Ruin Road by Lamar Giles
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
**4.5-stars rounded up**
Do I think Ruin Road will work for everyone? No. Was Ruin Road for me? Absolutely. This intriguing and heart-wrenching YA Horror was right in my lane.
Lamar Giles has quickly become a new favorite!
I first read from Giles when I picked up The White Guy Dies First: 13 Scary Stories of Fear and Power a few weeks back. His story, The Protege, stood out as one of my favorites of that collection.
I knew after I read it, I would need to pick up more of his work as soon as possible. As luck would have it, I already had a copy of his latest Ruin Road, but with this absolutely STUNNING cover, I knew I wanted to save it for closer to Halloween, which is exactly what I did.
In this story we follow high school student, Cade Webster. Cade is star wide receiver, with the hopes and the potential to eventually be drafted into the NFL.
Cade works hard and stays humble. He lives with his parents and little sister, all of whom he loves and adores. Cade also attends a private school, where he is one of only a handful of Black students.
He’s sort of a guy living between two worlds; the one he grew up in, and the one of his peers at the posh private school. His quarterback drives a 911, or something insane like that. It’s quite different from the world Cade came up in.
Cade tries not to let those details phase him though. He just needs to stay focused, follow his father’s life advice and achieve everything he can in order to make an easier life for himself and the rest of his family.
No matter how hard he works, however, no matter how much he achieves, Cade always has some people judging him incorrectly. Y’all, can guess. He’s big, he’s fast and he’s Black. People keep their eye on him on the bus, let’s say.
With that in mind, one fateful night, when his helpful actions are misjudged, Cade is forced to flee a sketchy situation and ends up ducking into a pawn shop to avoid further altercation.
It’s there that Cade makes an impulse purchase, and utters a poorly-worded wish, that will change everything.
I loved this. It was such a perfect blend of hard-hitting Contemporary mixed with intense, brain-scrambling Horror-Thriller elements. The content and themes explored were so well done, but the character work was really the star of the show for me.
I can’t tell you how much I appreciated Cade as a main character. First, I loved the fact that he was such a serious football player. Football is one of my passions and I’ve never really read any YA story that had that rep done so well.
Additionally, everything else about Cade was impressive. I loved being in his head, and getting his perspective, as this story played out.
The Webster family is so fantastic. It was nice to read about such a close-knit group, with both parents engaged and involved and with Cade loving on his little sister so much. You could tell he felt the responsibility of being a big brother, and I felt like that was such a special thing to read.
I also loved the set-up of the detour into the pawn shop being the match that really lit this fire. It was giving me Needful Things, or The Auctioneer vibes, which I loved to see.
Overall, this story was completely my style. If I am picking up a YA Horror-Thriller, this is what I am looking for. I would absolutely recommend this, particularly if you are a fan of Tiffany D. Jackson. IMO, this is giving the same level of quality as a Jackson work.
In other words, top-freaking-notch!
Thank you to the publisher, Scholastic Press, for providing me with a copy to read and review. My next task is to deep dive into this author’s backlist. I’m looking forward to it, and whatever he has coming next!!!