Book Review 4: Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

 Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé: Ace of Spades

Genres: Contemporary Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Psychological Horror, Social Justice, American Literature, African American Literature, LGBTQIA+ Literature 

Reading Level: Young Adult 

Setting: Present Day U.S. (Unspecified city or state) 

Published: 2021 

Page Count: 415 (Paperback)

Content Warnings: Racism, White Supremacy, Homophobia, Incarceration, Drugs

Rating: ★★★★☆ (4 out of 5)

First things first, do not discredit any interest in reading this book on the baseline that it is YA. The first few chapters might trick you into thinking that this book is a standard high school teen drama, but it is absolutely anything but. Also, do not discredit it on the grounds that it’s a thriller either. It is also not a standard, run-of-the-mill murder mystery book. Not that there’s anything wrong with a book that is a high school drama or a murder mystery; I would just hate for a book as incredible as Ace of Spades to get thrown into those categories when it is actually something so much more profound. 

The story follows two Black teens in their senior year of high school, Devon and Chiamaka, as they attend a prestigious, predominantly wealthy, and white dominated school. Devon comes from a poor family, and his mother struggles immensely to get him into this school, whereas Chiamaka comes from a wealthy family (though this still doesn’t prevent her from being targeted by racism). The events that follow come slowly at first, and then all at once. Both Devon and Chiamaka are targeted by an anonymous stalker who reveals their deepest secrets to their entire school, outing Devon, who is gay, and threatening Chiamaka with her darkest secret—that during her junior year, she was in the car with her friend Jamie when he committed a hit and run and convinced her not to call the police or for help after it happened. The two teens embark on a mission to figure out who the stalker, known simply as Aces, is.

As it turns out, Aces does not end up being just one person, but rather an entire secret society that comprises not just the school but the world beyond it. The titular Ace of Spades society is engaged in “social eugenics,” a radical, white supremacist ideology, and are seeking to actively destroy the lives of the Black students that they have admitted into their school for exactly this purpose. 

Is it realistic that a society like the Ace of Spades society could actually exist? Could operate with impunity across the entire country for so long? The answer is hard to say. The initial instinct of most readers would probably be to say “no, of course not, that’s ludicrous.” However, do racist and white supremacy organizations not still exist in America? Do people not still take part in them with impunity? While the exact nature of the secret society in Ace of Spades may be slightly far-fetched for most readers, the concept behind it are rooted in a very dark, and very much still living, aspect of American society, as well as in cultures beyond just the United States as well. 

The other thing to consider too is the deeper meaning behind what Àbíké-Íyímídé is saying. There is the surface interpretation of Ace of Spades–the one that reminds people that white supremacy organizations exist–and there is also the deeper, more read-between-the-lines interpretation of the novel. It is not just literal but also a metaphorical interpretation of anti-Black racism in the United States and the world at large. The Ace of Spades society in the book is meant to represent that racism is everywhere, that it takes multiple forms, that it is nearly impossible for Black people to escape everyday, casual racism in their lives from the people they know. 

That is exactly why Àbíké-Íyímídé goes the route of having every non-Black character in the book end up being connected to the Ace of Spades society, or at least, racist in some way even if not part of the society–such is the case of Chiamaka’s Italian father. He is not part of Ace of Spades, but he is still complicit in racism. Chiamaka reveals that her father’s side of the family in Italy never liked her or her mother because they were Nigerian and had dark skin, and they used to make racist comments towards them during family dinners back in Italy. She reveals that her father never defended them during these attacks, and eventually, instead of confronting his family or cutting them out for the way they treat his wife in daughter, he simply chooses to stop bringing them with him back to Italy to visit his family. Essentially, he segregates his white family from his Black family instead of confronting the racism, making him complicit. By the end of the novel, neither Devon nor Chiamaka can find a single non- or explicitly anti-racist white person in their life. It is a topic that is discussed word-for-word by Devon’s eventual boyfriend Terrell. He feels that racism is a spectrum, and that all white people fall somewhere on that spectrum, and that’s what Àbíké-Íyímídé is getting at with the Ace of Spades society encompassing everyone in Devon and Chiamaka’s world being part of it. She is showcasing how racism exists everywhere, and how to Black people who have to experience it, it can feel the way it feels for Chiamaka and Devon. 

I appreciate that there is no romance between the two main characters in this novel. It seems typical that whenever a book features a male main character and a female main character (especially one set in a high school setting), that there always ends up being a romance between the two. Àbíké-Íyímídé uses this novel to explore queerness in the Black adolescent experience instead. Devon is gay, and we get to see his experience in interracial gay relationships as well as between queer Black boys. With Chiamaka, we get to explore her feelings as she realizes that she is attracted to both guys and girls. 

There is one minor plot point that left me a bit confused as to its significance. It’s specified at the beginning of the novel that the school’s headmaster for the last three years had suffered some sort of psychological breakdown and had been replaced by the character of Headmaster Ward, the vile member of the Ace of Spades society whom Chiamaka seemingly takes revenge on at the novel’s conclusion. The implication at the beginning here is that the ousting of the previous headmaster and implication of Ward in his place would be significant in the rise of Ace of Spades at the school. Such is reinforced at the first day of orientation, when Devon notices the Ace of Spades symbol flash across the presentation screen, something he has never noticed in the previous three years he has attended Niveus. However, the later novel reveals that the Ace of Spades society has been operating in Niveus for decades, and everyone has always been involved. It isn’t new, wasn’t implemented by Headmaster Ward, which would imply the previous headmaster was also involved. So what was the significance to constantly reiterating that Headmaster Ward has replaced the previous headmaster suddenly over the summer? The entire plot of the book would have continued exactly as it had without this minor point being repeated, so why is it stressed at all? We also never actually find out the details of the previous headmaster’s ousting. Did he really have a breakdown? Did the Ace of Spades society force him out? If so, why? It’s really never explained. It’s also never explained why the Ace of Spades symbol only appears during orientation for the first time during Chiamaka and Devon’s senior year, if it’s been going on for years, including the entire duration of their time at Niveus. It all just feels like an improperly explained plot thread that eventually got dropped. 

I have one other slight issue with the story that isn’t related to the aforementioned plot hole, which is annoying, but I could live with. My main is is with Àbíké-Íyímídé’s handling of the more traumatic aspects of Devon’s backstory. As if his life wasn’t heartbreaking enough, we learn closer to the end of the book that his father wasn’t just in prison; he was on death row, had been executed, and the secret had been withheld from Devon his entire life. This added trauma never really plays an important role in the story; it’s really just thrown in there to make Devon’s life even sadder than it already was. Given how horrific everything that’s happened to Devon has already been, it didn’t feel necessary to add even more torment to his character, especially when it didn’t come back into play for any real necessity to the story. It also feels improperly handled. During Devon’s last visit with his father in prison, he has a brief moment of bonding with him before his father simply tells him that he doesn’t ever want to see Devon visit again—but we learn this is actually because he was slated for execution that day. Instead of having a proper goodbye with his son, he chooses to cruelly alienate him and tarnish his son’s memory of him for the rest of his life. Devon grows up thinking his father didn’t love him and his mom. It just doesn’t feel real to me that a man on death row would make this choice; it doesn’t feel real to me that Devon’s mother would never admit the truth to Devon, even if she wanted to wait until he was older to explain it to him. The whole secrecy around Devon’s father’s fate just feels so convoluted, like it was only added to any already dark and depressing life for Devon to make it even worse. Devon’s own reaction also feel unreal. After learning the truth, Devon is quick to write off his father and conclude that if his dad had really loved him and his mother, then he wouldn’t have done whatever he did to get incarcerated in the first place. It all gets chalked up to abandonment. To me, it seems more realistic that Devon would have a much, much more complex emotional reaction to learning his father was actually on death row and didn’t just never want to see him again, that it should perhaps pave the way to untarnishing his memory of his father. But we don’t ever really get to see Devon reckon with the truth. We don’t even ever see a conversation between Devon and his mother about why she hid it from him—which feels like the biggest piece missing from the novel. In fact, it’s never revealed what Devon’s father did to wind up in prison and on death row in the first place. The reader should have learned what he was convicted of, to really be allowed the space to decide whether or not it was true that Devon’s father really did choose to abandon his family for a life of crime, or if something greater was at play—such as the inherent anti-Black racism of the American Justice system. But since we don’t know what his conviction was for, the reader can’t really ever determine if Devon’s feelings are valid. The whole situation is treated as trauma on top of trauma for the sake of traumatizing and tormenting a character even more, and Devon deserved better. 

Book review 4 out of ~5,000 lifetime goal.