As the layers of this story build it becomes clear that Will’s choice isn’t as simple as he might like to believe. There are people who have been shot, people who have shot others, and people who have both shot and been shot. The characters who get into the lift force Will to challenge his decision.
There is no hiding from the emotions drawn into the character’s faces. The graphic novel edition is staggering in its emotional intensity and it is worth reading even for people who are familiar with the original text. This text is already popular with educators and librarians for the empathic insight it offers into the cycles of violence, hurt and revenge that perpetuate gun crimes in young people. Who else is haunting Will? As the lift sinks downwards, Will is forced to confront his past. What will doesn’t expect is for his friend Buck to get into the apartment on the next floor, because Buck is supposed to be dead. Will takes Shawn’s gun and gets into the lift that will take him to the ground floor of his apartment block and outside to get revenge. This can easily stand on its own, but read in concert with Reynolds’ novel, it will illuminate the story and its important themes with even more depth and empathy.Will wakes one morning with a mission. Far more than just an illustration of the events of the novel, Novgorodoff’s iteration powerfully cultivates the tone and mood of its source material, demonstrating just how effective and artful comics can be. Novgorodoff uses loose, aqueous watercolors in a rich palette to deftly complement the emotional, ghostly atmosphere of Reynolds’ story: letters partly washed away suggest tears splashes of dusky blues signify snapshot-like memories emotional facial expressions zoom front and center and thoughtfully placed negative space poignantly evokes the devastating absence gun violence leaves in its wake. But as he descends in his building’s elevator one morning on his way to fulfill the final rule-shooting the kid he’s pretty sure shot his brother-a new ghost appears at each floor and makes him question what he’s doing, even the rules themselves.
After Will’s brother, Shawn, is killed in a shooting, Will vows to follow the long-standing rules: no crying no snitching get revenge.
Reynolds’ award-winning novel in verse, a spare, lyrical exploration of the reverberating effects of gun violence on one community, gets a compelling new look in this graphic adaptation.
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