Daniel New
Staff reporter
Long way down is a book from Jason Reynolds.
It takes place in a bad neighborhood witch is often called “the hood.” It tells a story about a man that lost his brother, to getting shot, and getting revenge. Shawn was his best friend, and he loved spending time with him. Now that his favourite person is dead, he needs to find the killer and give the same treatment back to him. But there’s a long feeling short, but exiting elevator ride down.
The book has a very unique style to it, using minimal words, but telling the whole story. There isn’t words all over the place, just in the middle of the page. Every single page is formatted like that. One downside to this format is the extra pages you must produce to fit in the entire story, because more trees have to be cut, making it a bit less environmental.
A big part of the book and a lot of the story is devoted to a slow elevator ride. The ride takes about forty five seconds. He goes down seven floors, and meets all the people that are important to him, each getting in from different floors. This takes place all in his head. Only the elevator ride down was real. He meets people like his friends, and family like his dead brother’s friends and even his own father, who he’s never met. He even meets his dead brother, Shawn. They all just wait to get to the lobby, smoking while they wait to get there. The story ends at the end of the elevator ride.
We can only assume what happens after he gets off the elevator. Maybe he finds, shoots and kills the guy that killed his brother, maybe he can’t find him, or maybe he gives up and just goes home. It goes to us to predict what happens next, and what choices he makes.
Overall, I’m not much of a fan of reading, but this book was very good. It was unique, exciting, and interesting. On a scale of 1/10, I would give it a 9/10. Great read for audiences who can handle a bit of darkness.