Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds is a YA book written in verse. It took me a few hours to read, and I enjoyed the writing style, mystery and profound characters!
I finished the book and was so shocked that my shock turned to upset. I was left on the worst cliffhanger imaginable. I just sat there, book in hand with my jaw on the floor. My first words were “What?!” and “Wait, no!” I was confused and frustrated at the same time. I’m rarely surprised by a plot twist but Jason Reynolds kept me guessing.
The characters are fleshed out and fully developed. I felt so attached to each of them in a matter of pages. The story is put together beautifully! It was easy to follow and suspenseful, start to finish.
Jason Reynolds uses the in-verse style as a weapon. I got goosebumps multiple times by how lovely it was written. I now understand why this book is so well known and loved. If you haven’t read it already I highly suggest you read it as soon as you can. Long Way Down is well worth your time and energy. Overall I rated it 5/5 and plan to reread it again soon!
Official Synopsis:
A cannon. A strap. A piece. A biscuit. A burner. A heater. A chopper. A gat. A hammer A tool for RULE Or, you can call it a gun. That’s what fifteen-year-old Will has shoved in the
back waistband of his jeans. See, his brother Shawn was just murdered. And Will knows the rules. No crying. No snitching. Revenge. That’s where Will’s now heading, with that gun
shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, the gun that was his brother’s gun. He gets on the elevator, seventh floor, stoked. He knows who he’s after. Or does he? As the elevator stops on the sixth floor, on comes Buck. Buck, Will finds out, is who gave Shawn the gun before Will took the gun. Buck tells Will to check that the gun is even loaded. And that’s when Will sees that one bullet is missing. And the only one who could have fired Shawn’s gun was Shawn. Huh. Will didn’t know that Shawn had ever actually USED his gun. Bigger huh. BUCK IS DEAD. But Buck’s in the elevator? Just as Will’s trying to think this through, the door to the next floor opens. A teenage girl gets on, waves away the smoke from Dead Buck’s cigarette. Will doesn’t know her, but she knew him. Knew. When they were eight. And stray bullets had cut through the playground, and Will had tried to cover her, but she was hit anyway, and so what she wants to know, on that fifth floor elevator stop, is, what if Will, Will with the gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, MISSES. And so it goes, the whole long way down, as the elevator stops on each floor, and at each stop someone connected to his brother gets on to give Will a piece to a bigger story than the one he thinks he knows. A story that might never know an END……if WILL gets off that elevator.
Book details:
306 pages (Hardcover)
Genres: YA, Poetry, Contemporary
Main character(s): Will, Shawn, Buck
Setting: Elevator
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