finished and start thinking about it, you see the cracks and the holes. Equally, I think there are some missed opportunities here, most notably there are hints that Chiamaka and her mum have experienced racism from the Italian side of the family, I would have been interested a bit more of Chiamaka’s relationship with her dad and even wondering if he’s part of the general conspiracy. Also on the negative side is that there isn’t enough on the page between Von and Jack to explain why Von keeps turning to him given how badly he behaves while Chiamaka’s relationships with Jamie and Belle are underbaked and don’t have the pay off that a book of this type needs.
Negatives aside, this is a confident big bang debut and it’s not difficult to see why Àbìké-Íyímídé received such acclaim and is viewed as such a talent. Putting my criticisms to one side, I am excited to read her other work and see what she does next.
The Verdict:
Faridah Àbìké-Íyímídé’s debut YA thriller is billed as GET OUT meets GOSSIP GIRL for good reason. It’s a searing high concept novel where racism meets conspiracy to create an intense choking claustrophobia as Aces racks up their campaign against Von and Chiamaka. That said, it doesn’t nail the final quarter and there are holes in the conspiracy if you think about it too closely but it has pace, it makes you think and it still feels of the moment.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
Welcome to Niveus Private Academy …
Where money paves the hallways, and the students are never less than perfect. Until now. Because anonymous texter Aces is bringing two students’ dark secrets to light. Talented musician Devon buries himself in his rehearsals, but he can’t escape the spotlight when his private photos go public. Head girl Chiamaka isn’t afraid to get what she wants, but soon everyone will know the price she has paid for power. Someone is out to get them both. Someone who holds all the aces. And they’re planning much more than a high school game …
17-year-old Devon “Von” Richards is a scholarship student at Niveus Private Academy who lives in a poor neighbourhood with his single parent mother and two younger siblings, Eli and James. Money is tight and knowing that his mum struggles to meet bills, he doesn’t tell her anything that would give her more stress. Instead he keeps his head down at Niveus where his only friend is fellow scholarship kid Jack (although even he has been pulling away from Von recently) and focuses on his music. A gifted musician, he wants to win a place at Julliard and needs to nail his audition piece so he’s grateful for the support of his favourite teacher, Mr Taylor, who smoothes things out with other teachers when Von skips their classes to focus on his music.
Despite being the only other black student at Niveus, 17-year-old Chiamaka Adebayo is the polar-opposite of Von. Her parents (an Italian father and Nigerian mother) have money and she’s among the most well off of the students plus she’s a straight A student with her sights set on Yale and medical school and the most popular girl at Niveus. As she and Von enter their final year, her key objectives are to become Head Prefect and to finally start dating her best friend Jamie, who she thinks would make a perfect partner for her.
When the school year starts, Chiamaka is delighted to be made Head Prefect but everyone is shocked when Von is named as one of the 4 Senior Prefects - Von most of all. Shortly after the new principal, Headmaster Ward, has announced their roles, a text message is sent to all students by an anonymous account called Aces outing Von as gay and attaching a photo of him kissing theatre kid Scotty. Aces is targeting Chiamaka as well, sending out more text messages that reveals each of their secrets.
Forced to team up, they try to work out who is targeting them and why, but it isn’t long before they discover that something sinister is going on at Niveus Private Academy and they will have to be very careful who they trust …
Faridah Àbìké-Íyímídé’s debut YA thriller is billed as GET OUT meets GOSSIP GIRL for good reason. It’s a searing high concept novel where racism meets conspiracy to create an intense choking claustrophobia as Aces racks up their campaign against Von and Chiamaka. That said, it doesn’t nail the final quarter and there are holes in the conspiracy if you think about it too closely but it has pace, it makes you think and it still feels of the moment.
This is a high concept YA thriller that got a lot of publicity when it was first released in June 2021 and it’s not hard to see why. It very much taps into the concerns about racism and in particular structural racism that people of colour face and Àbìké-Íyímídé’s foreword explains the circumstances that led her to write it, which gives it a lot of important context.
There is a lot to like about the book. Àbìké-Íyímídé uses Von and Chiamaka to explore how sexuality and class can be used as additional weapons against people of colour. I believed in the way Àbìké-Íyímídé’s uses Von’s fears of his mother’s reaction to his homosexuality as a reason why he can’t bring himself to tell her what’s going on and how she reinforces that by showing how concerned he is about not adding to her financial stress. I equally liked the way Àbìké-Íyímídé’s shows Chiamaka’s drive and ambition and how she has a plan in place to get what she wants. Àbìké-Íyímídé also does a great job of slowly building a choking claustrophobia and fear on the part of both Von and Chiamaka as Aces starts their campaign and they begin to worry about what will be revealed next and what the reaction of the people in their school, their friends and teachers will be.
That said, I think it’s inevitable with conspiracy plots that once Von and Chiamaka start digging into what’s going on and who Aces is that the cracks start to show and while Àbìké-Íyímídé maintains a good sense of pace so that you roll with the revelations, it’s still one of those books where once you’ve finished and start thinking about it, you see the cracks and the holes. Equally, I think there are some missed opportunities here, most notably there are hints that Chiamaka and her mum have experienced racism from the Italian side of the family, I would have been interested a bit more of Chiamaka’s relationship with her dad and even wondering if he’s part of the general conspiracy. Also on the negative side is that there isn’t enough on the page between Von and Jack to explain why Von keeps turning to him given how badly he behaves while Chiamaka’s relationships with Jamie and Belle are underbaked and don’t have the pay off that a book of this type needs.
Negatives aside, this is a confident big bang debut and it’s not difficult to see why Àbìké-Íyímídé received such acclaim and is viewed as such a talent. Putting my criticisms to one side, I am excited to read her other work and see what she does next.
The Verdict:
Faridah Àbìké-Íyímídé’s debut YA thriller is billed as GET OUT meets GOSSIP GIRL for good reason. It’s a searing high concept novel where racism meets conspiracy to create an intense choking claustrophobia as Aces racks up their campaign against Von and Chiamaka. That said, it doesn’t nail the final quarter and there are holes in the conspiracy if you think about it too closely but it has pace, it makes you think and it still feels of the moment.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
