"Ace Of Spades" by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé: For Those Who The System Deprives of Thriving

"Ace Of Spades" being Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé's debut novel, I am deeply impressed by the quality of her ability of storytelling and move mountains through her art. If this is her premier work, I look forward to what she can bless us with as her career goes on.

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"Ace of Spades" is no normal mystery thriller - it is one which combines the important issues which very many deprived people of colour face in their daily lives (although at different scales). Two Black students in an all-White prestigious school are faced with an anonymous figure "Aces" who deals destruction to them and only them. Chiamaka and Devon attempt to fight relentlessly to catch "Aces" only to figure out that this is not a singular individual, rather, a system that is out to get them.

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Faridah did an absolutely phenomenal job of illuminating the adversities faced by members of the Black community in this day and age. Despite having achieved freedom and being unshackled from titles of slavery, they are still haunted by the intense and harsh views of racists within our very own society.

Every young adult (if not everyone) must read this book, racist or not, because it is capable of changing world-views, inducing empathy and most importantly, is a powerful voice for all people of colour who are unable to thrive because of the systems we have put in place.

Faridah highlights this exceptionally well - more often than not, racism is influenced by the systems around us, one such very dominant one being white supremacy.

My rating is missing half a star owing to personal preference, the plot is excellent, driven by meaning and dimension. The star went amiss owing to my personal preference for more sophisticated writing but I fully understand this novel is for all, regardless of reading ability and the author did well in putting dystopian realities in simple words, shocking enough. Also, I couldn't put this book down, it combined very many themes excellently - homophobia, racism, classism, etc.

We all know racism and homophobia is an atrocity but do we really ever know HOW bad it gets? This book will let you in on it all and that, I think is extremely important for our awareness as a society that must propagate towards disbanding these schools of thought.

The blurb says "Gossip Girl Meets Get Out", I couldn't agree with a better tagline - it holds the same light-hearted nature as Gossip Girl at first, seemingly harmless and naïve but then, like Get Out, unfolds to show sinister intentions, compelling characters and... the world we live in.

4.5/5 stars.

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