Ace of Spades By Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

 

Ace of Spades is a book following the lives of two Black students enrolled at a predominately white school called Niveus Private Academy. Chiamaka Abedayo, the school's queen, who has worked her way up in order to be the perfect student, is someone everyone can be jealous of. She dreams of being accepted into Yale after conquering Niveus, on the path to become a doctor. Then there's Devon Richards, an aspiring musician, who cares more about supporting his family and composing his audition into Julliard than social status. These two characters paths meet when Chiamaka is selected as head prefect, which is no surprise to her, and Devon is selected as a prefect, a big surprise to him. As they are kicking off their senior year, an anonymous texter starts to reveal their deepest secrets, the things that could ruin both of their chances at college. Together, they work to find out who is doing this to them, and discover the true identities of some of their closest friends.

This book definitely had a big impact on me. It involves the difficult truths of institutionalized racism, but also shows how far people were able to go in order to discriminate against African-American people. Although this book is marketed as a teen mystery, which are usually pretty light, and have a "happy" ending, this book takes an entirely different turn. Before you start the book, it gives you a trigger warning, as the book depicts the following:

• Racism
• Homophobia
• Bullying
• Stalking
• Murder
• Sexism
• Drug use
• Suicide ideation

This list is probably some of the most present problems in the book, and even though it sounds very intense, all of these contributed to the honest reality of the situation and events that occur in the book. 

In all, I think this is a must read for everyone. It personally had a bigger impact on me since I did go to a less diverse middle school, where I was one of the only Black girls in my grade, so I can relate to Chiamaka, one of the main characters, very well. Along with this, it gives the hard truth of institutionalized racism, one of the many types, and a big problem in modern school's today. I hope my review has encouraged you to pick this up, as if you consider yourself an ally in the Black Lives Matter movement, this will open up your mind to a different perspective not a lot of people experience.

- Cali