He won’t talk to Will, but he cries, breaking The Rules. Then Will’s father enters and puts a gun to Will’s head, trying to show his son what it feels like to be the victim of a random murder.įinally, Shawn enters the elevator. He forces Will to consider the long-term consequences of his actions, and what it would look and feel like to kill another man. Dani asks an important question: “ What if you / miss?” (142). She was Will’s childhood crush when Will was eight years old, he watched Dani die of a gunshot wound from a drive-by shooting on the playground.

Buck is the person who gave Shawn the gun.

He tells Will he isn’t tough enough to kill Riggs. The first visitor is Buck, Shawn’s street mentor. But then a series of ghosts appear in the elevator, each with a connection to Will’s past. Will sneaks out past his sleeping mother the next morning and gets in the elevator to kill Riggs. Instead of crying for his brother, Will finds Shawn’s gun in a dresser drawer and decides to kill Riggs-the Dark Sun gang member he believes killed Shawn. Will sets the scene, describing his neighborhood, the relationship he and his neighbors have with the police, and the basics of The Rules: no crying, no snitching, revenge. Shawn is shot by someone in the Dark Suns gang while picking up special soap for his mother’s skin condition.

The book begins as Will Hollomon, a 15-year-old boy living in a poor neighborhood in an unnamed city, witnesses his brother Shawn’s death.

A long way down book