The Boundless Sublime

Gr 10 Up—Seventeen-year-old Ruby Jane Galbraith is drowning in grief. Her little brother has been killed in a devastating accident that leaves her father in prison and her mother totally bereft. Ruby blames herself and withdraws from the world. But when she meets a beautiful boy named Fox, who is handing out water bottles with the label "Boundless Body Boundless Mind," she sees an opportunity to emerge from grief. As Fox takes Ruby to the Red House, Ruby meets others who all belong to the Institute of the Boundless Sublime. Though her friends immediately call out Fox and his "family" as a cult, Ruby allows herself to be seduced. The pain and sorrow in her life block out everything except Institute, Fox, and eventually Daddy. At the Institute she is given new clothes, an ultra-restrictive diet, and a name. Quickly the dream of the Boundless Sublime gives way to dark and terrifying secrets. Now she must decide just how far she is willing to go. Wilkinson has created a page-turning thriller that twists and turns its way to an explosive conclusion. But more than that, the author has drawn a portrait of how attractive a cult can be to an average, ordinary person. The story moves through scene after unflinching scene of Ruby's descent into the cult and her struggle to leave. The prose does not shy away from the horrors Ruby finds as she tried to question everything about her new community. A suspense-filled read not for the faint-hearted.