[ 5🌟 ]

Reading Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds was one of my first experiences with audiobooks. Yet, I don’t think I would want to read Long Way Down any other way. Reynolds himself narrates the audiobook, and in a bonus interview at the end, he said that he wanted to be the narrator in order for the poems he wrote to be the way they were intended to be. Poetry–the flow of the words, the sentences, the line breaks–can be interpreted in many different ways depending on the one reading it.

I’m not a huge poetry person, but after reading Elizabeth Acevedo’s The Poet X, I wanted to read some more. Then, I went on an 11 hour road trip (one way, mind you😬), and I had to find some way to keep myself occupied for an extended period of time. Thank goodness for audiobooks and Long Way Down.

Now back to the book: Long Way Down is such a unique piece of literature in so many ways. Besides its format, Long Way Down only spans 60 seconds, yet Will, the narrator, reflects on the past often. I knew that the book was about gun violence, but I was unaware how Reynolds approached it in Long Way Down. I tried my hardest to stay awake and pay my fullest attention because I didn’t want to miss anything. In fact, if I missed something, I think I would end up quite confused.

Because of its compact format, I definitely want to read Long Way Down again, but this time, with both the audiobook and the physical copy in my hands. I felt I was missing a crucial part of the story by not being able to follow along with the structures of the poems as written by Reynolds. The ending left me wanting more and left me questioning everything I had read, but I also believe it was the perfect spot to close this story.

Reynolds commented on his choice of writing Long Way Down in verse in the interview. With the use of short language known to verse, Reynolds was able to employ the format of the story to mimic the intensity and urgency of Will’s (very short) narrative. In the length of the poems and, thus, the length of the book, Reynolds also contemplated how “life is fragmented.” We don’t always remember the full-picture of an event in our lives; we often see pieces of it especially when it concerns tragedy. Reynolds also notes how time seems to suspend itself during tragedy. He speaks from experience here because he lost a few friends when he was young, but Reynolds particularly remembers one friend who passed when he was 19-years-old.

Part of Reynolds inspiration for Long Way Down came from the time he spent in juvenile detentions talking to the people there. He mentioned in the interview that a fair amount were in juvy because of “gang beefs.” There were rules to be followed, which Reynolds incorporates with the rules Will tries so hard to follow, so many ended up retaliating without even knowing the root of the need for revenge. In fact, Reynolds notes, when spoke to someone in juvy, that person believed that every decision they had made was the right one at the time.

In the interview, Reynolds emphasizes empathy and compassion. He says to be careful about calling people by a stereotype. Reynolds elaborates by noting that one has to consider the tradition, the trauma experienced, the culture, the society one lives in before making a judgement. There is so much there that we do not know and so much we can never know.

It’s very hard to say much about this book without giving too much away. It’s a book that I feel like I will keep coming back to. I will keep thinking about the ending; how the story got to the ending. The narrative hinges on revealing the unexpected slowly over a condensed period of time so going in reading the book with as little knowledge as possible is beneficial. Long Way Down is a book that should not be missed!