Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé Audiobooks

Ace of Spades, a debut young adult thriller with elite-school racism in its sights

1 audiobook reviewed

★ 4.5/5 average

2 listener ratings

Who is Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé?

Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé is a British novelist, short-story writer and columnist who managed the thing every debut author is told not to expect: her first novel, the young adult thriller Ace of Spades (2021), reached the top ten of The New York Times bestseller list and won the NAACP Image Award for outstanding literary work for young readers in 2022.

Beyond the fiction, her byline has appeared across an eclectic spread of publications – The Bookseller, gal-dem, NME, Reader’s Digest – which suggests a writer with range rather than a single lane. Debut novelists who arrive with both critical recognition and commercial reach are a small club indeed.

Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé in audiobooks

Young adult thrillers are natural audio material – propulsive, voice-driven and built for the kind of can’t-stop listening the format rewards – and Ace of Spades arrives with the rare credentials of a debut that critics and readers honoured in equal measure. For UK listeners there is the added interest of a homegrown voice succeeding loudly on both sides of the Atlantic.

Our advice: come for the thriller mechanics, stay for the sense of a distinctive new British storyteller announcing herself. Debuts this decorated are uncommon, and they are usually decorated for a reason.