First published 2017
Fifteen-year-old Will steps into the elevator on the seventh floor. His brother Shawn's gun sits tucked in his waistband. Shawn was murdered, and Will knows the rules: no crying, no snitching, get revenge. He knows who killed his brother. He's going down to settle it. But the elevator stops on every floor. On the sixth, Buck gets on. Buck is dead, but he's smoking a cigarette and talking. He gave Shawn that gun. He tells Will to check if it's loaded. One bullet is missing. Only Shawn could have fired it. On the fifth floor, a teenage girl joins them. She knew Will when they were eight. Stray bullets hit her on a playground where Will tried to protect her. She asks what happens if Will misses his target. Each floor brings another ghost connected to his brother. Each visitor reveals pieces of a story bigger than Will understands. The elevator descends, and Will must decide whether revenge is worth the cost. By the time he reaches the lobby, everything he thought he knew about his brother and the rules of the street has changed.
Genres: fiction, african-american, mystery, crime, contemporary, young-adult
Vibes: dark, emotional, fast-paced, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Elevator
Period: Contemporary
306 pages · Hardcover · Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books
Content warnings: death, graphic-violence, murder