Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds is a fiction novel written in free verse that takes place in a sixty second elevator ride. The novel is told by the main character, Will, who is a fifteen year old boy whose brother was shot and killed. The novel begins by addressing the reader,
My name is Will. William. William Holloman. But to my friends and people who know me know me, just Will. So call me Will, because after I tell you what I’m about to tell you you’ll either want to be my friend or not want to be my friend at all. Either way, you’ll know me- know me.
Will begins to explain that he is in shock and tells us he has yet to say the words out loud of what happened to his older brother. On the following page Will repeats the words Shawn’s dead. Shawn’s dead. It is strange to say and while repeating himself he begins to realise he is not actually shocked, he realises that he is actually surprised it didn’t happen sooner.
Will explains the rules in his neighborhood: No. 1 don’t cry- no matter what, No. 2 no snitching and No. 3 seek revenge. If someone you love gets killed, find the person who killed them and kill them.
Will dug through Shawn’s dresser, knowing that he had a gun hidden somewhere in their shared bedroom. When he found the gun in the middle drawer he tucked it into his pants. Will explains in a list how he thought he knew who killed his brother Shawn. He explained that there is this man known as Riggs who is from a different part of the hood where the gang Dark Suns would hangout and Shawn was on their turf at a corner store getting his mom a special soap for her eczema the day of the shooting. Will says that when someone steps over those boundaries in his neighborhood, it is kill or be killed. Lastly, Will explains that you just always know the killer, way before the cops. Following the rules, Will gets on the apartments elevator ready to kill this man Riggs. The elevator stops on each floor on his way down, each time a friend or relative that was killed appears and tells Will their story about how each their murders played out. Each person from the past tells Will he does not need to follow the rules anymore. Will begins to asks do I have to do this, am I going to listen to the ghosts, do I believe in ghosts now? The last person to appear in the elevator was his brother Shawn, who was the only ghost who did not speak a word until the elevator door opens and Shawn asks are you coming.
What happens if you’re stuck in an endless cycle? A Long Way Down has this repeating theme of violence and crime in the neighborhood Will lives in. The rules that these men live by is creating a cycle of repeating behaviors that ultimately will always end with another murder. During the elevator ride down and meeting loved ones that were murdered, Will begins to feel the true nature to what is about to happen. He will kill someone, then he will be murdered himself. The novel is written in first person which allows insight to how Will is feeling following his brother being shot. The novel also allows us to view Will actions through his point of view, I often found myself wondering what did these ghosts think of seeing Will in the elevator about to murder someone. The novel ends leaving the reader wondering if he went to kill Riggs or did he break the rules after hearing the stories that the ghost told.
Value Graph
(-) Shawn was shot and killed
(-) Will has to hold back his emotions to follow the rule – no crying
(+) Will finds Shawn’s gun and gets on the elevator to do what he knows needs to be done
(-) Elevator stop the ghost of Buck comes on
(-) Buck points out that Will doesn’t know how to use a gun
(-) Buck teaches will how to use the gun
(+) Buck tells Will he does not have to follow the rules, he does not have to go murder someone
(-) Will questions himself, the rules and everything he knows about what he “should do”
KKJM Reads 
The value graph looks really nice and accurately displays the positive and negative charges of the novel. It is incredible how the novel only takes place for 60 seconds but feels like an entity while we are reading it. “What happens when you are stuck in an endless cycle?” is an interesting question that demands answers. You not only answered the question but also expanded on the core ideas of the text and main ideas surrounding our class which is impressive. One question that I have is: is it possible to fully break the cycle of violence? Although the ending is never revealed on what Shawn’s decision is, it is interesting to wonder if it even is possible for him to break that cycle he is trapped in. What do you believe does his break his cycle? Or does he continue to be trapped in it?
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I thought you did a great job with this post! When I began this novel, I was really interested in reading for the perspective of Will. To me, this book seemed very unrealistic since I didn’t grow up in a city with gun violence, or really any violence at all, so I knew it would be a different perspective. However, when I was reading this novel, I found it really disturbing that no one was really surprised by Shawn’s death. Sure, Will was upset, but everyone around him essentially kept moving on with their day. It took me a little bit to work myself into the genre conventions of the novel and feel comfortable sitting in the seat of a main character who wasn’t surprised to find out that his brother had been murdered. Because of the difference in experience between Will and I, this novel challenged me to read as someone other than the person I am, who has had the experiences that I’ve had. After reading further into the novel, as more and more people that Will had lost from gun violence got onto the elevator, I was able to deal more with the reasons why Will was not surprised that Shawn had also been killed. Since he had lost his father, uncle, his brother’s best friend, and his childhood friend already, it was likely just an assumption that one day Shawn would be killed. Still, Will has the choice to not fall into the cycle of avenging his brother’s killer and being the next one killed, which I thought was interesting. It made me wonder if if he broke the cycle he would be able to survive, or if he would still end up being murdered in an unrelated incident.
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