Finalist for the la times book prize! From Lou Berney, the acclaimed, multi award-winning author of November Road and The Long and Faraway Gone, comes a Dark Ride Sometimes the person you least expect is just the hero you need Twenty-one-year-old Hardy Hardly Reed good-natured, easygoing, usually stoned is drifting through life. A minimum wage scare actor at an amusement park, he avoids unnecessary effort and unrealistic ambitions. Then one day he notices two children, around six or seven, sitting all alone on a bench. Hardly checks if they're okay and sees injuries on both children. Someone is hurting these kids. He reports the incident to Child Protective Service. That should be the end of it. After all, Hardly's not even good at looking out for himself so the last thing he wants to do is look out for anyone else. But he's haunted by the two kids, his heart breaking for them. And the more research he does the less he trusts that Child Protective Services understaffed and overworked will do anything about it. That leaves Hardly. He is probably the last person you'd ever want to count on. But those two kids have nobody else but him. Hardly has to do what's right and help them. For the first time in his life, hardly decides to fight for something.