Ride (PB) (2020)

Set in Niagara in the early 2000's, this novel is a raw confrontation of sexuality and addiction in a modern coming-of-age narrative.

High school is over, an ex-girlfriend is pregnant, and Troy Brinkman is spiralling out of control. On moving out of his parent's home, Troy enters a landscape of limitless entropy where everybody drinks copious amounts of alcohol, snorts mountains of cocaine, and once Ecstasy is discovered, swallows as many pills as they can get their hands on. When he's not seething for his next high, Troy cruises parties, strip-clubs, and bars for action in a desperate attempt to avoid coming to terms with his best friend's attempted suicide. In this binge-life, Troy recognizes his impending doom and tries to renew feelings for his ex-girlfriend, Danielle, his sole through-line that connects Troy to who he was before he became who he is. It's this struggle which may lead to Troy's own destruction.