Many thanks to #partner Netgalley for an advance e-copy of this book, Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé's Ace of Spades, in exchange for an honest review. In this mysterious and darkly compelling YA novel, readers quickly discover that there are nefarious albeit anonymous forces at work in Niveus, the elite private school where protagonists Chiamaka and Devon both attend. As they each start their senior year, they discover a number of changes at the school including a new head master, and they both find themselves at the center of everyone's attention when they're both named school prefects.
Chiamaka, a perfect student focused on being on top in all ways at the school, is no surprise, but Devon prefers to be out of the spotlight and is caught off guard by this development. But it is just the first step in a multilayered and complex movement against them, which quickly spins into action as the first anonymous social media posts begin leaking their secrets.
"What I felt was a desperation to be powerful in a world that doesn't let girls be. Especially girls like me."
Devon and Chiamaka, very different students in their demeanor and school involvement, find themselves forced together as they work frantically to figure out how to stop the creepy persona, known only as Aces, from revealing their deepest, darkest secrets.
This pulse-racing plot moves quickly as Devon and Chiamaka race to uncover the source of the attack against them... but the more they uncover, the more they realize that things are far more sinister and widespread than they once believed, which leaves them desperate to find a way to change the game.
This is an excellent novel for teens that moves quickly and also comments on some of the darker aspects underpinning our social structures in America.