Cade Webster lives between worlds. He's a standout football star at the right school but lives in the wrong neighborhood--if you let his classmates tell it. Everywhere but home, people are afraid of him for one reason or another. Afraid he's too big, too fast, too ambitious, too Black.
Then one fateful night, to avoid a dangerous encounter with the police, he ducks into a pawn shop. An impulse purchase and misspoken desire change everything when Cade tells the shopkeeper he wishes people would stop acting so scared around him, and the wish is granted...
At first, it feels like things have taken a turn for the better. But it's not just Cade that people no longer fear--it's everything. With Cade spreading this newfound "courage" wherever he goes, anything can happen. Fearless acts of violence begin to escalate in both his neighborhood and at school. Something monstrous is clearly at work and it's up to Cade to stop it. But just what did he buy and what's the price to undo the damage? After all, the devil's in the details."
If anyone knows how to write a young adult thriller, it's clearly Lamar Giles!
First, is this not an incredibly striking cover that absolutely sets the tone for this book? As soon as I saw that cover, I knew I was in for a ride.
We mainly follow the POV of our protagonist, Cade, with a few chapters throughout that cover some background and provide insight into things going on with some other mysterious and dangerous characters in this book. Cade is an incredible kindhearted character who has genuine compassion and empathy for his friends and family, and this made it so much more interesting to follow him on this harrowing journey to see how he made his decisions and attempted to keep everything under control. He's an easy character to root for, and I think that's what made this a thriller that I felt more connected to, as I had someone to actually care about and want to succeed. Cade struggles with a lot in his life, and his resilience as a teenager is what really sets him apart.
Ruin Road packs a lot into it in a short amount of time, touching on issues of class, race, family struggles, medical issues, supernatural elements, and more. This is a strong thriller with hints of horror sprinkled throughout, and it's one that is sure to keep you hooked and even a little on edge as you wait to find out what's going to happen next. The best part about Giles' inclusion of so many different topics and themes is that he manages to do so in a way that weaves them all together into a seamless narrative that tells a compelling and addictive story. I especially appreciated how well Giles captured the disparities in how Cade is viewed compared to other people at his high school, as well as the many additional layers of complications that follow him around as a black teenager, such as an incident that occurs on a bus and following interactions with police.
One of the big themes explored int his book is that of fear and how it can affect lives, both positively and negatively. I'll be honest that initially it wasn't entirely clear to me how Cade's wish for people to stop fearing him was being enacted in the real world, and the actions from various people didn't entirely make sense. I think Iw as focusing a little too heavily on the logical aspects of this and had a lot of questions, such as: how close did people have to be to Cade to be affected? does it last forever? what exactly happens and are they just not afraid of Cade or not afraid of everything? As the story progressed, It hik Giles did a pretty good job of exemplifying what it meant, but there were still a few things that didn't make sense to me. Fortunately, the nitty-gritty of this wasn't the crux of things, so I had no issues with still enjoying the story and understanding everything else going on. I also particularly appreciated how Giles did such an excellent job of showing how a lack of fear or burst in confidence can have a variety of effects, and while some may be positive, many more ended up having some stronger deleterious effects.
Ruin Road is also a surprisingly intense thriller that has some very dark angles that I didn't really expect–although having previous read Giles' thriller The Getaway, I really should expected it! Because of this, everything int his book felt like much higher stakes than I expected, and this really lent itself to the more highly charged atmosphere and curiosity to find out how everything would pan out. And let me tell you, I was definitely not disappointed by the climactic moments of this book and eventual discoveries of everything happening. Giles doesn’t shy away from exploring the dark undercurrents of human nature and the lengths people will go to in desperate situations. There is also an incredibly bittersweet ending that I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about, but that I think was very brave and bold of Giles to do and left me appreciating his storytelling choices.
Overall, I've given Ruin Road four stars!
Buy the book: Amazon | Bookshop.org
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