Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

ARC, 320 pages

Release Date: October 24, 2017

Published by: Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Book
Read from: October 22-23, 2017

Stand-alone

Source:  TxLA 

For fans of: Contemporary, Family, Diversity, Realistic Fiction, YA

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.

*MY THOUGHTS*

     I wasn’t immediately drawn to this because I am definitely NOT a fan of verse. But because I AM a fan of Jason Reynolds, I went ahead and decided I would read it just because I was not sure how this novel could be told in the span of an elevator ride. And let me tell you, I was NOT disappointed. 
     So, even though I’m not a fan of novels in verse, I will say that alot of the poems in this book gave me chills. I remember almost tagging the entire book because it was all so powerful. Reynolds’ writing style is simply amazing and I can’t believe I almost didn’t read it because I was so scared of the verse.
     I am also really impressed with Reynolds’ writing style. I am a character oriented reader and when I usually can’t fall for a character in a novel in verse. (Which is why I don’t care for them…) But somehow I was able to fall for Will AND the supporting characters AND Shawn in these pages. 
     However, the only thing about this that I did not like was the ending. WTH am I supposed to do with my life now? Make up my own ending? I need to know what that person decided. Like WHAT HAPPENED?! It’s so good, but there are so many different ways it could go, and I can see some might love that, but I am too indecisive for that. Same reason I don’t like choose your own adventures lol I always just through all of them to find out what I missed lmao
     This was a really quick read that I flew through. I can definitely see myself wanting to read this again… In the very near future. 

Overall, I give this

Did you read this?

What did you think of the ending?