Ruin Road by Lamar Giles
Cade is a standout football player. So much so that he not only gets to attend a fancy school in a nice neighborhood–something the complete opposite of his poor, more rundown part of the city–but he has dreams of making it to college on a scholarship, and then, the NFL. He’s good enough for it. The money he makes will help not just his family but his neighborhood, too.
The problem? Everyone seems to be afraid of Cade. He’s a big guy, but he’s a very nice guy. People at school are scared of him because he is a big Black boy, and so, too, are people who aren’t from his hood. So when the police start to follow him one afternoon, Cade knows he needs to save himself. He ducks into a pawn shop in a neighborhood between his own and his school’s, where he picks up a ring that forever changes his life.
That ring comes with a wish, to which Cade asks for people not to be afraid of him anymore. What unfolds are a series of events that put his life and the wellbeing of those he loves most in trouble. He might find he has more courage as people are less afraid of him, but that comes at the cost of other people not having fear, meaning that violence is only escalating around him.
This book packs a LOT into it, but it all ties together seamlessly. (And psst: you can hear Lamar Giles and I talk all things horror, genre-hopping, writing authentic teens, and more on the September 25 Hey YA podcast!)
