Review of Novel in Verse: Long Way Down


Summary:
This free-verse novel is a snapshot of the chain reaction caused by violence. The book opens with 15-year-old Will Holloman telling about his brother Shawn’s murder two days prior—gunned down while buying soap for their mother. He explains The Rules: don’t cry, don’t snitch, always get revenge. Now that the reader is up to speed, Will puts Shawn’s gun into his waistband and steps into his building's elevator, ready to carry out rule number three and shoot his brother’s killer. However, the seven-floor ride down gets stranger on every floor. The doors open on each floor to admit someone killed by the same cycle of violence that Will’s about to perpetuate. In the epilogue, the author says that this book has been compared to a cross between The Hate You Give and A Christmas Carol. I can't quit thinking about that analogy because it's such a fitting description.

Criteria:
Besides meeting the basic criteria for books for reviews (published in the last 10 years, I had not read, novel in verse), Long Way Down also has several awards and accolades including a 2018 ALA Notable Children's Books distinction, 2018 Printz Honor, 2018 Walter Award, 2018 Newberry Honor, and 2018 Coretta Scott King Author Honor. Besides that list of awards, it had positive reviews from several reputable sources including, but not limited to, BookList, Horn Book Guide, and Publisher's Weekly.

Response:
This is the only of my books to review that I listened to an audiobook instead of reading the print version. I purposely did that, knowing from my own experience listening to Jacqueline Woodson's Brown Girl Dreaming, that the author reading their own novel in verse can convey the intended rhythm and cadence. The book has been bouncing around in my thoughts and I have been unable to stop thinking about the premise and the life Will had. It kind of ends on a bit of a cliff hanger, which helps it stay with you, wondering what happened next. 

“Shawn turned back toward me, eyes dull from death but shining from tears, finally spoke to me. Just two words, like a joke he'd been saving. YOU COMING?” 

This text was so valuable to me as a teacher, to think about the "rules." I have a wide variety of students that I teach. Demographics range from poverty and unhoused to wealthy and crazy high expectations. We all have rules in our family and in our environment. This book helped me realize that while I can see and understand a student, I may not always know which set of rules he feels bound to live by. 

This was such a good glimpse into a young man's thoughts of how to honor his recently deceased brother. Again, there are rules that I may know nothing about inside each of us and it helps me to understand others better to hear the rules. I think this is a valuable glimpse into current society and the unwritten code driving the violence we hear about.

I can't stop thinking about this book. It was such a poignant stream of consciousness that only covers one minute and seven seconds in a life, but has the potential to impact an entire generation. Now that I have listened to the audiobook and learned there is a graphic novel of the same book, I would like to add the graphic novel to my personal library collection.

“but if blood inside you is on the inside of someone else, you never want to see it on the outside of them”

Reynolds, Jason. Long Way Down. Thorndike Striving Reader, 2020.

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