Comment A minus number on the right of an equal sign (where f(x) or y or something like it is on the left of the equal sign) that is negative means that the function is going down. So any positive number in the answer is wrong if it greater than 0.
f(x) = | x | - 3 is going down.
Comment 2 Anything inside the | | which is plus goes left (not right) so you want y = |x + 8| - 3