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. Unlike a traditional prose novel, Long Way Down is written in verse. Poets are known for using language intentionally and with precision, often choosing words with connotative and denotative meaning. Reflect on the significance of the protagonist’s name. The word Will can be used as a proper name, but also as a verb and a noun. In what ways does the protagonist encompass multiple meanings of his name? An intense snapshot of the chain reaction caused by pulling a trigger.” — Booklist (starred review) Penn, Farrah; Osifo, Ehis; Watson, Shyla; Rebolini, Arianna; Parker, Lara (December 20, 2019). "The 30 Best YA Books Of The Decade". BuzzFeed . Retrieved January 9, 2022. The coolest thing about this book to me, and something I don't think I really noticed until I saw my favorite booktuber's review, is that this book doesn't try to be about right and wrong. It's not that simple, and Jason Reynolds knows that. I think this book has a lot of layers that don't come through at first, but that kill you more and more the deeper you look.

This was incredible. Not only is it so emotional and well-developed, but oh my god, the writing is so good. Will enjoys finding anagrams, especially when the anagram illuminates or comments on the meaning of the original word. Explain the connections between the anagrams that he creates. Why are they significant to the story? You know when you haven’t fully grasped the story they way you would have wanted to because you’re reading too fast and you just know that there are underlying gems that you are missing out on, but you can’t stop reading? This was that. Smith, Julia (July 2017). Long Way Down, by Jason Reynolds . Retrieved November 28, 2018– via Booklist Online.a b "Reynolds, Weatherford Named Winners of 2018 Walter Dean Myers Award". School Library Journal . Retrieved November 28, 2018.

a b Anderson, Kristen. "Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds | SLJ Review". School Library Journal . Retrieved November 28, 2018. On the next floor, the ghost of Will's uncle Mark steps on. Uncle Mark is friendly with Will, but also challenges him on his certainty that he is capable of killing Riggs. Will digresses to tell the story of how Mark was killed in a battle for drug-dealing turf after he started selling drugs to earn enough to buy a camera and be a filmmaker. A graphic novel edition of the book, illustrated by Danica Novgorodoff, was published October 13, 2020. Why doesn’t Will recognize Dani at first? What questions does she have for Will? What message do you think she is trying to share with him?De graphic novel 67 SECONDEN is gebaseerd op het gelijknamige boek van Jason Reynold (originele titel: LONG WAY DOWN). Danica Novgorodoff verzorgde de illustraties. seconden. Zo lang duurt het om van de zevende verdieping naar de begane grond te komen. En als de lift de grond heeft bereikt, zal Will afreizen naar een huis met een pistool in zijn broekband. Want zijn grote broer is vermoord, en Will weet zeker wie het heeft gedaan. En niets zal hem stoppen, want hij volgt de regels.

I’m beginning to think I’m bound to love stories told in verse. Long Way Down was masterfully written, with an ending that left me breathless.

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Who does Will believe killed his brother? What are his reasons for believing this? Do you think he’s right? Sutton, Roger (October 5, 2017). "Review of Long Way Down". The Horn Book . Retrieved November 28, 2018. Reynolds held the idea for Long Way Down for years before finally writing it. In 2003 when Reynolds was 19, he learned that a friend had been murdered. [3] Speaking of the moment, he said he and his friends felt "an anger, a pain, like a cancer metastasizing by the second, spreading around [them] and through [them]. [They] knew his death had changed [them] chemically, and that [they] could do, perhaps, what [they] never knew [they] could do before. Kill." [3] Reynolds continued,