let’s talk about ace of spades: trauma, terror, and triggers
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 ต.ค. 2024
- hi, i'm dee (the heroine) and this is my corner🌟
i have A LOT of thoughts about Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé. it’s a solid debut but i found that my reading experience wasn’t as fun as i had anticipated. and when a book gets me thinking, i have to talk about it!
talk to me!
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I just read it and felt the same. I felt like it was an attempt at an adult plot but shoved into middle school type writing. It didn't mesh. The characters were so flat and it was so improbable that hundreds of teenagers would never let anything slip. I'm supposed to think Jamie would spend FOUR YEARS being best friends with someone and then have no issue flipping the switch on command? No conflict, just second thoughts? I'm so confused why this has such high reviews.
Definitely agree with wanting more from Chiamaka’s character. In the end you see she wears her curls as a doctor but I wish that was shown more. I also wanted to know more about her mom and I was hoping to see a moment where she talks to her mother about her conflicting feelings about herself and also what is happening at the school. Bothered me that no one wanted to tell parents?? They are in a very dangerous situation and I feel their parents needed some information. Maybe that’s just me.
was chiamaka drugged and assaulted by jamie? because those flashbacks from his party made it seem like that's what happened.
That’s definitely the impression I got, though the author kind of dropped that plot point entirely
Totally agree with a lot of what you said here. The book relied so heavily on the Get Out pitch that it became so predictable it was painful. I thought it’d be more inspired by Get Out, not a carbon copy of it. And I was also disappointed that our two MCs didn’t have a closer dynamic. I thought at the very least they’d be friends by the halfway point lol!
And I yes, I was so surprised that racism as a motivator for Aces wasn’t brought up wayyy earlier. Especially since the synopsis makes it seem like it will be. Overall I think the marketing of this book really killed my reading experience since the book wasn’t at all what I expected. Great discussion!
thank you! and yes i think the marketing really didn’t help this book at all and left me feeling a bit off throughout the entire story because i was waiting for something to finally click. i’m glad to see i wasn’t the only one with mixed feelings!
Great video. I definitely had some conflicting thoughts when reading this book, some of which you talked about here, so it's good to see those issues raised by someone else. I over all enjoyed the book, like 3.5 stars, but yeah, there were quite a few elements that didn't work for me. It's really interesting to hear you talk about the microaggressions though, because one of my thoughts was 'how are there not more micro aggressions when all these 14-18 year olds have managed to not show how racist they are for four whole years? How did every teenager at that school manage to not let their façade slip?', but seeing you talk about microaggression after microaggression puts it more into perspective that I am not nuanced or knowledgeable enough to see them
thank you! i think with micro-aggressions a lot of it came from the inherent setting of the story- rich, mostly white private school. so against that backdrop everything was just irking me in a way that it probably wouldn’t have done if the story was set in a public school. i’m glad i’m not the only one that had conflicting thoughts on this book!
i think for me the thing i disliked the most was the cheesy unrealistic high school dialogue at points and the shallowness mainly from Chiamaka’s character. Also the the blatant classism from her which you never really see her educated on or addressed. And like you said i wish there was more of a relationship between them and more of an effort to talk about their shared experiences of being a minority in a majority white school despite being so different
plus you never really see her act or manipulate things to go her way as she claims to have once done throughout the book, i wish we could’ve seen her more conniving and cool side a bit more, all you really get is her being rude and standoffish
@@angelbrown5483 agree with both your comments
You are seemingly the only TH-camr who has any criticism for this highly praised book. I had the same reaction. Thanks for your video.
This book never felt like Gossip Girl to me. There just wasn't enough balance for me. Black kids don't spend every waking moment thinking about white people even when we are the only ones in white spaces. Sometimes these books claim their for Black kids but whiteness ends up being centered as they try to send a message about the horrors of racism.
i feel like devon’s story was better when it came to decentralising whitness, but chiamaka’s drama with jamie was really draining and tedious. i do hope in the future these books make sure to focus on black characters away from their relationship to whiteness, instead of white terror. its makes the reading experience less fulfilling.
@@heroinescorner Black YA now compared to when I was a teen is more white centered. And what good is more visible representation if the people who are supposed to be represented are decentered? That's something publishing needs to work on.
@@MsWOCReader here's the dirty little seceret: the vast majority of people who read these books are gullible young whyte liberal women who signal how "not racist" they are buy buying into deluded blaq victim fantasies like this. Stories like this are only meant to further pound the narrative into the readers head that whyte people are uniquely evil and wicked, and our institutions are literal eugenics programs meant to destroy "bodies of color", even though "colored people" trip over themselves and demand to be a part of our spaces 24/7. Point is none of the decisions made when writing this book were supposed to make sense. It's a guilt trip fantasy, nothing more nothing less.
I mean I'm glad that's the case for you but for many of us, there's no way of avoiding this.
The cover of ace and shades is beautiful!! Bummer that it doesn’t sound like a book that I would want to read.
my opinion is against the norm, but i feel like this book is heavy on the get out comp (and everything that goes with it) and that wasn’t what i thought i was getting so i couldn’t properly enjoy the story😞
The ending made sense minus when Devon mentions ‘Mia’ and Chiamaka says that Mia is Pregnant. So maybe my brain just isn’t working but like who is Mia? I don’t ever remember her mentioned in the book
mia is most likely chiamanka's wife
@@skykelly26 okay thank you
I haven't read this book and I don't think I will, but your criticisms sound totally valid!
i’m always scared to post on unpopular opinion because it’s…unpopular! but these were my honest thoughts of the books so🤷🏾♀️
It's worth a read, but it is predictable. It's enjoyable in places, however, the important social observations for me were peppered in so much that they never really were handled with care.
This books was so weird and not at all what I wanted??? I really thought it was going to be way more dramatic and gossip girl bit and like fun.
And a lot of this didn't make sense? I'm sorry? But it really was? And was I the only person who didn't like either of the MC's? I agree with so much of what you said. It was disappointing that they never became friends.
@@popcornB99 the execution of the story was definitely weird at parts, but I did like Devon, it was Chiamaka I couldn’t stand. I was always relieved to be back to Devon’s pov cuz Chi was such a clown, but unfortunately the plot seemed to move more during her pov 🤦🏾♀️
I had the EXACT same feelings regarding another popular YA release this year and I had to DNF it. I just didn't have a good experience reading the book and I wasn't going to continue to put myself through that.
it’s weird because for aces i could appreciate the story being told was solid but the experience was so exhausting😞 i need to read more happy Black books lol
I'm so happy I came across this video I read this book before the release date because I got a unreleased copy through a giveaway in sixth form. And watching this I couldn't agree more. I wanted to stop reading it many times at the start because of how heavy it was too. It definitely couldve been made more enjoyable and fun to read in terms of the gossip girl emphasis to it being based around that series. And It was definitely really odd how the two characters were the only two black students in the private school.
I kind of just read it and moved on even though I was like it could've been better than the hype that was built about it
I am currently in the last chapters of the book and i had to find a review bc I really want to DNF, I came in not knowing about the correlation to Get Out, i havent seen the movie, so the book went from an PPL/ GG book to something immensely dreadful and full of horror. (Yes there are quotes from both movies in the front but i put the book down a few hours after i bought i and didnt remember that bit on information)I get it says 'thriller' but ig my expectations for what a thriller is,is vague . Every page makes me more..upset for the characters. Every plan of action makes me sit there in metephorical sickness.
The race thing being clocked by someone else now that i know that Jack is white (i must have skimmed the part where it said he was white, i assumed he was black the whole time, or poc ) is incredibly strange since there is only 2 black children present (which should have raised some red flags with the children themselves idk)in the whole school.
The fact that every plan of thiers seems to fail, and there is no one on thier side makes me incredibly sad and upset for them.
Chiamaka's nativity and semi belief in the system makes her abit unrelatable, i get that its a reflection of her privilege and her environment. But it really takes me out of it abit, shes so single minded and thinks the system can help her and its so....odd? She never reflects on that, and Devon never challenges her on it.
I wished they would get closer, and become freinds more so than reluctant acquaintances .
The way she is written puts me out of the whole thing sometimes,bc i cant relate to her and she doesnt have enough to make you get more sympathetic to her as a character. Shes still that "queen bee" she never shows us more than that, even when we are in her head. (She does but its so small in comparison to Devon)
I wish Devon was alittle more outspoken, and talked back to Chi. Ik he dont give a fuck about her being the head girl, he definitely should have challenged her abit more.
But again i havent finished and im just really....i cant see a good way this book ends on a good note, if it even does. And i cant bring myself to try and finish it if its a dark ending, i was so excited to read a book with black leads that has queerness and fun school hijinks. To have it turn on its head and just be negativity after negativity after negativity is really not what i wanted. I never grew up reading books with black leads, i wanted to finally read a book with me in it, so to get this whiplash of emotions ? I'm not sure how to feel about it ,but its not good.
I am not that critical of books, as tend to enjoy almost every story and my time with the book! Having said that the beginning of the 1st part was a bit boring but after getting through that I really enjoyed it, and couldn't wait for the end of the day when I got to read before bed!
Obviously as a white person I can't speak on the day to day life of a black person aspect of the book, but being gay I enjoyed the romance part of devon's life.
It's always fun to get other people's perspective :)
Yes! I enjoyed this story as a whole, the writing, the character voices, the concept. But like you, I was expecting more of the gossip girl aspect. I couldn’t put my finger on why this wasn’t exactly working for me, I thought maybe it was because I am not the intended audience (a teenager) but you made so many good points that I was feeling too but didn’t have words for. Also Jamie was INSUFFERABLE and that plot was frustrating. Thank you so much for making this video, Dee 🤍
thank you for watching! yeah this book was such a weird one because i could appreciate everything the author was doing but something just was clicking and making the overall experience an enjoyable read.
_I just noticed you have Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry! I love that book, have you read it? If so, what did you think of it?_
_Also I liked the book but I didn't like everything about it. I'm not sure if you're religious or not but I felt some parts were really ungodly. Also I felt the ending was rushed and there were a lot of plot holes/profanity. We don't know why Devon's dad was arrested and there was a huge time skip at the end of the book without explaining how they got there or events leading up to it. Regardless, it's still one of my favs and I read it twice but yeah I'd give it like a solid 8/10._
I’m 3 years late, but I just finished reading this book and absolutely hated it.
The way Devon talked about his poor Black neighborhood and how it was constantly characterized as dangerous and in extreme poverty and every boy on the block is a gang banging drug dealer was extremely anti-Black. Devon checks the box for every Black stereotype. Poor. Overworked single mother. Dad in jail. But, he’s one of the good ones because he likes music and wants to go to college, unlike all the thugs in his neighborhood. How insulting and, frankly, extremely racist.
There is no sense of Black community in this book until Devon randomly sends 1 tweet to his zero followers about how racist his school is, then suddenly a barrage of random nameless Twitter activists protest the school and are never heard from again. Neither Devon nor Chiamaka does any work to build community, but it just seems to work out in the end, presumably because the book was getting too long and needed an ending.
The way Chiamaka’s queerness was rushed and glossed over was also absurd. Devon got to explore his queerness and have tender moments in his romantic feelings for other boys. Chiamaka has a queer awakening and is like “hmm well guess I like girls now” and it’s never given any space. Isn’t she supposed to be the queen bee? Is she not worried how this will affect her social status, or what her parents will think? Or how she’s had boyfriends up until now but now has romantic feelings for a girl? Are we to believe she’s so emotionless about such a defining character moment that she has little reaction to it, other than admitting she likes Belle as more than a friend (which are expected feelings to have when admitting you like anyone of any gender). Not to mention her first queer relationship lasts all of 30 seconds because, shocker, her girlfriend is a part of the big racist plot. And after they break up, Chi never has any feelings about that either.
Every racist character has a cartoonishly evil reveal and this years-long, needlessly complex racism plot relies on the compliance and silence of hundreds of children who are expected to be able to both befriend and secretly deceive their classmates for years. How does every single teenager in this school posses that level of keen duplicitousness and cognitive distortion? In a book filled with unbelievable elements, this was one of the most unbelievable for me. Not to mention the unnamed American town where this takes place, with a lavish rich neighborhood in walking distance from the poverty-stricken apocalyptic neighborhood, which is also walking distance from the school and the beach. Do any other race of people live in this city? Has no one in this city noticed that a racist cult has been operating in their city for years? The school is supposed to be powerful and notable, but no one has noticed? This is so unfeasible and dumb.
God. I hated this book. I think it failed at everything it tried to do. You are absolutely right that it centered whiteness, and I’d go even further to say that it demonized Black poverty and often stereotyped blackness. There were also a thousand plot holes and loose ends that were never explained. I understand this was a debut, but the way this book has garnered so much critical acclaim and attention is terrible to me. Books about Black trauma and pain are always at the forefront of the Black literature publishers want to pump out. We don’t get to experience the full spectrum of human emotion, just suffering according to traditional publishing houses. Imagine the dozens of other books exploring literally any other aspect of Black life that is not so centered on misery at the hands of racism that was passed over.
Ugh. Ok I’m done ranting. Thanks for the video.
I’m three years late too, but I wanted to say I agree with your comment so much!! I still can’t wrap my mind around how all the kids at school somehow befriended the two while simultaneously lying to them and ruining their lives.
Thank god that there are other people that didn't really love this book
I feel sorry for all the black kids who are forced to read books like this by their teachers and parents. Truma trauma trauma every other kid in the world can read a book without being reminded about the horrors of this planet
GG and PLL are nothing alike lol
I also don’t think every black teenager is that aware of micro aggressions (also depends on where you were brought up) and you’re just generally more trusting and a little more naive. So as an adult, yes it’s obvious but at that age, I think you have to give them some slack. When I was that age, I’m pretty sure I didn’t even know micro aggressions existed lol
I agree PLL and GG aren't alike. Aces definitely gave me more A than Gossip Girl. Maybe you didn't know it by the term mico-aggression but But Black kids living in a non Black society by the time they are teens have experienced some form of racism/prejudice.
@@MsWOCReader I don’t think you can generalise that though: I’m black and lived in a mostly white town and I didn’t experience racism and if I did, it definitely wasn’t the overt kind. I’ve experienced micro aggressions more as an adult tbh but maybe that’s because I would recognise it now knowing what it is. I don’t think it’s good to assume every black person grew up negatively in that way but also respect everyone’s shared experiences
@@ririschannelx Micro-aggressions aren't overt though and like you probably didn't always recognize it or maybe you were in denial about it like Chiamaka seemed to be. I just find it hard to believe that you as the only Black person never noticed anything in all white spaces. Chiamaka noticed. That's why she straightened her hair all the time instead of keeping it curly.
@@MsWOCReader I wasn’t the ONLY black person but let’s just say I could literally count all the other black kids in my school. There were bigger minority groups than us also so no doubt that alters things. There were more south Asian kids than black kids and they got slurs thrown at them all the time. I wouldn’t say denial. I just hardly looked at the world in terms of race at that age. You don’t have to if you’re not experiencing anything negative and you’re not being treated any different. If it was overt, i probably would’ve had a completely different experience tbh. Sorry I’ve never heard of Chiamaka but I wore my hair natural until after school. I got my first relaxer when I was 17. I just went back to natural last year. But straightening your hair doesn’t necessarily mean you hate your hair.
I thought GG was just rich people doing shady things😅 i didn’t want to generalise every black teen experience but i think because the main characters in the story where aware of some racism and micro-aggressions (even if they didn’t know the term) i would expect them to put two and two together more quickly. they weren’t totally oblivious. but in would be interested to hear your thoughts if you have read the book!
Are you on goodreads or StoryGraph?