Long Way Down - Jason Reynolds

Long Way Down

By Jason Reynolds

  • Release Date: 2017-10-24
  • Genre: Family & Relationships in Young Adult Fiction
Score: 4.5
4.5
From 488 Ratings

Description

“An intense snapshot of the chain reaction caused by pulling a trigger.” —Booklist (starred review)
“Astonishing.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“A tour de force.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)


A Newbery Honor Book
A Coretta Scott King Honor Book
A Printz Honor Book

A Time Best YA Book of All Time (2021)
A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Winner for Young Adult Literature
Longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature
Winner of the Walter Dean Myers Award

An Edgar Award Winner for Best Young Adult Fiction
Parents’ Choice Gold Award Winner
An Entertainment Weekly Best YA Book of 2017
A Vulture Best YA Book of 2017
A Buzzfeed Best YA Book of 2017


An ode to Put the Damn Guns Down, this is New York Times bestselling author Jason Reynolds’s electrifying novel that takes place in sixty potent seconds—the time it takes a kid to decide whether or not he’s going to murder the guy who killed his brother.

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.

Told in short, fierce staccato narrative verse, Long Way Down is a fast and furious, dazzlingly brilliant look at teenage gun violence, as could only be told by Jason Reynolds.

Reviews

  • Overall

    4
    By diehj
    It’s a good book
  • Wonderful

    5
    By Snakelike
    I love the way this story is crafted.
  • Great Read!

    5
    By Addumitriu
    Absolutely love this! I was completely glued to the text.
  • BLM

    5
    By 👻 sc mendez.hayden
    Love the book
  • Not Exactly What I Expected

    4
    By TimTim2014
    So this is the first book I’ve read of Jason Reynold’s. And as someone who has just gotten back into reading and has torn through almost 20 books in the last month this one was a little harder to go through because I was used to cliffhangers and attention grabbers. But, this is an absolutely beautifully written book. And even though it is a fast read, it leaves an impact. I read it in 1 day and I’ve been talking about it and the weight of it to everyone I’ve spoken to since finishing it. I HIGHLY suggest this book and I cannot wait to read more of Jason Reynold’s work.
  • Ending

    5
    By reeeeeereeeeeeeeeeeee
    So, the book was amazing. I read this on my own time due to my teacher recommending I should read it. Like a lot of people, I was confused on the ending at first. Then, this year, during lockdown, I read it again. I realised that at the end, with the smoke and whatnot, he dies. He most likely shot Riggs, or he missed and was shot himself. The “you coming” most likely means that he is in purgatory or the afterlife, so yeah. If you’re confused, there you go.
  • review

    5
    By Emily strudwick
    read for school. engaging and a quick read. a little confused on the ending.
  • Sadly True

    5
    By ccschlwcgte
    This is such a great book, but sadly it’s all true. If you don’t cry a bit you didn’t read all the way through.
  • beautiful story

    5
    By mercedes011
    it hit so differently. shines a light on an issue that’s not talked about
  • Long way downhill

    5
    By dtttgttt
    This book was really amazing

Comments