Will looks up to his older brother Shawn. He jibes Will and his friends, but that’s ok. Shawn has been there for his little brother and mother and now he’s 18, his mum worries about him.

“Just remember, when you’re walking in the nighttime, make sure the nighttime ain’t walking into you.”

But it wasn’t the nighttime that took Shawn. It was a bullet that ripped through the air of the basketball courts. Everyone knew what to do. Drop to the ground and hope no one is hit. When Will gets up, he sees the truth. His big brother Shawn, his confidant, his hero – is dead.

Will hears his mother’s wails, ignores the policeman’s questions, knows what he has to do. Just like dropping to the dirt during a shooting, there are rules afterwards too.

No crying. No snitching. Get revenge.

Will knows where Shawn’s gun is. 15 bullets sit inside. One for every year of Will’s life. He makes a plan. He waits. He’s ready.

All he has to do is ride the elevator to the ground and find his brother’s killer. This elevator ride will be the strangest of his life.

The rules have been spoken and passed down through family, gang and community. Shawn isn’t the first loved one Will has lost through gun violence since childhood. There’s been blood spilt by accident and by design, and each of these people ‘visit’ Will in the elevator on the long way down. Time is moving cold-treacle-slow.

Will can’t escape the stories of these lost lives, and learns of the endless trail of blood from the eye-for-an-eye revenge rule. He must make a decision.

This graphic novel is an adaption from the multi-award winning verse novel published in 2017. Now we can see the fear, the blood, the pain and the journey down seven floors to a revenge Will feels obliged to take.

Danica Novgorodoff depicts this gripping story with water colour and ink, the brightest thing being Will’s yellow shirt, and the blood that is spilt over and over throughout Will’s life. Gunfire on the page is like a slap and Will’s turmoil is brilliantly portrayed throughout the novel.

Just makes me love this story even more….

Author – Jason Reynolds

Illustrator – Danica Novgorodoff

Age – 14+

See a review for the verse novel (Click on the Cover)

(2021, Faber, Conflict, Crime, Family, Ghost, Grief, Murder, Revenge, Graphic Novel, Gang Violence, Circle of hate, Brothers, Award winner, Loss, TikTok)