Bloody Spade

She twirled, white hair and porcelain skin touched silver by the moonlight, with flung water droplets like stars around her. And Iori pictured himself as a meteor among them, no longer caught in this girl’s orbit but plunging helplessly through her atmosphere.
Oh.
So this was what falling felt like. — Iori Ryone

S**t how do I talk about Bloody Spade. I'm going to be totally honest and say it almost got put on the backburner to priritise library loans but I picked it up again and couldn't put it down. For me it was that kind of book. I'm so happy I decided to finish this. Yes there are some definite tropes in play (not to mention a spoiler in the blurb) but it's not about the destination as much as the journey. The representation provided in the characters. This was a joy to read. It is quite unlike anything I've ever read. I will say it is left in something of an odd place at the end but I know this fully intended to be a duology. Now the waiting begins.

I guess I will look at the representation first which is one of the two reasons read this (the other being the genre). For those who can't pick all the flags. Pansexual, Gray-Ace, Asexual, Demiromantic, Demisexual. These are just the four main characters. Among the four main characters, Iori is Pan (as identified by the author). Kyani is demi sexual and demi romantic. Alex is ace. Ellen in this book is only identified as aspec but is grey (again author info). Other characters are gay, bisexual, lesbian, trans and enby. Soren the transmale uses male pronouns. Iris may or may not use they/them. Enby Dax uses xe/xem/xyr. The generation above likewise has same-sex couples. I probably should say here that according to Brittany M. Willows in an answer on Goodreads unless explicitly stated otherwise all the characters are queer/bi, it's jus naturally coded into the world. I identify as aspec or queer I just had a moment of pure glee when I realised exactly how much aspec representation there was in this. When I was reading the author bio one thing caught my attention "bisexual/gray-asexual author, all I could think was 'well that explains the aspec rep'. This level of representation, done well, usually comes from within our community.

The lore and plot. Usually, I do characters first but in a world where characters depend so heavily on their lore and position within the world, I have to do that first. The basics of Bloody Spade is urban fantasy set in a fictional world circa 2027. We see no mundanes (those with no powers), we only see within the Empowered world. There is as one would expect some discrimination, primarily the Empowered are limited to one city, Hildegand, by a wall. All of the Empowered have different powers, as one would expect. I do have a theory that but it's only ever going to be implied not outright stated. The Empowered are given three choices when their powers awake, take suppressants, waive the use of their powers (and pay the price if they use them) or join the Jokers at Cardplay. Cardplay's opposite is Blackjack. Where Cardplay is light or on the side of pure magic. Blackjack is dark or on the side of void magic. Operators for Cardplay are called Jokers, Blackjacks operators are called Players. Blackjack are the villains of Bloody Spade. I appreciate the lore reveal. The lore is not provided in one massive piece of exposition. It is given to the reader only as it is needed. Sometimes answering questions you didn't know you had other times answering questions you've possibly had for a while. With its YA intended audience and coming of age (but not quite) feel. The plot has some predictability. But it's more how. And the world. And the characters. The pleasure of seeing the characters are overcoming adversity both of their own making and from external forces. Of battling their own demons and accepting help, of self-discovery of what will help you beat those demons. I will say there is an appendix that includes a meet the cast, both main and supporting, a list of notable locations and a list of magic-related related terms.

Bloody Spade has four main characters. Iori Ryone, the Keeper of the Spade. Possibly the closest thing to a titular character it has, 'Bloody Spade' is the name of his active power. A way Iori is perhaps representative as a character is his handedness, his naturally ambidextrous (important no, but interesting). Iori is the sort of character that has the potential to break your heart. He raised himself on the streets, his physical appearance with its feline attributes is known to all and he blamed releasing void magic on the world. His suit, the Spade, is corrupted while it should be using pure magic it uses void magic, and Iori and the Spade do not get along. Iori resents the Spade. He is all anger against the world and I will become the monster you believe me to be. Until he crosses paths with a certain young Empowered who intrigues both him and the Spade. Enter Ellen Jane, newly graduated Joker with the power to remove the void from a person, to cure them. Not that anyone is made aware of that.

The second set of main characters are Ellen's older brother Alexander Jane and Kyani Oto. Alexander is fire type more or less and his temper matches this. He can be emotional and hot-headed. It suits Cardplay at points but when it comes to Ellen that can be a problem. After being orphaned at a reasonably young age Alex took on both the big brother and pseudo father role for her. He has expectations of her to a degree. Alex is one of the strongest Jokers fighting along his best friend. Kyani is the Keeper of the Club. She loves flowers and nature and was until recently a florist. Everything she does she does for the good of her father who for reasons we are unsure of is in some kind of expensive medical care. This has landed her in the hands of Blackjack. She is a kind soul even if it sometimes appears she doesn't appear as such. Her power is tied to her interest in botany she can manipulate plans and replicate the active agents of plants after ingesting them. She has a secret from Blackjack, she sees the auras of people.

Have a dump on just some of my highlights and comments from my reading
• “She taught me how to dance and sing. How to write poetry. She was fiercely independent, too. Anything she could do by herself, she would, and that included having me.” — (Iori) This is Iori clearly about his mother. That actually explains something he has quite a strong EQ (emotional quotient, like IQ measures intelligence) common with sons of single mothers.
• Empowered, they called them. Nobody could decide yet whether they were the heroes or the villains of this brave new world. Saints or sinners, a gift or a curse.
The way Iori saw it, they could be both and neither. Magic didn’t automatically make good people bad, and it didn’t make bad people good. — (Iori) This from the earliest pages. Iori has a wide almost worldly mind for a protagonist in this sort of book. And he is quite young too.
• To the public, he was a troublemaker.
To the police, a wanted criminal.
But to Cardplay, Iori Ryone was known primarily as the Keeper of the Spade—an Empowered teenager in possession of a special kind of magic called a Suit. The stuff of legends, literally. They were only able to identify his status early on because he shared his feline traits with a painted depiction of the Spade’s former Keeper. — (Ellen) I missed the import of this quote when I first read it. I missed the section on depictions. That becomes important when it comes to the other Keepers. Those of the Diamond, Club and Heart.
• “Wait,” Ellen pleaded, stepping out from her brother’s shadow and into the Keeper’s view once more. “You don’t have to fight us. We can talk this over!” — (Ellen) Something I have thoughts on is that Ellen's impulse is to be a peacekeeper, to negotiate first and to fight last. Iori's is the opposite. Fight first then flee. She is something akin to a peacekeeper he is closer to a weapon.
• The Keeper rose from his throne, and with a sweeping gesture, presented the place to her with an ostentation unbefitting of its decayed state. “Welcome,” he said, “to my domain.” — (Ellen) There is true beauty in some of the places described. Particularly the three dreamscapes, making me really wonder what the hearts is and if the spades was always like that. Or if the Spades corruption changed it. Ellen's belief is that it was the corrupted Spade, but it does also suit Iori
• “It’s Iori, by the way,” the Keeper said.
“Huh?”
“My name. I figure you might as well use it since we’re getting so intimate.” — (Iori and Ellen) What I would so good about this line is that they were both working instinct and it wasn't the self-preserving kind. For a bit of context Ellen is about to fish one of Alex's bullets out of Iori's body.
• “They had a fight?”
Ikkei howled a laugh. “Right in the middle of the restaurant, too. Let me tell you, pyric and electric types do not do civil debate.” — (Ellen and Ikkei) This is about Alex and Naomi. While reading that fight I could almost see the sparks coming off Naomi.
• “It doesn’t bother me, really! It’s just kind of tingly.”
He arched a brow. “I make you tingly?”
“Don’t make it weird.” — (Ellen and Iori) They have this light playful banter nearing flirtation that I really appreciate. It's worth realising that 'don't make it weird' coming from Ellen an aspec.
• Alexander’s purposeful stride a contrast to Iori’s nonchalant stroll. Two very different people with very different strategies, their techniques about as diverse as their gait. Professionally trained versus self-taught. Military-style teachings versus a rudimentary weaponization of acrobatics. — (Iori) This is critical in a way. The contrast between the formal training of the Jokers represented by Alex and Iori's free-flowing nature. Alex sees Iori as a threat to Ellen (and everyone else), Iori just kind of wants to prove himself worthy of her faith. This being a fair fight requires both of them keeping their cool and holding it together. It was never going to happen it was just a case of how badly it went.
• “You taught me to stand up for what I believe in,” she said. “I believe in him, and I’m not going to let him bin his chance at a decent life because you can’t let go of some petty grudge.” — (Ellen-to Alex) This is Ellen. This is also a total mood. Even had that moment when your parents look at you with surprised pikachu face when you act as you were raised? Yeah that is happening here.
• In conflict, Ellen always tried to see things from the other party’s point of view, but his was clouded by rumor and conjecture and a couple of unfortunate encounters that had forever marred the Keeper of the Spade in his mind. What would it take to change his perception? What if it couldn’t be changed? — (Ellen) This is part of the key point of the book. Perception is everything and something that Bloody Spade is seemingly trying to encourage is thought and seeing beyond your bias. Especially when not doing so will impact your relationships with others.
• “Your battlemaster was right. To some extent, this thing inside me is influenced by my feelings. My emotions. I’m a mess, Ellen. If I stay, sooner or later, someone is going to get hurt. Someone could die.” His hand slipped from the folds of his shirt, falling heavy to his side. “Nobody should want a monster like me.” — (Iori) This broke my heart. Iori needs a hug. And serious human contact. These two could heal each other. They are the balance to each other. He can teach her to live and embrace experiences. She can teach him trust and control.
• “You want me to pay rent for occupying your couch?”
“For occupying my couch unnecessarily,” Ikkei specified. “Consider it bitch tax.”
Alexander scowled. “Excuse me?”
“You have a perfectly gorgeous house waiting for you in the rich district. The only reason you’re crashing in this dump is because you’re being too much of a bitch to share said house with the sister you unfairly disowned. Thus, I say again: bitch tax.” — (Alex and Ikkei) I adore Ikkei okay. He makes me smile. And this is a brilliant play. Alex needs to hear this. It is true friendship.
• “The streets foster this kind of ‘screw-it’ mentality. Everybody’s already decided what you are, so why bother trying to be anything else? Be the troublemaker, be the thief. Fit the mold society’s carved out for you. And when every good thing that does come along gets ripped away—I guess that’s why I ran. Suddenly there were all these promising new paths in front of me, and instead of being excited, I got scared because it meant I had something to lose.” — (Iori) This feels like it still so true now.
• “Darling, may I hold your hand?
Am I asking too much?
Maybe it’s reckless to love,
When my heart is made of glass.
But if I am to fall,
Oh, let it be with you,
For I know you’d handle it with care.” [...]
“Darling, you are the sun when it’s raining,
The light when I’m fading,
The glimpse of a life I could live.
You are the promise of change,
Of a soul uncaged, And, darling, I’m dreaming
Of a life with you now.

Oh, darling, I’m dreaming,
Of a life with you now.” — (Iori) These are lyrics, Iori is playing them acoustic on a piano. They are just so freaking beautiful. The meaning behind them is obvious and he admits as much to himself. But he can't admit it to her when she interrupts him.
• The moonlight permeating the balcony curtains illuminated Iori’s shape on the bed, his back to her, a faint rise and fall to his chest. One of his ears was already turned in her direction, and when she didn’t soon move along, his gaze followed next. — (Ellen) This is such an appealing image. I can't even say why. It's not so much the intimacy of it but the feline feel to it. The moonlight, the sense of noise and the awareness. His feline self goes well beyond the ears for me.
• Get a grip. He buried his burning face into his palm, trying to banish those thoughts—those images—from his brain. He couldn’t be envisioning her like that when he didn’t even know if these feelings were mutual.
Well, not these precise feelings. He knew they weren’t—not to the same degree, anyway. The black band on her middle finger, the “why frick-frack when you can snick-snack” shirt she wore to the gym, plus numerous other signs pointed to her being on the asexual spectrum. Where exactly he couldn’t say, but that didn’t matter. Not that it wasn’t important. It was. It simply had no bearing on his desire to be with her. — (Iori) Two massive things here. One God bless consent and understanding. He respects her sexuality but also respects his attraction to her. But he is also aware it's a spectrum. That it is not like a light switch, there might be some chance. Two I adore this representation of a modern aspect woman. Confident in her sexuality and more than willing to show it publically, black aspec rings are a thing they have been around since 2005 and that shirt? Omg yes. It's just an all round good piece of writing.
• In Ellen’s company, those terrors grew tamer. Fewer. He’d noticed it shortly after his arrival at Cardplay, how safe he felt when she was near—an irony not lost on him as his whole purpose here was to protect her. And all these months later, he still couldn’t explain why her presence was such an effective salve. — (Iori) All I can say to this is he protects her while they are awake. She protects him while they're asleep.
•• His shadows dwindled in the sparkle of her aura, a vivid scarlet against the gloomy palette of the Spade’s dreamscape.
How strange. Void-based auras usually squirmed in the light of pure magic. — (Kyani) This is a visualisation of something Iori has already acknowleged to himself. The Spade is calmed by her. Iori is low key in love with her.
• The scared kid in him wanted to run. The vengeful monster thirsted for blood. Between them, a boy on the cusp of adulthood yearned for justice swiftly served.
He wouldn’t give the kid what he wanted.
The monster? He hadn’t decided yet. — (Iori) Oh oh imagery. Because he legit has an inner monster. The Spade is better leashed now but Iori will still let it go if it suits his purposes.

There was a fluidity to Iori’s movements. The gentle sway of his body, the way he led her delicately along. Of course, she should have known he’d have a knack for this. From their not-quite-legal river skating adventure, his fighting style, and even from the carefree swagger he adopted in a cheerful mood, it was clear rhythm was ingrained in him. —Ellen Jane

Read for godzilla-reads' Simple Reading Challenge. Filling the June prompt: "Choose a Light Fantasy Novel"
Bloody Spade is generally classified as Urban Fantasy a sub genre of Light Fantasy. If I hadn't found this book I think this prompt could have been difficult for me. I guess I could have gone Paranormal but I'm glad to have the opportunity to promote a book with 3 aspec protags during Pride month.

A representative gif: