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popthebutterfly 's review for:
Long Way Down
by Jason Reynolds
Rating: 5/5
Genre: YA Contemporary/Verse Poetry
Recommended Age: 16+ (violence,
I received this book for free courtesy of KidLitExchange. All opinons are my own.
An ode to Put the Damn Guns Down, this is National Book Award finalist and 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. – Amazon.com
In the future this time period will be studied in English Literature classes as the period of amazing own voices YA literature. Why I say this is because this is the second book I’ve read that discusses what it’s like to be African American in modern day (the first being Dear Martin and there is another one named The Hate U Give that I own but not read yet). Where Dear Martin focuses on being considered guilty before proven innocent this book focuses on the need to avenge, the need to honor, and follow these rules that are passed down throughout the community. These rules include no crying, no snitching, and revenge. This book is also an excellent read for males of any ethnicity because being a male in this society means that certain things are expected of you and this book goes to prove that even the strictest rules can be broken. If you can’t tell from how much I’ve already wrote then I’ll tell you right now that I LOVED this story. I have only read verse poetry once before and it was the Ellen Hopkins books, but I only lasted until through the first book before I got tired of it. With this book I didn’t feel like the writing style was overwhelming or too different. It felt very natural to how someone would think or speak in my opinion, which worked very well for this book. The character development was very well done in the way that it was written. The plot was very uniquely told and unique in its invention as well. The pacing was also very well done and I fell that each “level” was equally discussed.
The only thing I had issue with in this book was that I felt the ending was very open-ended and I’m not a huge fan of that. While I thought the book needed an open-ended ending and it works well for this story, I’m just personally not a fan of it. I did expect it, but I didn’t like it.
Verdict: If you were a fan of The Hate U Give or Dear Martin I would highly suggest this book. It’s an amazing read for those looking for diverse or own voice novels and it’s a story that needs to be told. I can’t really describe how important this novel and others like it are important for people to read in this day and age because if I go on about all the reasons I would end up spoiling the novel for you. But if this book isn’t on your TBR it needs to be.
Genre: YA Contemporary/Verse Poetry
Recommended Age: 16+ (violence,
I received this book for free courtesy of KidLitExchange. All opinons are my own.
An ode to Put the Damn Guns Down, this is National Book Award finalist and 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. – Amazon.com
In the future this time period will be studied in English Literature classes as the period of amazing own voices YA literature. Why I say this is because this is the second book I’ve read that discusses what it’s like to be African American in modern day (the first being Dear Martin and there is another one named The Hate U Give that I own but not read yet). Where Dear Martin focuses on being considered guilty before proven innocent this book focuses on the need to avenge, the need to honor, and follow these rules that are passed down throughout the community. These rules include no crying, no snitching, and revenge. This book is also an excellent read for males of any ethnicity because being a male in this society means that certain things are expected of you and this book goes to prove that even the strictest rules can be broken. If you can’t tell from how much I’ve already wrote then I’ll tell you right now that I LOVED this story. I have only read verse poetry once before and it was the Ellen Hopkins books, but I only lasted until through the first book before I got tired of it. With this book I didn’t feel like the writing style was overwhelming or too different. It felt very natural to how someone would think or speak in my opinion, which worked very well for this book. The character development was very well done in the way that it was written. The plot was very uniquely told and unique in its invention as well. The pacing was also very well done and I fell that each “level” was equally discussed.
The only thing I had issue with in this book was that I felt the ending was very open-ended and I’m not a huge fan of that. While I thought the book needed an open-ended ending and it works well for this story, I’m just personally not a fan of it. I did expect it, but I didn’t like it.
Verdict: If you were a fan of The Hate U Give or Dear Martin I would highly suggest this book. It’s an amazing read for those looking for diverse or own voice novels and it’s a story that needs to be told. I can’t really describe how important this novel and others like it are important for people to read in this day and age because if I go on about all the reasons I would end up spoiling the novel for you. But if this book isn’t on your TBR it needs to be.