Review: Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

Title: Long Way Down

Author: Jason Reynolds

Publisher: Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books

Publishing Date: October 24th, 2017

Pages: 306
Audio Length: 1 Hour 43 Minutes

Genre: YA Contemporary Poetry
TW: Murder

Series: Standalone

Source: Audio

 

1 hour, 43 minutes
An ode to Put the Damn Guns Down, this is New York Times bestseller Jason Reynolds’s fiercely stunning 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

What made me pick this book up: 

I don't really remember. I think I saw it on scribd and it was a really short book and then once I read the synopsis, I knew I needed to read it.

What did I like about the cover: 

I like that it looks like an old elevator, but that you can still see the kid in the reflection.

What made me read this book: 

The story. I read it and thought wow, this is going to be really good. This is going to make me feel and maybe open my eyes to what people really have to go through.

What did I like the most: 

I didn't. I guess I liked the idea of the story. But I just hated this book. 

What didn't I like: 

I don't understand how this book has such high ratings. I did not like it.

Maybe if I had actually read the book instead of listened to it, then I would like it more. But it just fell flat to me.

The story was good, it had a good message sure. But this was definitely not for me. 

I didn't like hearing about "the rules". I didn't like reading about all the people who had been killed because of that "culture" I guess. Because of the gangs, or what not. It just... wasn't my type of book. I had gone into it expecting a heart wrenching hard decision and it just felt... Kind of dumb to me.

Like really, your brother was just killed and you're trying to be a hard ass. No, just no. It doesn't make sense to me. 

I felt myself getting angry at the stupidity of it. Not that he was stupid. I understand wanting to avenge your brother. But I just kept thinking it's not worth it. Your momma already lost one kid. Don't make her lose another one.

Just how it doesn't make sense, and I keep saying that but maybe it's because I just don't understand it. I'm not knocking the book exactly, maybe I just don't get it. 

Would I read the rest of the series/more from this author?
I think I want to try to actually read the physical copy of this, not listen to the audio. I want to love it, I just don't know if I can.

This book could have been so much more, but I just didn't like it. Not for me.

“But if blood inside you is on the inside of someone else,
you never want to see it on the outside of them"
-Will” 
― Jason Reynolds, Long Way Down

After earning a BA in English from The University of Maryland, College Park, he moved to Brooklyn, New York, where you can often find him walking the four blocks from the train to his apartment talking to himself. Well, not really talking to himself, but just repeating character names and plot lines he thought of on the train, over and over again, because he’s afraid he’ll forget it all before he gets home.