📚💬 I’ve heard a lot about the excellent disability representation in the Six of Crows duology. Obviously Kaz is phenomenal; Wylan is awesome, too. This quote is what Wylan thinks about how Kaz and the Dregs treat him. It’s pure asset-based treatment and I love it. “They valued the things he could do instead of punishing him for the things he couldn’t.”

📚 In Crooked Kingdom, Inej thinks about her hope that she and Kaz could be “more than two wary creatures united by their distrust of the world” and I’m wondering how does @LBardugo know about my marriage? 💬

ACE OF SPADES by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

Chiamaka and Devon are both students at the prestigious Niveus Academy and total opposites. Devon is a nobody, a scholarship kid who spends all his time working on music composition, only noticed by his friend Jack. Chiamaka is the definition of Queen Bee, working hard to be noticed and celebrated. She is a brilliant science student with designs on Yale.

Chiamaka and Devon have three things in common, though: they are both prefects at their school this year, they are the only Black students at Niveus, and they are both victims of an anonymous texter calling themselves “Aces” and sharing Chi and Von’s secrets with the whole school.

⚠️: Author Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé provided an extensive list of content warnings for the book on her website. Chief among them are racism and homophobia but this thriller is full of potential triggers so I definitely recommend reviewing the list before reading.

The promotional materials call this book “Gossip Girl meets Get Out” and that description is spot-on. If I get too specific I’ll spoil more than I’d like, but it has the anonymous gossip and deep secrets, especially around personal relationships, of Gossip Girl and the “Oh no seriously get out of there” of Get Out. Multiple times revelations made me gasp and think “OHHHH!” There is some exposition at the beginning to introduce you to the characters and the setting, but as soon as Aces’s first message comes out, the pacing picks up and things get and stay intense.

The book also reminds me of Veronica Mars, with its focus on intrigue, detailed depiction of class differences, and teenagers managing their own affairs without much adult interference.

I definitely recommend this to readers who love gossip, mystery, or thrillers. Author Àbíké-Íyímídé says she has “has dreamt of writing books about black kids saving (or destroying) the world all her life” (lack of capitalization in the bio on her website). She has succeeded beautifully here.

Pre-order ACE OF SPADES now, out June 1 in the US and June 10 in the UK. Àbíké-Íyímídé offers some pre-order incentives on her website, so be sure to check those out!

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan for the e-ARC of this book!

♠️❤️♣️♦️

[A phone displaying the US cover of ACE OF SPADES sits on top of scattered playing cards.]

📚 How do you keep track of quotes that resonate with you? I usually write them in my Bullet Journal or post them to my blog, but sometimes I snap a quick photo. This is a page from FRANKENSTEIN that resonated with me back in December, although I can’t remember exactly which part spoke to me. I remember feeling like the way Victor Frankenstein spoke about his creature was how I was feeling about my dissertation.

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[A page from FRANKENSTEIN.]

Finished reading: Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé 📚

Want to read: Ashkenazi Herbalism: Rediscovering the Herbal Traditions of Eastern European Jews by Deatra Cohen and Adam Siegel 📚

📚 Sometimes I have to start a book several times before it holds my interest. A GAME OF THRONES was like that, but eventually I caught it in the right moment for me and A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE became one of my favorite series. What’s a book you had to start several times but ended up loving?

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[A brass navigational tool and a Tyrion Lannister Funko Pop figure sit on top of a stack of books.]

I carry a tote bag around my house as I move through my day. I never know what I’ll be in the mood to read if I have the time to, so I usually have at least a couple books in there. This is my stack from the beginning of April 2020. How many books do you carry around with you at a time?

Want to read: How to Fail at Flirting by Denise Williams 📚

📚 Right before I started my Grishaverse catch up, I went on a dark academia spree. These were three of the books I read as part of that. They’re each very different from the other and each excellent. I highly recommend any of them. IF WE WERE VILLAINS has classic dark academia vibes with undergrads in a Shakespeare conservatory covering up a shared secret. BUNNY is a surreal and beautiful story set in a graduate writing program. THE HISTORIAN is an epic novel of following Dracula’s story and a family of scholars as they unravel mysteries from New York to Romania, with stops in Istanbul and Hungary along the way.

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I have Mona Awad’s next book, ALL’S WELL, in my @netgalley queue and am excited to read it. What’s a book you’re looking forward to reading soon?

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[Three books are stacked on a coffee table in front of a brick fireplace.]