Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

 Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

Reynolds, Jason. Long Way Down. Antheneum, 2019.

Will witnesses the murder of his brother, Shawn. It was a gruesome murder, shot out  in the
open at a public park. Will thinks he knows who did it. He goes into his brother’s bedroom
and grabs the gun out of his dresser. He heads out of the house and is looking for the guy
who murdered his brother. 

In the elevator on the way out of his apartment, Will is visited by different spirits of his past.
First Buck gets on, then it’s the girl (Dani) he saw murdered just as Shawn had been
murdered when he was eight. Next floor his Uncle Mark enters. The next floor Will’s father
enters. On floor number three Frick enters. Floor two, Shawn enters. Then finally, on floor
number one, all the ghosts of the past disappear. 

With every floor that Will goes down, a new person appears. Each one had been killed in
Will’s lifetime. Each one teaches Will a lesson. He doesn’t have to obey “the rules”.
He doesn’t have to get revenge. 

While reading this novel, I was continuously reminded of the classic Christmas novel;
A Christmas Carol. Just as Scrooge had been visited by the ghost of the past and was
taught a lesson, Will was visited by many ghosts of the past and taught valuable
lessons along the 60 second journey from his apartment to the street.

This book was written in a free verse style, very similar to Kwame Alexander. For fans of Long Way Down, I recommend reading  any of Alexander’s books. Perhaps try reading The Crossover. This is the first book in the series.