Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

Evan | Barkalow Middle School, Grade 7

Rating: ****

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds is a very good book. It is about a kid named William or Will for short who lives in a bad neighborhood. In his neighborhood, they have three rules. No. 1: No Crying. No. 2: No Snitching. No. 3: Always seek revenge. He tries to emphasize the third rule after a close family member died, by killing the one who killed him. Will he get revenge on who he thinks killed his loved one, or will his emotions take over?

I feel that this book was very intense. On the first 4 pages it talks about the death of loved ones. Jason Reynolds tries to emphasize that Will lives in a bad place with bad people. The book is relatively fast-paced. It's written in poem form. Which means that some pages only have a couple of words. The funny thing is the book is 305 pages, but the book itself only spans a few minutes, which shows how well Jason Reynolds can stretch out a moment. I also liked how each character in the book brought a different thing to the table. They each had their own backgrounds and different stories to tell as well. Overall, this was a very good book that I highly recommend for more mature readers to choose.