Long Way Down
Jason Reynolds's Long Way Down is a novel in verse about a boy who takes a one-minute elevator ride on his way to revenge after his brother is killed. Through a chain of brief encounters, it brings the cycle of violence and the weight of feeling into focus.
Work Information
A novel in verse built around a one-minute elevator ride toward revenge.
Published by Atheneum in 2017, this YA novel uses a spare verse form to depict harsh social rules and the chain reaction of retaliation. Its speed and emotional afterglow leave a strong impression.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books
- Published
- 2017-10-24
- Pages
- 320 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 13.97 x 2.54 x 20.96 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9781481438254
- ISBN-10
- 1481438255
- Price
- 2349 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Teen & Young Adult
A Newbery Honor Book A Coretta Scott King Honor Book A Printz Honor Book A Time Best YA Book of All Time (2021) A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Winner for Young Adult Literature Longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature Winner of the Walter Dean Myers Award An Edgar Award Winner for Best Young Adult Fiction Parents’ Choice Gold Award Winner An Entertainment Weekly Best YA Book of 2017 A Vulture Best YA Book of 2017 A Buzzfeed Best YA Book of 2017 An ode to Put the Damn Guns Down, this is National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestseller Jason Reynolds’s fiercely stunning novel that takes place in sixty potent seconds—the time it takes a kid to decide whether or not he’s going to murder the guy who killed his brother. A cannon. A strap. A piece. A biscuit. A burner. A heater. A chopper. A gat. A hammer A tool for RULE Or, you can call it a gun. That’s what fifteen-year-old Will has shoved in the back waistband of his jeans. See, his brother Shawn was just murdered. And Will knows the rules. No crying. No snitching. Revenge . That’s where Will’s now heading, with that gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, the gun that was his brother’s gun. He gets on the elevator, seventh floor, stoked. He knows who he’s after. Or does he? As the elevator stops on the sixth floor, on comes Buck. Buck, Will finds out, is who gave Shawn the gun before Will took the gun. Buck tells Will to check that the gun is even loaded. And that’s when Will sees that one bullet is missing. And the only one who could have fired Shawn’s gun was Shawn. Huh. Will didn’t know that Shawn had ever actually USED his gun. Bigger huh. BUCK IS DEAD. But Buck’s in the elevator? Just as Will’s trying to think this through, the door to the next floor opens. A teenage girl gets on, waves away the smoke from Dead Buck’s cigarette. Will doesn’t know her, but she knew him. Knew. When they were eight. And stray bullets had cut through the playground, and Will had tried to cover her, but she was hit anyway, and so what she wants to know, on that fifth floor elevator stop, is, what if Will, Will with the gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, MISSES. And so it goes, the whole long way down, as the elevator stops on each floor, and at each stop someone connected to his brother gets on to give Will a piece to a bigger story than the one he thinks he knows. A story that might never know an END…if WILL gets off that elevator. Told in short, fierce staccato narrative verse, Long Way Down is a fast and furious, dazzlingly brilliant look at teenage gun violence, as could only be told by Jason Reynolds.
Jason Reynolds is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, recipient of the MacArthur Genius Grant, a Newbery Award Honoree, a Printz Award Honoree, a two-time National Book Award finalist, a 2024 MacArthur Fellow, a Kirkus Award winner, a UK Carnegie Medal winner, a two-time Walter Dean Myers Award winner, an NAACP Image Award Winner, an Odyssey Award Winner and two-time honoree, and the recipient of multiple Coretta Scott King honors, a Coretta Scott King Author Award, and the Margaret A. Edwards Award. He was also the 2020–2022 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. His many books include All American Boys (cowritten with Brendan Kiely); When I Was the Greatest ; The Boy in the Black Suit ; Stamped ; As Brave as You ; For Every One ; the Track series ( Ghost, Patina, Sunny , Lu , and Coach ); Look Both Ways ; Stuntboy, in the Meantime ; Stuntboy, In-Between Time ; Miles Morales Suspended ; Ain’t Burned All the Bright (recipient of the Caldecott Honor) and My Name Is Jason. Mine Too. (both cowritten with Jason Griffin); Twenty-Four Seconds from Now... ; and Long Way Down , which received a Newbery Honor, a Printz Honor, and a Coretta Scott King Honor. His debut picture book, There Was a Party for Langston , won a Caldecott Honor and a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor. He lives in Washington, DC. You can find his ramblings at JasonWritesBooks.com.
Reviews
-
Ottimo
-
El libro llegó en perfecto estado. Hablando concretamente de la historia: increíble. Muy original con un narrador muy complejo a la vez que inocente. Gran libro
-
Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds | Never had I thought that a book written in verse could get to me this deep and have the impact this book has had on me. This thought-provoking narration explores the topics of urban violence, revenge and its intrinsic cycle of self-destruction. This book is written in first person, told from the point of view of the main character, Will Holloman, a 15 year-old boy who lives in a poor neighbourhood of a big city. The novel takes a big picture of the life of some of the kids of this neighbourhoods, most of whom live trapped in this atmosphere of darkness and believe there’s no way out of it. Long Way Down is 322 pages long, but its story only lasts a few minutes, the time it takes Will to go from the 6th floor of a building to ground level. During this brief period of time we follow Will in the elevator, he is bringing a gun with him, and he is willing to kill the man who has killed his brother. I hugely recommend this book and I'll definitely be reading more books by Jason Reynolds!
-
J'ai du mal avec la poésie sans rythme. Ici la forme soutient parfois la pensée mais c'est très artificiel. Par exemple si je prenais mon commentaire et que je le détachais en vers, ça donnerait pareil et ça n'a pas toujours grand intérêt. L'histoire par contre est plus intéressante. On suit notre protagoniste, dans sa tête, qui souhaite venger la mort de son frère, tué par balle dans contexte de règlement de compte entre gangs de rue. Il suit les Règles comme son frère, comme son père. Il prend l'ascenseur et à chaque étage, quelqu'un rentre. L'occasion est ici donnée d'explorer ces règles de la rue, la transmission, la vengeance... Apparemment l'histoire n'avait pas été conçue sous forme poétique. Pourquoi pas. En tout cas on le sent bien. Parfois ça fonctionne et d'autres fois pas. Pas à voix haute en tout cas. C'est un peu le défaut du récit. J'ai quand même bien aimé globalement, le personnage est sympathique et on espère qu'il fera le bon choix.
-
Poignant and heart wrenching story written in verse that takes place over 60 seconds in an elevator, exploring the senseless cycle of gun violence, through the eyes of main character Will, whose brother Shawn had just been shot. Extremely powerful, emotional and moving, despite being a fast-paced read. I think everyone should read this book.