Long Way Down
“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.
“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.
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Community Reviews
What Bookclubbers are saying about this book
✨ Summarized by Bookclubs AI
Readers say *Long Way Down* is a phenomenally written novel in verse, capturing intense emotions during a tense, brief elevator ride. They praise Reyn...
For books in verse, here comes another phenomenal read! Will has to make a very tough decision here. Does he follow the rules that he has been taught all his life? Can he handle what he believes he is meant to do? It is absolutely crazy to think that this whole story takes place over a few minute elevator ride. And written in verse, Reynolds does an amazing job portraying every emotion going through Will's mind and body. As the elevator stops on each floor, Will is faced with someone from his past who makes Will question even more what it means to do the "right thing." What does following the rules really mean? What are the real consequences either way? Hard to put this one down because with each new character, you want to know how Will reacts and what he is ultimately going to decide. I wasn't a huge fan of the ending but after sitting with it for a day or so, I realized that ending it in this way allowed Reynolds to really relay to readers how tough of a decision Will is making and just how complicated teenage gun violence really is. Highly recommend!
This book fostered an excellent discussion in our group. I left with a greater appreciation of the book than I had going in: This is a powerful text that says a lot with minimal words and encourages readers to think about the difficulty of being a kid in a subculture whose rules directly conflict with those of the larger society - and whose consequences are lasting and, might I say, “haunting.”
What I love is the author made Will and us think. Set in an urban setting. A profound story in an urban setting, depicting life and the three rules:
No. 1: No Crying - Don’t. No matter what. Don’t.
No. 2: Snitching - Don’t. No matter what. Don’t.
No. 3: Revenge - if someone you love gets killed, find a person who killed them and get revenge.
William’s entire world changes in one night when his brother Sean gets shot.
The rules weren’t meant to be broken. They were meant for the broken to follow.
Will know the rules. He knows what he has to do. He goes to take the elevator down to exact his revenge on the person who Will believes shot Shawn. While in the elevator, he encounters a person from his life. Each person's tale affects him as he descends onto the next floor, all the way to the lobby.
Plot: 5/5
Characters: 5/5
Pace: 5/5
Graphic: 5/5
No. 1: No Crying - Don’t. No matter what. Don’t.
No. 2: Snitching - Don’t. No matter what. Don’t.
No. 3: Revenge - if someone you love gets killed, find a person who killed them and get revenge.
William’s entire world changes in one night when his brother Sean gets shot.
The rules weren’t meant to be broken. They were meant for the broken to follow.
Will know the rules. He knows what he has to do. He goes to take the elevator down to exact his revenge on the person who Will believes shot Shawn. While in the elevator, he encounters a person from his life. Each person's tale affects him as he descends onto the next floor, all the way to the lobby.
Plot: 5/5
Characters: 5/5
Pace: 5/5
Graphic: 5/5
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