Lamar Giles, author of Ruin Road, takes the idea of selling one’s soul to the devil to a whole new level. His novel further reinforces the moral: Be careful what you wish for, and even suggests that sometimes fear can be a good thing.
Playing wide receiver, Kincade (Cade) Webster attends Neeson Preparatory School on an athletic scholarship and dreams of playing football for Ohio State. When he makes it into the pros, he plans to take his best friends out of Jacob’s Court with him: Gabby and Booker Payne.
One night, while escaping an altercation on the bus, Cade walks into Skinner’s Pawn and Loan. After roaming the store for a while, Cade finds a Super Bowl Ring that he decides to buy for five dollars. Eddie, the store clerk, oddly tries to talk him out of his purchase, but Cade wants the ring to inspire him to fulfill his dream. When Eddie’s odd behavior continues, Cade wishes out loud: “I wish everyone would stop acting so scared around me” (68). As validation to anyone who might question this purchase, Cade asks for a printed receipt, and Eddie complies. When Cade arrives home, he reads the back of the receipt: “When the strangeness begins, come back” (87).
And the strangeness does indeed take root. It starts with simple acts of audacity from his eleven-year-old sister Malika (aka Leek) and spills over into his sick father taking unhealthy risks. But when a football game nearly ends in a brawl, Cade decides to return to the store to discover the reason for everyone’s odd behavior around him. Here he meets Arvin Skinner, a slumlord who calls himself “a businessman. A dealmaker. An innovator”(197). As the story continues to unfold, the reader learns that Cade’s father tried a case against Skinner in the past, and as an attorney, Cade’s father was a formidable man who forced Skinner to adjust his business practices. “The right words off the right tongue are something like magic, and your father’s arguments are close to sorcery” (197), Skinner tells Cade.
Hoping Cade has his father’s talent, Skinner tries to recruit Cade in a partnership, but Cade recalls his father’s wisdom “While they talk fast, you think slow. Don’t let anybody rush sound thinking” (197), so Cade resists. He hopes to circumvent Skinner’s deceit and find out what motivates this sinister man.
Not willing to be so easily deterred, Skinner persists. He also manipulates events to the point that Cade grows angry. When he has to bury his father, who succumbs to lung cancer, Cade realizes the truth in his father’s Nugget of Wisdom: “Anger can be a good thing when aimed at problems instead of people” (259). So, Cade sets his sights on bringing down Skinner, making amends for his own mistakes, and hoping to “destroy those who would lead people to peril for their own gain” (346).
As the story climbs to its climax and creeps towards its resolution, readers learn additional wisdom along the way: “Trauma and tragedy drain vibrance” (339), “[we] carry our people with us even when we ride alone” (351), and “everyone crosses paths with malicious merchants on their journey. At some point we all fight demons, and sometime we win, but not without scars” (351).
Resonating with a horror similar to that found in Washington Irving’s “The Devil and Tom Walker,” Giles’ book is perfect for the Halloween season.
- Donna