After the Shot Drops

by Randy Ribay

A powerful novel about friendship, basketball, and one teen's mission to create a better life for his family in the tradition of Jason Reynolds, Matt de la Pena, and Walter Dean Myers.    

Bunny and Nasir have been best friends forever, but when Bunny accepts an athletic scholarship across town, Nasir feels betrayed. While Bunny tries to fit in with his new, privileged peers, Nasir spends more time with his cousin, Wallace, who is being evicted. Nasir can't help but wonder why the neighborhood is falling over itself to help Bunny when Wallace is in trouble.

When Wallace makes a bet against Bunny, Nasir is faced with an impossible decision—maybe a dangerous one.  

 

Told from alternating perspectives, After the Shot Drops is a heart-pounding story about the responsibilities of great talent and the importance of compassion.

Genres: Sports, Young Adult, Realistic Fiction, Fiction, Friendship, Contemporary, Audiobook

336 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 6, 2018

About the author

Randy Ribay is an award-winning author of young adult fiction. His most recent novel, Patron Saints of Nothing, earned five starred reviews, was selected as a Freeman Book Award winner, and was a finalist for the National Book Award, LA Times Book Prize, Walden Book Award, Edgar Award, International Thriller Writers Award, and the CILIP Carnegie Medal. His other works include Project Kawayan, After the Shot Drops, and An Infinite Number of Parallel Universes. His next novels, The Chronicles of the Avatar: The Reckoning of Roku (Abrams) and Everything We Never Had, (Kokila/Penguin) will be out in 2024.

Born in the Philippines and raised in the Midwest, Randy earned his BA in English Literature from the University of Colorado at Boulder and his Ed.M. in Language and Literacy from Harvard Graduate School of Education. He currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, son, and cat-like dog.

Reviews

[jv poore · Rating 5 out of 5]

When a 14-year-old, self-professed non-reader, enjoys a book so much that he enthusiastically encourages me to read it, I am going to read that book.

[Eilonwy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bunny and Nasir used to be best friends, and a great team on the basketball court, too. But then Bunny got a scholarship to a private academy to play ball for them, while Nasir is still stuck at public school, hanging out with his questionable cousin Wallace. Now they're estranged, and they're both unhappy with how things are going. But neither of them can figure out how to fix the situation, either.

I picked this up at the beginning of the NBA finals. Then they were over all too soon for my team (Cleveland Cavaliers), and I lost my enthusiasm for reading a basketball book. But I am really glad I finally did read this!

Randy Ribay has written a boy-book that's awesomely intersectional. The teen male characters get emotional story arcs; the adult male characters encourage the boys to acknowledge their emotions and cope with them. It throws sexism and stereotypes on their heads -- Nasir's Filipina mom is a civil engineer; his black dad is a kindergarten teacher. Bunny's dad owns a bookstore; his older sister is a solid nerd (and a girl after my own heart; when Nasir asks her "What kind of book are you reading?", she replies, "The kind with words," and goes right back to reading). Both Bunny and Nasir are college-bound due to good grades, not just basketball skills. The female characters are whole people with their own goals and interests who demand respect, and the male characters are occasionally chastened when they realize they've been trying to view women as possessions or extensions of themselves. This whole book showed ways that people can be, and can treat each other and see each other, beyond the ways society and culture so often dictate.

This all sounds preachy, but it's really well done. The conversations nearly all sounded organic, not like they were delivering messages. It all felt natural.

Bunny and Nasir are empathetic and relatable, even as their friendship is strained and Nasir, in particular, feels utterly torn by divided loyalties and tough choices, all of which might be "right" and justifiable, but are also clearly wrong. The stakes in the story are high, the tension tight. I could barely breathe from the middle of the book right up to the end. I was really surprised by how good this book turned out to be, especially considering how little buzz it seems to have gotten.

You don't need to care about basketball a bit to appreciate this book. If you want to read a strong YA contemporary with a touch of grit but not too much, give this one a shot.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have they read Slam, The Hate U Give, Hooper, All American Boys, or The Crossover? After the Shot Drops by Randy Ribay brings an amazing cast of complex characters together and tackles important topics like friendship, loyalty, identity, and privilege in a way that will be sure to resonate with readers. Basketball may be the hook; there are some great hoop scenes, but the relationships, for me, were the fire that kept this story burning to the very last shot.

[Kelly Gilbert · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gripping, heart-pounding story with incredible characters who were complex and funny and heartbreaking and real. I wanted to underline so many lines, and I wanted to stay in Bunny and Nasir's world forever. Suspenseful, powerful, complicated and deeply moving.

[Carlos · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was such a fast read , I could have finished it in just one sitting . The characters are well written and the plot makes sense . This is a good book that deals with the fallout of bad decisions, mature friendships and life decisions. Simple but good book, nice representation of minorities.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can’t remember exactly how I heard of this book, but I vaguely remember it being described as YA Ghost, which is a fast way to get me to pick up anything. And with blurbs from Jeff Zentner and Carl Deuker? Now we’re talking. I don’t think I heard a ton about this on social media, either, but with starred reviews left and right and a Colby Sharp shout out, I am not the only person who is like, yeah this book is a good purchase for a high school or mature middle school audience.

The plot contains a lot of tried, tested, and true YA tropes: there’s Bunny, who leaves Whitman High for a scholarship at a prep school; Nasir, Bunny’s best friend who feels abandoned by Bunny’s decision to leave; a soft love triangle; Wallace, Nasir’s friend who can’t seem to make any good decisions; and a case of a Black student at a prep school that can only loosely gesture towards welcoming outsiders. Adult readers might yawn here, as they may yawn over the moral quandaries that bug Bunny (how do I reconcile what’s good for me with what’s good for my friend?) and Nasir (how do I be a good friend?), but I believe these questions and issues will be compelling to teens.

What made this book special for me was how much I cared about these characters. I’m not in it for the sports nor for dual narrators, but Ribay got me to buy in. Nasir’s a book-smart underachiever and his chapters have more rhetorical flourish than Bunny’s, whose are much more straightforward. Additionally, I found the girlfriends and love interests somewhat well-drawn, even if they were the moral foils and the Voices of Reason that Bunny and Nasir needed.

This story was lovingly edited, too: the plot clips along beautifully, the chapters are crisp, and no part is extraneous to the story. I don’t want to give too much away here, but I just want to appreciate that teen readers are less likely to find a story like this “boring” because the building up of a moment is well-done.

Comps: Jason Reynolds’ When I Was The Greatest meets Carl Deuker’s Gutless.

[Jenny Bruesewitz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sports book with such complexity. One of the best I’ve read in awhile!

[laura (bbliophile) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This books was really, really good. I didn't know much about it going into it, other than the fact that it featured basketball in some way, but it completely blew me away. I'd totally recommend this.

[Ricky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paired pretty closely with my first reading of All American Boys, this book is very similar in style, though centered on slightly different themes. There's not so much to do with police brutality here, and the two narrators are far more closely connected than Reynolds and Kiley's, being lifelong best friends...until now, when Bunny's transferred to a high-end Catholic private school and Nasir feels left behind. And that's just the beginning of the chips Nasir has on his shoulder when it comes to Bunny - he also feels like Bunny took "his" girl away from him when Keyona was, of course, never "his" in the first place. And then when Nasir's cousin Wallace gets in trouble and Bunny's involved, like it or not...well, I won't spoil you, but the ending, in particular, will leave you GASPING.

After the Shot Drops is my first, and certainly not my last, taste of Randy Ribay's talent. There are a lot of characters with which he populates this book, and a lot of thoughts provoked. St. Sebastian's school may have some level of diversity - it put a smile on my face to know there's an out gay dude on the basketball team - but still, Bunny feels very much unwelcome there as a black boy, and even further, he gets a lot of people looking at him like he's a sellout trying to break away from his community. (Nas included.)

The best part of this book is that Ribay doesn't try to paint either of his protagonists as total angels. Both Nasir and Bunny are flawed in their own ways - deeply so, even - and yet, they both deserve everything to go right for them in the end. Which, of course, is easier said than done.

Whenever Ribay comes out with a new book, you'll be sure I'll get ahold of it as soon as possible. Until then, I'll have to see if my library happens to carry An Infinite Number of Parallel Universes.

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

After the Shot Drops by Randy Ribay was something I chose to screen for my class library. It has two narrators, Bunny (Benedict Thompson) and Nasir, both freshmen in Philadelphia schools, though Bunny now attends Saint Sebastian's private school while Nasir still attends Whitman. They were best friends before that, but Nasir feels betrayed by Bunny's choice to leave for a better future. Basketball will be his road to college and to helping his family with finances, and St. S's is counting on him to get them to the state championship.
Both boys are caught up in two worlds--Bunny feels split between old and new, Nasir's split between regular life and his cousin Wallace who is in some major trouble due to sports gambling. The two worlds collide.
In the beginning, it's hard to like Nasir, but Ribay did an excellent job making him a dynamic character that you grow to understand. The basketball scenes are well-penned and easy to "see" as you read.
This book is probably appropriate for 8th grade and up; there is violence--gun and otherwise, use of the "F" word--primarily by the Nasir and Wallace, and a party where a character is drinking.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is how you write a story from different POVs.

[Laura Gardner · Rating 5 out of 5]

“A place is only as good as the people you’ve got around you.”
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Race. Class. Stereotypes. Assumptions. Opportunity. Friendship. Betrayal. Not just about basketball (although there’s also plenty of 🏀 action!). ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Book 33 for #30booksummer
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Nazir and Bunny (he’s got jumps!) are estranged best friends. Bunny recently transferred to a private school to play basketball and the team is headed to states. Nazir feels abandoned. Meanwhile, Nazir’s cousin Wallace is about to be evicted and he’s taking desperate measures to make sure it doesn’t happen. Does Bunny belong at the (mostly white) private school? Will Nazir betray his friend to help his cousin? Will Bunny’s team win states?
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This super intense novel kept me captivated and the audiobook was very well done. Both boys are Black, have supportive families and work hard in school. Grades 8+. Some teen drinking is included.
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#librariansofinstagram #librariesofinstagram #mglit #mgbooks #ilovemg #readaroundmg #bookstagram #bookreview #middleschoollibrarian #bookstagrammer

[Joseph Moldover · Rating 5 out of 5]

After the Shot Drops is a book about a lot of things...basketball, race, class, family, growing up...but most of all, it hit me as a book about friendship. There are too few books about male friendships, and fewer still that capture the complexities of love, loyalty, jealousy, and ambivalence that run through the bonds between boys this age. Randy Ribay's portrayal of Nasir and Bunny gets it right, and their friendship forms the foundation of a page-turner of a book.

[Michele Knott · Rating 5 out of 5]

So. Good.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A powerful story! A must read for HS students.

[Jolene · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know, man. I read Patron Saints of Nothing and really loved it. It was so nuanced in its exploration of the war on drugs and government corruption and family relationships.

Will claims that After the Shot Drops carries a similar nuance, so I was pretty pumped to read it, but honestly, I think he's seeing a complexity that isn't quite there. The question of who is responsible for Wallace is a big and important one, but I think the NOVEL's answer is clear: Wallace. Wallace is responsible. Some people are too far gone and we feel bad but we can only do so much. I mean, the novel literally ends with Nasir trying and failing to find "words" to help Wallace.

Words aren't policy decisions. Words aren't political action. And sure, it's not this novel's job to answer questions that our government can't even answer, but I wish it would have explored this intersection of capitalism and systemic racism more thoroughly.

I also had a hard time buying the premise of the plot. WOULD an intellectual kid like Nasir make the choices he does? Would Bunny? I found myself distracted by my own disbelief.

Things I loved:
- The healthy and full representation of Black family life
- The novel's intersectionality of race and gender (The Black female characters demand respect and get it) and class.
- The critical thinking Nasir DOES show about Wallace, even if Wallace's situation does end exactly where you expect it to.

[Eve (◍•ᴗ•◍)❤ (Semi-active) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was overall great. I loved the characters and the action in the story. There was a clear story arc, and I enjoyed and respected that. The only things I didn't like were the curse words and similar content. Also, the ending seemed very vague to me personally. However, I think that you like a clear story arc, sports, and friendship, this book is for you!

[Samuel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think after the shot drops is a pretty good book since I loved to play basketball. 2 best friends broke up of one ditching another. 1 loves to play basketball and tried to be the state champions and the other was having trouble with his cousin getting evicted. Will they forgive each other? What will you do if your them? After reading this book, I really like the way the author wrote it. He described the setting and the feeling/emotions of the characters really well. I also liked how the author switched from both protagonists perspective in the book.

[Spens (Sphynx Reads) · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me the entire first half to get into it, but ended up being a pretty solid read. There is so much to Bunny, Nasir, and Wallace's characters that I think it would be great for high school students to read this and do character studies on each of them. Overall though, I think this is a pretty forgettable story.

[Jenny Ashby · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am reaching my limit of books with African-American characters who live in bad neighborhoods and have to do desperate things or make horrible choices in order to try to get out of the bad neighborhood. I work with a lot of minority kids and I know they want to see themselves in books and it is still a struggle just in general to find enough books with diverse characters in them, but I have to think that if I were a black teen, I'd also want to see some books with black teens who are having stories other than the one about escaping the ghetto. There is my weary rant about African-American characters and the situation so many of them find themselves in. So keep my weariness in mind as I say that I was not too moved by this book that many others have loved. On the other hand, I didn't especially dislike it, either. So... a couple of things I liked:

How loyal Nasir is to his cousin even though Wallace is in a bad situation of his own making and is doing nothing to make it better. But Nas feels that need to help family.
Bunny and Nasir both make moves to make up because their friendship matters to each of them.
The book is well-written and highly accessible for teens.
Both boys' dads have jobs that give back to the community.

A couple of things I didn't like as much:

I never got too invested in either main character.
The basketball games and their play-by-plays. But that's only because sports are not my thing so I can't follow those descriptions. I've had that problem in many other sports books and I basically just skip those sections to get to whether the team won or lost and it doesn't seem to take away from the story for me.
As mentioned, the setting.

[Will Ejzak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great YA. Lots of nuance here. Bonus points for the ending, which is as bitter and moving and deliberately unsatisfying as any YA I've read. Ribay doesn't sugarcoat anything. Some people are railroaded into tragedy. Nasir's central question--"Who is responsible for Wallace?"--is impossible to answer, but he knows enough to feel an instinctive revulsion whenever the older, "wiser" characters try to chalk it up to personal responsibility alone ("Wallace is responsible for Wallace"). Who is responsible for those destroyed at the intersection of capitalism and racism? This is a big question for a YA novel, and After the Shot Drops handles it with grace.

Points deducted for truly terrible audiobook narration. Word of advice to the publishing company: if all of the characters in the book are black teenagers, don't have a nerdy, white, middle-aged man narrate the audiobook. His Nasir voice is bad, but his "Wallace" voice is as cringe-y as any I've ever heard.

After the Shot Drops takes a couple hundred pages to transcend "standard YA fare" status, but I think it eventually does. Worth reading.

[Gordon Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like a great basketball game, this book is fast paced with lots of surprising turns that made it totally engrossing. There aren't many YA books that do this good a job exploring complicated male relationships. Ribay shows us the pressures put on Bunny and Nasir by their friends and family and how difficult it can be for them to communicate their need for help. While the basketball scenes are riveting, it's the story of how these friends challenge and support each other that really made this a page turner for me.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a very interseting story with each chapter switching between perspectives with simmilar problems.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bunny and Nasir have been best friends forever, but when Bunny accepts a scholarship to a boys Catholic high school for his basketball skills, Nasir feels abandoned and forsaken. Bunny tries to concentrate on his basketball game and his academics in order to earn a college scholarship and then play professional ball to lift his family out of poverty. Nasir seethes over Bunny's success and his cousin, Wallace's unfortunate situation of being evicted with his grandmother from their apartment. Foolishly, Wallace makes sports bets against Bunny's basketball team and asks Nasir to repair his friendship with Bunny, so that Nasir can manipulate Bunny to lose his school's basketball games. Bunny and Nasir then grapple with moral dilemmas over what lengths they'll go to preserve their friendship.

I loved this book. I liked that Bunny and Nasir are black and biracial teens because #representationmatters, that their parents and especially their fathers are loving and positive role models, that they struggle like all teens with identity and what kinds of choices to make to ensure the futures they want, but that their struggles include racism and poverty, and that this novel makes friendship the central theme.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am always pleasantly surprised when characters in books make decisions other than the ones I think they're going to make. This one had a lot of those surprises. The way the characters made decisions and showed they cared about each other was completely opposite of how I would have handled things, and that really made me stop and think about why I react the way I do to hard choices.

Really well done. And I say that as a non sports lover.

[Book Mitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Pook S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really solid YA sports book that is very similar to what I hope to write in the future.

[Stella · Rating 2 out of 5]

Before I say anything I want to add that I'm just giving my honest opinion here. it's nothing against the author. I hope to read more of his work because I did like the premise of the story.

I was really excited going into this book but, unfortunately, it didn't reach my expectations let alone exceed them. To me, every character fell flat and the much anticipated "big plot twist" I'd read about in reviews wasn't executed as well as I'd hoped.

*clears throat*

*opens books*

The first chapter starts at their school as they pay tribute to another student who lost their life due to gun violence (why is it still a thing?). Nasir goes into how he and Bunny used to be the bestest of buds in all the land UNTIL Bunny gets a scholarship from a school in the rich part of town as he's one of the best basketball players in the country. This, of course, leads to Nasir being angry with Bunny because WHO NEEDS TO BE HAPPY FOR ANOTHER HUMAN BEING?  (I'm very salty about this.)



I get that Nasir was angry with Bunny but it was pretty extreme for just going to a different school. So what happened was that the rich school was interested in Bunny as he was an extremely talented basketball player. by going to this school it gave him better chances at getting into University in the future. but Nasir got jealous and upset that his best friend would just "ditch him." I see his point but he crossed the jealousy line and took it to a whole new level. It's just not credible.

I got annoyed. being happy for someone isn't hard. C'mon!



Nasir's character was not an enjoyable read. His motives weren't believable when it came to his issues with Bunny. if that "big plot twist" happened in reality and I was Bunny in that situation I would have never accepted his apology. It's like saying "don't worry about it, just don't try to murder me next time." each to his own I guess?



Bunny's Character was okay but I feel like there was nothing to grip on to. It's like all the right words were written but there was no emotion behind them.



This book was compared to THUG a lot but it didn't have that same passion. It's like when someone compliments you on something when they don't mean it. you know that feeling? The characters were diverse, Feminism was talked about and much more. But when it lacks passion you feel like it's just a checklist for a camping trip or something.



The parents like in many books aren't super relevant to the story. except when it came to food. which was kind of annoying because I feel like he could've explained more about their story other than the tiny snippet we got. like, WHERE ARE THE MOTHERS? AND WHY CAN'T THEY TALK? They were mentioned but weren't a part of the story... I want to know more!

Anyway, I should probably stop rambling now.

The writing style wasn't bad. I enjoyed it. Again, I have an issue with the feeling behind the words but other than that it's pretty good. I hope his next books in the future are better and have more feeling.  Although it wasn't the best book I've ever read, there were also some good bits. I did like that the author was trying to send a good message. The fact that it was diverse is great. I did love that he did talk about feminism even though it lacked feeling, it was there. I'm giving it 2.5/5 stars as the premise behind the story was good and you can see it's from a good place. Also, the cover is pretty darn good.

Thank you so much for reading, have a wonderful day!

Fey <3





 

[Michelle (FabBookReviews) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Randy Ribay's stand-out contemporary YA novel After the Shot Drops tells the story of two teens as they make their way through painful turns in the aftermath of a friendship breakdown.

Told in alternating first-person narratives, readers follow rising high school basketball star Bunny Thompson and his now-estranged best friend Nasir Blake. When we first meet our two main protagonists, it is at the funeral of a neighborhood kid. Bunny, now a student and star player at St. Sebastian's- a private school in the suburbs- divulges his awkwardness and complicated feelings about his old school, Whitman High, and the fact that Nasir didn't support his desire to make something better of himself at St. Sebastian's. Bunny wants to make things better for his family, to make the most of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but Nasir doesn't see it like that. As the narrative shifts back to Nasir, we see how deeply he and his cousin Wallace took Bunny's leaving their old school to go somewhere affluent like St. Sebastian's- like a betrayal and middle finger to their community. In the back and forth between Bunny's meteoric rise as the young player in the state to watch and his attempts to reach out to Nasir, Nasir finds himself entrenched in Wallace's problems while his own family is struggling financially. Nasir finds out that there is a possibility of Wallace and his grandma becoming homeless and begs his parents to help Wallace, only to be rebuffed. As Wallace spirals down a track of gambling, his dislike for Bunny bleeds into hatred which eventually leads to a showdown between the three young men. With multiple angles and twists to both Bunny's and Nasir's storylines, Ribay keeps the narrative between the two main characters clean and tight; the narrative is fast-moving, electrifying, and towards the end, heart-stopping. Also of note: while arguably a main focus of the novel is on the possible repair of Bunny and Nasir's broken friendship and Bunny's basketball playing, there is a slight shift in Nasir's narrative focus; one that ends up being as incredibly profound as it is heartbreaking.

Overall, a tremendous read that's already received numerous starred reviews. After the Shot Drops is so strongly and smoothly written, compelling and gut-wrenching all at once, broaching talk about race, privilege, the capacity for empathy, and of who gets afforded opportunity. Any readers who enjoy contemporary and/or realistic YA, sports-themed reads, or the work of authors such as Jason Reynolds, Kwame Alexander, Laurie Halse Anderson, Renée Watson and Kelly Loy Gilbert might especially appreciate this terrific, nuanced novel from Randy Ribay.

I received a copy of this title courtesy of Raincoast Books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions and comments are my own.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Man, this was a good book.

I have had this in my collection (a 6-8 building) for awhile, and have had VERY little traffic with it. Mainly because there is no AR test to go along with it, so many of my kiddos have no incentive to pick it up (that is a HUGE sidenote discussion I don't want to get into here, but it is a thing and Yes, it is frustrating). Anyway, the reason it finally moved up my TBR stack to defcon status is because my Scholastic Book Fair rep told me that this fall they are stocking some "mature" titles and this was one of them. There 's no way I can put this out at my fair without reading it and being able to discuss its merits with my teachers, students, admin, and parents. So, I picked it up.

Cons: there is some language in this book. Like, F-word language, more than 10 times. Not every page, and not gratuitous, but there. The other, main concern, for me, was the casual references to smoking pot. Now, this is mainly done only by one character (the other ones decline) and this character is considered to be the bad influence. STILL, this is something to be aware of if you are including this in a middle school collection.

Pros: SO VERY MANY. This is a story that makes the reader question what we owe others and if that outweighs what we owe ourselves. Do we have the responsibility to take care of someone, even when they are continuing to make bad choices? At what point are we OK with saying we are cutting ties with them? It is incredibly well-written and so, so, so good.

Bunny Thompson is a phenomenal basketball player. So, last year, when he transferred from his local high school to play for the private school across town, some of his old friends were hurt. Disappointed. Betrayed. But Bunny knows that the opportunities he has there (equipment, access, facilities, games, exposure) will pay off in the long run when he is able to go to college and maybe even the NBA, which will allow him to provide for his family. Plus, being at St. Sebastian's gives him a world-class education.

Nasir is the friend he left behind at Whitmore. Nas can't understand why Bunny would leave them all behind and doesn't want to be his friend anymore. He can't stand him. And he doesn't care about the whys, all he knows is that he got left behind. Plus now, his cousin Wallace is about to be evicted and nobody is willing to help him out. No one is pulling any strings for him, giving him any special chances, nothing. So when Wallace has an idea that would help him get ahead, and only hurt Bunny in the short-term, Nas has to decide what he is willing to sacrifice.

Highly recommend. Most likely appropriate for grades 8 and up.