lapetitepritt posted: " Hello, bookworms! Happy Thrusday, can you believe September is almost over? I know I say the same thing every month, but I cannot understand how quickly and slowly time passes. It seems to me that this month has lasted 3 seconds and 3 years at the" La Petite Pritt
Happy Thrusday, can you believe September is almost over? I know I say the same thing every month, but I cannot understand how quickly and slowly time passes. It seems to me that this month has lasted 3 seconds and 3 years at the same time, to be honest.
Anyways, today we are here to talk about Aces Wild by Amanda DeWitt, a "heist" novel with ace teens as the main cast of characters. I was so excited when I first heard about this, and when I found the e-ALC on Netgalley I simply had to request it. Then life got in the way and I ended up listening to it on Storytel instead, because I had seen some reviews for the early copies and I wanted to read a finished one to be sure to give it justice.
Disclaimer I received an e-ALC of this book from the publisher (which is now available in its final and corrected form) in exchange for an honest review via Netgalley; this does not affect my rating nor my opinions in any way. Everything you'll find in this review is what I actually think and it wasn't influenced by anyone. Thank you so much to the publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read and review this book.
About the book Title: Aces Wild Author: Amanda DeWitt Publisher: Peachtree Teen Publication date: 13 September 2022 Pages: 352
Plot, as stated on Goodreads What happens in Vegas when an all-asexual online friend group attempts to break into a high-stakes gambling club? Shenanigans ensue. Some people join chess club, some people play football. Jack Shannon runs a secret blackjack ring in his private school's basement. What else is the son of a Las Vegas casino mogul supposed to do? Everything starts falling apart when Jack's mom is arrested for their family's ties to organized crime. His sister Beth thinks this is the Shannon family's chance to finally go straight, but Jack knows that something's not right. His mom was sold out, and he knows by who. Peter Carlevaro: rival casino owner and jilted lover. Gross. Jack hatches a plan to find out what Carlevaro's holding over his mom's head, but he can't do it alone. He recruits his closest friends—the asexual support group he met through fandom forums. Now all he has to do is infiltrate a high-stakes gambling club and dodge dark family secrets, while hopelessly navigating what it means to be in love while asexual. Easy, right?
My rating: 2 out of 5 stars
Review Before we begin with this review, I'm asking you to look closely at the book cover. Done? Good. So you'll agree with me that "A Heist" is a big part of the design and I was legitimated to think that this book would be about, you know, a heist. It's the second time in the same year that I have been disappointed by a book marketed as a heist novel, so I am beginning to think people actually don't know what a heist (how many times can I say heist challenge) is, because otherwise I would start worrying that people simply cannot write.
This book was not a heist novel. This was, at best, a contemporary novel with the littles bit of planning from the part of the main character. At worst, this was a middle grade marketed as a young adult because how would we have the main characters getting into casinos otherwise. If it had been a middle grade, I would have actually enjoyed it more, but alas.
The more I think about it, the more I am tempted to just give this thing one star, because I cannot remember anything I actually enjoyed while reading, to be honest. The only thing that was partially interesting was the friends-to-maybe-lovers. Unfortunately, I did not like the main character and I only cared about the love interest, but maybe had this been simply a contemporary romance about two ace kids falling in love, I would have loved it.
The plot was honestly childish and oversimplified, I could have written a more compelling storyline in two days. As I already stated, there was no heist, but there wasn't anything else either. It was just an "empty" book for me, and it only took me so little time to read it because I had the audiobook going while doing some decluttering.
The characters were mostly boring, there were too many of them with too little of a personality. Once again, the book would have benefitted from being a contemporary romance/novel, instead of trying to make this some sort of adventure and suspense novel. I am already starting to forget their names.
Moreover, when all your marketing is based on having a gang of asexual teens as your main cast of characters, I would expect you to at least handle this part well. Instead, it was simply stated multiple times that they were ace (one of them was also aro) and that asexuality is "the lack of sexual attraction". That was that. No mention of all the different ways to be ace, no explanation or even mention of the asexual spectrum, nothing at all. I understand wanting to write a book about ace teen without the main point being ace struggle, but God, this was so surface level it actually hurt to read.
And the writing style wasn't good either, with trying to be funny and quirky and spectacularly failing at both. So yeah, maybe I should just go ahead and give this book one star. I am sad, because I want ace author and ace literature to thrive, but then we are dealt — card pun intended — with such a bad hand that I simply think I should write an ace book myself.
I would not recommend this, sadly. If you are looking for ace books, this is one of them, but not one of the good ones, I fear. Hopefully, the author will improve and write more ace books, so that I can recommend her works to everyone. For now, I cannot recommend this in all honesty. It was just bad and disappointing and it makes me sad.
This is going to be all for today! I'll talk to you in October with a 5 stars review, for a change, and some reading recommendations.
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