Walter Dean Myers is one of my favorite authors. The latest book I've read by him is called Dope Sick. This book is about violence, drugs, drug use, murder, and second chances. The main character is known as Lil J. He is surrounded by drug abuse and addiction in his neighborhood and at home. His mother is a drunk and doesn't set a good example for him. Unfortunately he's no better, he goes and shoots up heroine or steals his mom's pain pills to calm himself down or when he's upset about something. Or as it is referenced as in the book, getting "Dope Sick". Lil J is looking to get some quick cash when he stumbles upon his buddy Rico. Rico is in the process of making a drug deal so Lil J tags along so he can earn some money on a simple drug deal.
When Rico and Lil J pull up to the place where the deal is going down, there buyer comes up to them and starts moving along with the deal. Rico gets suspicious and pulls a gun a starts searching the guy. Rico finds a badge, cuffs, and a gun. An undercover cop. Rico cuffs the guy to a pole and realizes that another squad is coming in to make the arrest, he pops three shells into the poor guy. They flee the scene and Lil J has the murder weapon. Rico being arrested and Lil J running with a gunshot wound to the arm finds an abandoned crack house. When he goes inside he finds this guy sitting in a room watching TV. Lil J pulls the gun up and asks him who he is. The guy in the room tells him his name. (Kelly) Kelly tells Lil J to put the gun down and come inside. Kelly is in a way like God. He knows everything that's going on with Lil J. He puts the TV on and shows Lil J what will happen in the future...and it's not pretty.
Lil J is in amazement at what Kelly is showing him. Kelly offers to change something that happened in the last 24 hours. Lil J is to scarred and nervous to tell Kelly anything. Lil J tells many things to Kelly, like having a son and family. But Lil J is so nervous he doesn't know what to do with this offer. Lil J becomes extremely nervous and he doesn't know what to do. Lil J asks Kelly to get rid of the gun use to shoot the police officer with and he takes it and shoots about 5 shots out the window into the street. Lil J is now terrified and knows that the cops are gonna come and kill him and Kelly. But Kelly changes the whole situation. Kelly takes the gun and walks downstairs and gets shot by the SWAT team. Lil J is just lying down on the floor listening to the gun shots below him. After everything quiets down, Lil J looks outside and sees that the cops and everyone are gone. He turns the TV on and sees that Kelly changed the whole scene to show that he was the suspect instead of Lil J. Lil J is in amazement and gets up and walks home to see that everything went back to normal.
There were many conflicts in this book, but the main conflict is the whole situation with Lil J and the shooting. Lil J was just trying to make some money and it all went downhill from there. This book was very good. I enjoyed this book a lot. The way Myers describes the whole story grabs your attention. It kept making me think about what was going to happen. I would highly recommend this book to everyone.
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