“Another thing about the rules, they weren’t meant to be broken. They were meant for the broken to follow”

Long way down is one of those books that will make you reflect on your own thoughts throughout the story. Our protagonist, Will, is going to teach us about his life as a black teen born in a difficult neighbourhood where there are three rules for males to follow ([don’t cry, no snitching and take revenge (hide spoiler)]) and when his brother gets killed he intends on following these rules. He must do so.
This story is written in verse, it takes place during a minute ride on an elevator that stops on each floor to let someone of Will’s past in, and it shows how violence, death and toxic masculinity affects so many young people these days. Reynolds manages to make each verse touch you and think about why the characters made each one of their decisions.
Even though I loved each verse, I have to say that this writing style was not for me. I like descriptions, long and detailed ones. Because of the nature of the writing style, the book does not provide you with a lot of that. The descriptions are short and very direct, which sometimes is very welcome as it feels like a punch in the face. It’s a great way to describe something so raw and hurting as death is. But I do wish that other times, we got to read more in-depth about certain things, for example, what being in the elevator was like. But that it’s more of a me thing and not a fault of the book.
Overall, I really enjoyed this story. It's a very fast and powerful read. I think It’s a very important story for us, especially youth, to read. It helps us think about our society, our way of acting about things that sometimes are imposed on us, our role in society and to reflect on how privileged we are if we had a better childhood than Will. Most importantly, to think of what we can do to have fewer children be put in Will’s position.