About 6 h 45 min · at 30 minutes a day, about 14 days
Estimated from the page count of this edition. Dense books can take longer than the estimate.
About the book
Fifteen-year-old Will Holloman takes his murdered brother Shawn’s gun and leaves their apartment to kill the person he believes responsible. He is following the neighborhood rules: no crying, no snitching, revenge. But during the elevator ride down, dead people from his past step aboard, bringing stories of the violence that killed them and questions about what he intends to do.
Reader notes
Almost entirely confined to that brief descent, the YA novel unfolds in Will’s first-person verse. Short lines, broken phrases and wordplay keep the reading quick, while conversations open into painful memories. Gun violence and grief are serious subjects throughout; much of the action consists of talking and remembering inside the elevator.
How it reads
Writing style
Fragmentary · Poetic · Spare
Tone
Intimate · Melancholic · Tense · Unsettling
Structure
Linear
Driven by
Character · Relationships · Voice
Point of view
First person
Setting
Will's apartment building elevator
Reading complexity
Writing
2 / 5
Ideas
3 / 5
Structure
3 / 5
Background knowledge
1 / 5
About this profile
Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).
Writing
How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas
How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure
How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge
Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity
Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.
Themes
Grief
Revenge
Trauma
Community
Content notes
Violence
Strong
Sexual content
None
Swearing
Mild
Substance use
Mild
Abuse
Mild
Self-harm or suicide
None
Standing and awards
Highly regarded
Kate Greenaway Medal, 2022
Edgar Award, 2018
Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, 2017
Carnegie Medal shortlist, 2019
Newbery Medal honor, 2018
Printz Award honor, 2018
Coretta Scott King Award honor, 2018
Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis nominee, 2020
Questions readers ask
Is it hard to read?
Not really. Will’s first-person verse uses short lines, broken phrases and wordplay that keep the reading quick. The greater challenge is emotional: conversations bring up painful memories of gun violence and grief.
Is there much action?
Much of the action consists of talking and remembering inside an elevator during a brief descent. The pace is brisk, but the tension centers on Will’s intention to kill the person he believes murdered his brother.
How strong is the violence?
Strong gun violence is central, including the murder of Will’s brother and accounts from dead people about the violence that killed them. Grief and painful memories run throughout the elevator conversations.
What does it explore about revenge?
Will follows neighborhood rules that demand revenge and forbid crying or snitching. The dead people who enter the elevator bring stories and questions that challenge what he intends to do, connecting revenge with grief, trauma and community.
How long is it?
336 pages in the Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books 2019 paperback edition.
Which edition is shown here?
Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books · 2019 · paperback. ISBN 9781481438261.
How long does it take to read Long Way Down?
About 6 hours 45 minutes at 50 pages an hour, based on the 336-page Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books edition. Dense books can take longer.
About the author
Jason Reynolds
Jason Reynolds writes novels and poetry for young adult and middle grade readers, with particular attention to the voices of young people navigating pressure, grief, violence, and questions of belonging. He begins with character rather than a fixed age category, allowing the voice to determine the audience. That method gives his work its direct, conversational quality, while his background in poetry supports more compressed and lyrical forms. Long Way Down, a verse novel structured around a brief elevator ride, shows his ability to use formal constraint to examine inherited rules and cycles of violence. Elsewhere, Ghost places questions of discipline and self-command within a middle-school track story, while All American Boys uses alternating viewpoints to confront racism and police brutality. His range also includes Stamped, an adaptation of Ibram X. Kendi’s history of racist and antiracist ideas, and a Miles Morales novel for Marvel. Across genres, Reynolds centers minority characters as part of the contemporary world they inhabit, pairing social questions with close attention to individual speech, relationships, and choice.
