Aces Wild: A Review

Aces Wild: A Heist by Amanda DeWitt

#ContemporaryYA #Heist #Queer

CW: Click Here

5/5

I've been wanting to read Aces Wild by Amanda DeWitt for several years now. At first I was waiting for my library to get it on Libby, which they didn't. Then I joined the Queer Liberation Library (it's free!). It had lots of queer books available! I got myself on the waiting list pretty quickly, but the hold period was many months. Got to read another book by DeWitt while waiting, despite Aces Wild being how I discovered her. I was made aware of her through a meme of ace characters named Georgia. While that did leave me with the false impression that this book's Georgia would be the main character, it was a small price to pay for such an awesome book.

Jack Shannon has his junior year of high school ended 1 week early when his mother, C.E.O. of a casino, is arrested. He flies back to Las Vegas from boarding school to the rest of his dysfunctional family. His oldest sister takes on the role of pseudo-mother. She wants Jack to have a life without worrying about the casino. She gives him the only card not to have been closed and tells him to invite some friends to keep him distracted. Jack is a stubborn kid and wants to get back at the person who sold his mother out. So he invites his online friends he met through being asexual to join him in a heist. Will the group survive finally meeting in person and will their heist succeed? 

Jack is a great narrator! Meaning that I enjoy the way he communicates with the audience, not that he's a reliable one. He announces at the start that this story is his confession, but he also says he's changing people's names to protect them. He doesn't fill the trope of an unreliable narrator, but he does like to joke around with the readers and make us wait for certain details. It brings the needed levity to Jack's situation. There's some heavy stuff delivered in an easy-to-swallow story. However, it doesn't disrespect the topics at hand; white collar crimes, dysfunctional families, underage gambling, being ace and multi-romantic while in the closet, children gaslighting their parents, and some things I can't spoil. Aces Wild did everything I felt it needed by the end of the story. Both narratively and morally. It's not a traditional heist story, but it's just as satisfying. 

As implied, I read this book for the ace representation. Jack met his online friends on a Star Wars fan site by connecting with other asexuals there. Absolutely relatable. I've met some real friends and some ace folks from the Harry Potter site I used to basically live on (HEX, if anyone knows it). While I wish to focus on the ace rep, I want to point out the other types of representation in the book that I was happy to see. Jack's middle sister uses hearing aids. Jack's crush is non-binary. Another one of Jack's friends is aromantic, questioning his gender, and is Latino. The youngest of the friend group is black. It's a group of people that couldn't have come together without an online forum, especially because they're all ace. Although Jack isn't out to his family and doesn't come out by the end, he's not ashamed of being ace. The book also makes sure to acknowledge that asexuality is a spectrum and that not everyone will experience it the same way or have the same timeline of self-discovery. DeWitt went into Aces Wild knowing she wanted to write more than one ace character. I'm glad she made the whole main friend group ace. The more representation, the merrier!

If you're looking for a nerdy, high stakes, ace comedy, you should definitely read Aces Wild by Amanda DeWitt. You'll find you've won some Arthurian references and Vegas sight-"seeing" along the way. Check Aces Wild out and check into Jack's Las Vegas!