Review: Long Way Down

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Even after greatly enjoying Reynolds' take on Miles Morales, I've found myself sleeping on his bibliography for quite a while. Thanks to Long Way Down, I have another reminder that I should pretty much not be sleeping on said bibliography. Though very different in style from Miles Morales, especially since it's a novel entirely in verse as opposed to prose, this book is no less unforgettable and thought-provoking and an authentic look at the experience of a black teen boy. Inner-city life in all its grittiness is on full display here, a life governed by three rules - no crying, no snitching, and revenge. Maybe not so much the middle one, but the first and last are absolutely rooted in toxic masculinity, and Will's following them all to the letter because it's all he knows.

Until he leaves this life and steps into the elevator. In the elevator is a world where time slows to a crawl, the ghosts of Will's past jump in to haunt him and hotbox the joint with everyone infinitely smoking, and this waking nightmare (or perhaps just plain a nightmare) turns into a sort of gangland, magical-realist-influenced Christmas Carol...or does it? Such is the genius of Reynolds, who tells a complete story even when he leaves it with one of the most open of open endings. And normally open endings piss me off, but this one, it made sense, one hundred percent, leaving the ultimate outcome open to interpretation as Reynolds did.

Though it's a slim hope, I do hope that everything comes up Will eventually in this universe.

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