Over the summer of 2020, I read Patron Saints of Nothing, another book by Randy Ribay. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and I wanted to read more of his work, which led me to After the Shot Drops. I had high hopes for this book after reading his other work, and it’s safe to say I was not disappointed. After The Shot Drops follows two inner-city teenage boys, Bunny and Nasir, who used to be very close but stopped talking after Bunny takes a scholarship for a school across town. The book is told in the first person and switches between their two perspectives as they try to repair their broken friendship and overcome the hurt and betrayal they feel towards each other. I don’t normally get very excited about books, but this story made my heart thump at every twist and turn, and had me feeling both excited and scared to turn to the next page. 

The conflict in After The Shot Drops is expertly crafted and complex. Neither side is necessarily defined as good or bad, and it is up to the reader to decide what they believe is right. Both Bunny and Nasir can be considered protagonists in their own right, and both characters also have flaws and make bad decisions as well. Both of them are forced to make difficult decisions, and being able to see the situations from both perspectives allows the reader to feel empathy for both of them and shows us how conflict is not always just black and white. Ribay’s use of multiple perspectives to create dramatic irony makes watching the characters interact with each other all the more electrifying and anxiety-inducing. 

Along with the two main characters, another aspect of After The Shot Drops that was very well done was the design of the side characters. Almost every character in the book made some kind of meaningful contribution to the story or had a meaningful impact on the characters. One character that had a big impact on the characters was Bunny’s girlfriend Keyona. She told him, “I wasn’t mad, Bunny. I was hurt” (Ribay 250), and was able to totally change his perspective on himself and helped him realize his flaws. Wallace, Nasir’s cousin, is another character who becomes deeply involved in the story and the conflict as the story goes on. Even characters like Bunny and Nasir’s parents have impactful moments despite getting very little attention in the book overall. 

After The Shot Drops captivated me and really got me emotionally invested in the story and characters, which is not something that I often experience with books. The plot is action-packed, exciting, and definitely worthy of praise, but I think what really kept me hooked on this book was the portrayal of the characters’ emotions and inner thoughts throughout the story. Randy Ribay did an exceptional job portraying the characters’ struggles with themselves as well as the people around them. I could truly feel the pain, anger, desperation, confusion, and everything else that made up the whirlwind of emotions that the characters experienced during the book. The buildup and release of tension between the characters kept me invested in the book from beginning to end. After The Shot Drops is not only an exciting book to read, it is a powerful and hard-hitting story of love, friendship, and betrayal fueled by a suspenseful and dramatic plot.