SOLVED. YA Fantasy (coming of age?). About a boy playing a MAGIC CARD GAME and searching for his father. Read around 2017-2019.

[Bretton]

Read this book in 2017-2019 i believe and likely came out in the 2000s or 2010s. It was an award winner of some kind, or at least had a seal, and was part of some scholastic reading event. The cover was green and murky and had half water/a small row boat floating on top or something. Called "The (blank)ing", i believe. Something like " the meandering" or "the wandering" vibes. PLOT: A boy leaves home in search of his father, who at the end winds up being a dead beat escaping for debters or a gambling organisation or something. Our main character, a teenage boy, travels mostly by boat through a murky, dark, swampy world where they play a magical card game. The game consists of a deck that, if your connected to it, plays itself or at least helps. You draw cards and tell stories off of what you draw, say characters or places, and whoever has the best story wins. Its a back and forth. Also, if you don't draw a place in your first draw, say "misty forest", you lose and aren't connected to the deck. The boy has a very high view of his father, who was a renowned card player, before finding him and seeing he's really a dead beat. The boy wants to be a great player like him. Someone was tied uo in the boat at some point i think. SORRY FOR THE RAMBLING! Its late and i will likely rewrite this in the morning. Thank you for reading. I think the name was a 5 dollar word.

[Bretton]

IMEDIATELY AFTER POSTING I FOUND THE EXACT BOOK: Literally called the rambling! After using that word i thought itd be worth a shot to look up. Im gonna leave this up for others if the ever look.