RUIN ROAD

A star football player makes a life-changing wish that comes to haunt him.

Kincade Webster III attends high school on an athletic scholarship—he’s one of the few Black students at the exclusive, mostly white Neeson Preparatory Academy in Virginia. With his dad dying of lung cancer, Cade dreams of making it in the NFL so that he’ll be able to support his mom and younger sister. He also wants to someday help his childhood best friend, Booker, and Booker’s sister, Gabby, leave their neighborhood of Jacobs Court. Meanwhile, the school’s football games are frequently being canceled due to anonymous bomb threats. Fearing for his own safety after a white woman on the bus misinterprets Cade’s helpful gesture as criminal and riles up an angry crowd, he flees, ending up hiding from the police in a pawn shop. Following a strange interaction with the eccentric shopkeeper, Cade utters the fateful words, “I wish everyone would stop acting so scared around me,” thus triggering a series of chaotic, otherworldly consequences and leading him to Ruin Road, or “the road between realms.” Giles’ robust descriptions of the setting and nuanced characterization provide this intricately plotted story with incredible depth. Occasional perspective shifts deftly flesh out the landscape of suspenseful supernatural elements, and abhorrent acts of racism bring a sobering sense of reality to this magic-filled story.

A riveting thriller that seamlessly incorporates powerful social themes.