Book Synopsis:
A cannon. A strap.
A piece. A biscuit.
A burner. A heater.
A chopper. A gat.
A hammer
A tool
for RULE
Or, you can call it a gun. That’s what fifteen-year-old Will has shoved in the back waistband of his jeans. See, his brother Shawn was just murdered. And Will knows the rules. No crying. No snitching. Revenge. That’s where Will’s now heading, with that gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, the gun that was his brother’s gun. He gets on the elevator, seventh floor, stoked. He knows who he’s after. Or does he? As the elevator stops on the sixth floor, on comes Buck. Buck, Will finds out, is who gave Shawn the gun before Will took the gun. Buck tells Will to check that the gun is even loaded. And that’s when Will sees that one bullet is missing. And the only one who could have fired Shawn’s gun was Shawn. Huh. Will didn’t know that Shawn had ever actually USED his gun. Bigger huh. BUCK IS DEAD. But Buck’s in the elevator? Just as Will’s trying to think this through, the door to the next floor opens. A teenage girl gets on, waves away the smoke from Dead Buck’s cigarette. Will doesn’t know her, but she knew him. Knew. When they were eight. And stray bullets had cut through the playground, and Will had tried to cover her, but she was hit anyway, and so what she wants to know, on that fifth floor elevator stop, is, what if Will, Will with the gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, MISSES.
And so it goes, the whole long way down, as the elevator stops on each floor, and at each stop someone connected to his brother gets on to give Will a piece to a bigger story than the one he thinks he knows. A story that might never know an END…if WILL gets off that elevator.
My Review:
4.25/5 stars. I had to read this for school, but it was a book that had been on my want-to-read list before that. I enjoyed it. Books written as poetry aren't necessarily ones I seek out, but I don't dislike them. I thought this book showed a lot of internal struggle/growth and had a good message. I also liked that the ending was open-ended.
Elaborating on what I said about books written in verse, to me, I just don't really get them. I'm not a big fan of poetry in general, and I don't see the point of writing a novel as poetry. It's free verse, too, so it could just as easily be in paragraphs and would be the same. Maybe people who like poetry think it's super impactful, but the messages/themes of this book are powerful enough regardless of how it's written.
Because it's written in verse, it's a super quick read. Reading it in school, though, the reading time was stretched out across multiple weeks, when I otherwise could've read it in just a couple sittings.
One thing I thought was kind of cool was that the bulk of the story took place in the span of about a minute. I've read another book with that sort of concept in the past. The only thing, though, is that sometimes I was a bit skeptical of the fact that that much could've happened in such a short amount of time. If it was just Will's thoughts, that would make sense, but there's lots of dialogue that seems to happen in just a few seconds.
To me, the best parts of this book are the characterization and growth of the main character and the ending.
The main character, Will, is very well written. He tries to act tough and strong, like someone able to avenge his brother. In reality, though, he's a super sensitive and emotional guy. He's been taught that crying is unmanly and against The Rules, that crying shows weakness, so he hasn't allowed himself to be emotional. As more characters speak to him, his walls come down and he opens himself up to experiencing his grief. He never fully breaks down, but he learns that The Rules were wrong.
Will has a lot of internal development. He learns a lot based on the other characters' words. At the start of the book, he's grief-stricken and stubborn, ready for revenge. Throughout the book, the reader watches as he becomes conflicted and unsure about what he really wants to do, as he gains new revelations that make him think differently. While the end of the book is left open, I'd like to think he makes the right choice and doesn't choose revenge.
Speaking of the ending, I liked it. In my class, a lot of people didn't like it because they don't like cliffhangers or they wanted a direct answer, but I disagree. I didn't see it as a cliffhanger, because I think it's pretty obvious what choice he is going to make. (At least, it's what I hope he would do) It doesn't outright say what happens, so the reader can decide for themselves based on everything from the novel.
Finally, I think reading and analyzing this book for school made me appreciate it more. Normally that doesn't affect it one way or the other, I can appreciate the deep parts of books I read anyway, but I think this book would've been one I read quickly and didn't stop and think about. With the assignments I did in class, though, it got me thinking about things more.
Content Warning:
The biggest thing content-wise in this book is language. There are no F-bombs, but the worst word is the sh- word. There are also slightly milder words throughout. The language isn't super frequent, but it's there enough to make note of.
There's no active romance, but there's the mention of a girl kissing Will when he was eight, and of Will's mom not wanting his older brother to get his girlfriend pregnant.
The violence isn't actively happened, but violence is a major theme of this book. Lots of characters deaths and the events leading up to them are described.
Drugs are mentioned a decent amount, but they aren't glorified at all. They are seen as a negative, as it was the reason someone died.
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