Ace of Spades is a gripping read, but one which I wish wasn’t needed. I’m so grateful to the publishers and NetGalley for letting me read this before publication, and I can’t wait to get a physical copy in school.
Our story focuses on Devon and Chiamaka, two students at the prestigious Niveus Academy. They are both determined students, with high hopes and ambitions…but acutely conscious they have to work harder than some of their peers. When they return to school for their Senior Year things start well…but the year quickly takes a turn for the worse.
Someone calling themself Aces begins to send messages to the student body. They threaten to expose secrets that Devon and Chiamaka desperately want to keep hidden. Initially it seems fairly standard bullying…but we soon realise they are the only students targeted and they are both black. There is, sadly, more to this than we might first think.
What started out as a rather obvious high school bullying story soon takes a much darker turn. A little digging and our two students realise that this is systematic racism, and it has been happening annually since 1965. Nothing has been challenged – so we are, of course, right behind Chiamaka and Devon as they attempt to bring down whoever is behind this.
Once we focused on the bigger picture I couldn’t help but feel anger to my core that this could ever be allowed/encouraged, and that so many were complicit in ensuring no harm came to those responsible. Standing by and allowing it to happen is just as bad as instigating it.