As I talked about in my previous post, I love books in verse for many reasons. I also have a fondness for Jason Reynolds and his writing style. He has a clear point of view and knows his audience well. If you want to read more reviews of his books, you can look HERE and HERE and HERE.
Long Way Down is a novel written in poetry, but there’s nothing light and cheerful about this book. Will is devastated by his brother’s recent death. He was shot in a drive-by, and now Will has decided to get revenge because that’s the way it is in his neighborhood. The entire novel is set during the three minutes it takes for Will’s elevator in his apartment building to go from the seventh floor to the lobby. While he’s contemplating what he’s going to do, he’s met at each floor by visitors from his past…who are dead. One’s his best friend from growing up who died after getting shot on the playground. Another is his uncle who died because someone wanted to take over his drug-dealing corner. All the people try to talk Will through what he’s thinking of doing and the consequences of it.
This book was bone-chilling. Coming from a suburban background where gun violence wasn’t anything to be worried about, it made you understand how people can get caught up into that vicious circle. I liked how the book showed the consequences of violence and how it just leads to more violence. Some of Will’s visitors are connected, and you clearly see how one person’s death lead to another person’s death because of retaliation and so forth. The one thing that I wish is that the ending wasn’t quite as ambiguous. It is left open ended as to what Will is going to do next: go through with his plan to kill or not. I feel like the author does leave a few clues and hints as to which way he’ll go, but younger kids may not pick up these inferences.
Even though this may seem like an easy book to read, because of the content I would have to recommend this one for high school and up.
No comments:
Post a Comment