Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

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Young adult, verse novel - Ages 14 to older

Amazon.com: Long way down (Littérature ado) (French Edition) eBook : Reynolds, Jason, Sané, Insa: Kindle Store


“Will’s older brother. Shawn, has been shot. Dead.” 

There is not much he can do beside following THE RULES:

No. 1: Crying - Don’t. No matter what.

No. 2: Snitching - Don’t. No matter what.

No. 3: Revenge - Do. No matter what. 


Holy crap. This book was magnificent- and I don’t say that a lot. From the start of this book I was hooked! This story follows the life of Will after his brother, Shawn is shot, and how Will goes on to follow “The Rules” but things seem to go upside down. I never thought that his novel could be so suspenseful and yet peaceful at the same time, from the ghosts on the elevator- or I am not really sure what they were, to the whole backstory of the gun. But I can definitely say that I will be keeping this book on my shelf for a very long time.  :) 

My favorite thing about this book was that it was written in verse. Books are typed so powerfully into different formats, and Long Way Down was an example of how a book that is written in verse can make you think so much more deeply about one simple sentence. There was an especially powerful part in this book, when Jason formatted the words “What if you miss?” He wrote the words right below each other, except for the word miss, which was misplaced on the bottom of the page off to the right. I thought this was a brilliant usage of verse because this one sentence that took up the whole page made me question it so much. What if he missed? What if he didn’t get away? What could happen after? What if you miss?

Anyhow I recommend this book to lovers of verse novels/ thriller types of books. Long Way Down was so fascinating I think a lot of other teens will also enjoy the meanings behind it! I know this review was shorter than usual, but I really don’t know how to describe how much this book impacted me- just go read it now. 


PS, I am starting high school soon, so I will most likely be posting less on here. For now enjoy your last days of summer -R

 

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