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“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 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.
Download Long Way Down Jason Reynolds Books
"I've read every Jason Reynolds book published (except for the Spiderman one which I'll get to next). This is the most powerful one yet. The poetry is tight, not a word wasted. I found myself reading lines outline over and over to hear them roll off the tongue. The plot is clever and refreshingly different. The message, the voices, the themes are powerful. The whole world should read this tale and learn how violence begets more violence and swallows us up not whole but very broken. I wanted to get in the elevator with Will, hold him like his mother would have, cry with him, and lead him away from the tragic tradition that he felt compelled to continue. Thank you, Jason Reynolds, for your wisdom and the voices you create! The world needs this book. And PLEASE keep writing!"
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Tags : Long Way Down (9781481438261) Jason Reynolds Books,Jason Reynolds,Long Way Down,Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books,1481438263,Brothers,Conduct of life,Ghost stories,Ghosts,Ghosts;Fiction.,Murder,Murder;Fiction.,Novels in verse,Revenge,Revenge;Fiction.,Fiction-Coming of Age,JUVENILE,Juvenile Fiction,Juvenile Grades 7-9 Ages 12-14,TEEN'S FICTION - COMING OF AGE,United States,YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Family / General (see also headings under Social Themes),YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Family / Siblings,YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Novels in Verse,YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Social Themes / Violence,Young Adult Fiction/Family - General (see also headings under Social Themes),Young Adult Fiction/Ghost Stories,Young Adult Fiction/Novels in Verse,Jason Reynolds; All American Boys; gun violence; gangs; gang violence; books in verse; poetry; diversity; National Book Award Finalist; Monster; Ghost; urban reads; urban lit; books for black teens; #WeNeedDiverseBooks; Newbery Honor Book; Coretta Scott King Honor Book; Printz Honor Book; National Book Award for Young People’s Literature longlist; Winner of the Walter Dean Myers Award; Edgar Award Winner for Best Young Adult Fiction; 2018 Odyssey Honor Audiobook; YALSA; 2018 Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults; ALSC 2018 Notable Children’s Recordings List; NCR award; Parents’ Choice Gold Award Winner; Entertainment Weekly Best YA Book of 2017; Vulture Best YA Book of 2017; Buzzfeed Best YA Book of 2017,Jason Reynolds; All American Boys; gun violence; gangs; gang violence; books in verse; poetry; diversity; National Book Award Finalist; Monster; Ghost; urban reads; urban lit; books for black teens; #WeNeedDiverseBooks; Newbery Honor Book; Coretta Scott King Honor Book; Printz Honor Book; National Book Award for Young People's Literature longlist; Winner of the Walter Dean Myers Award; Edgar Award Winner for Best Young Adult Fiction; 2018 Odyssey Honor Audiobook; YALSA; 2018 Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults; ALSC 2018 Notable Children's Recordings List; NCR award; Parents' Choice Gold Award Winner; Entertainment Weekly Best YA Book of 2017; Vulture Best YA Book of 2017; Buzzfeed Best YA Book of 2017;
Long Way Down Jason Reynolds Books Reviews :
Long Way Down Jason Reynolds Books Reviews
- There is no fitting way that I can think of to describe a book of this caliber. I cannot even admit that I have completely understood the full magnitude that this story carries.
Long Way Down takes place in a span of one minute.
Sixty seconds.
It is set in an elevator, in which a young, angry boy gets on and begins his long journey down.
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
A moment.
An instant. That is all it takes. An elevator ride down, seven floors.
In one minute, Jason Reynolds changes your perception of everything.
In that one minute, you are blindsided.
In that one minute, he leaves you reeling.
In a single minute, the book outlines the life of this young man, Will, the day after his brother, Shawn, was found shot dead. Will knows the rules. He lives by the rules.
1. You don’t cry
2. You don’t snitch
3. You seek revenge
Will is absolutely certain he knows the man behind the murder, and he is out for vengeance. After a long sleepless night, he wakes up knowing exactly how his day is going to go. He finds his brother’s gun and leaves the house with the intention of going after the person responsible for his brother’s death. He steps onto the elevator, but it keeps stopping at every floor, forcing Will to confront his fears, his doubts and most importantly, his beliefs.
Long Way Down is written in verse-form, and although this style is usually not my preferred style, Jason Reynolds set a completely new standard with his writing, eloquence and articulation. He manages to deliver clear, distinct and important messages with just a few words. In fact, the book will not take you more than 30 minutes to read, but the impact left afterwards is powerful and long lasting. In an interview I read, Jason Reynolds says
“I need my young brothers who are living in these environments, and the kids who are not living in these environments to have no excuses not to read the book. The truth of the matter is that I recognize that I write prose, and I love prose, and I want everybody to read prose, but I would never, sort of, deny the fact that like, literacy in America is not the highest, especially amongst young men, and especially amongst young men of color. It's something that we've all been working very hard on, and my job is not to critique or judge that. My job is to do something to help that, and to know you can finish this in 45 minutes means the world to me, so that we can get more young people reading it and thinking and then having discussions on what this book is actually about.â€
He also explains that he set the story in an elevator, because he wanted to mimic the feelings of anger, pain and helplessness. To him, these feel claustrophobic, like you are wound up tight.
“It feels like tightness and coldness, steel, jagged movements and vertigo. All the things that an elevator brings, is what it feels like to be that angry.â€
One of the reasons Reynolds was able to convey these feelings so accurately was because of his own past experiences struggling with those same feelings of anger and pain when his best friend was killed, and his first impulse was to end the life of the person responsible. He also wanted to change the perception that people who commit these crimes are fearless or without emotion.
“The truth is that everyone who has ever been around anyone who has been in these environments knows that the people who pull the triggers are terrified.â€
Long Way Down really pushes boundaries, questions your thoughts and beliefs and does not shy away from treading on important topics, such as race and gun violence. Getting a glimpse, albeit a very brief one, of Reynolds’ way of thinking makes you look at things differently and go, “Ahh, yes. I see now.†- I've read every Jason Reynolds book published (except for the Spiderman one which I'll get to next). This is the most powerful one yet. The poetry is tight, not a word wasted. I found myself reading lines outline over and over to hear them roll off the tongue. The plot is clever and refreshingly different. The message, the voices, the themes are powerful. The whole world should read this tale and learn how violence begets more violence and swallows us up not whole but very broken. I wanted to get in the elevator with Will, hold him like his mother would have, cry with him, and lead him away from the tragic tradition that he felt compelled to continue. Thank you, Jason Reynolds, for your wisdom and the voices you create! The world needs this book. And PLEASE keep writing!
- How do you begin to describe Jason Reynolds' Long Way Down? Although some have understandably called this tale a modern retelling of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, and to some extent it is, but it is much more than that. Literature teachers will certainly delight in the many lessons that are taught throughout this creative tale, readers are simply drawn in by the delight it is to read. Although there are a few profanities scattered in the telling, they do not draw attention away from the story and in fact, Mr. Reynolds uses them to add appropriate realism to his characters. Written for teens, this novel is enjoyable for both adults and teens, as evident by the fact our entire family read it and have had many animated conversations over dinner on the meaning of the ending. Highly recommend Long Way Down and look forward to reading more of Jason Reynolds in the very near future.
- Jason Reynolds is truly a gift to the world. I love this book and believe everyone, young and old, should read this profoundly human story. Jason brilliantly sets the stage in an elevator to metaphorically represent the feelings of being entrapped by the notions we create in our head - the perceived rules, assumptions, expectations of society, and the swiftness for which we believe we must respond to those thoughts. And, consequently, how our lives (and the lives of others) can change in an instant. In this scenario, it’s the 60 seconds it takes Will, the protagonist, to travel from the seventh to the ground floor.
Written beautifully and artistically in verse, Long Way Down conveys a powerful message of introspection and self-reflection. Of mindfulness and emotional intelligence - particularly with respect to self-awareness and self-regulation.
Long Way Down raises the awareness of Victor Frankl's teachings from his incredibly important and timeless book, Man's Search for Meaning "Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom."
