Reading: LONG WAY DOWN - Jason Reynolds

All the awards and accolades attached to this novel-in-verse made me anxious to read it - but hesitant as well, wondering if Jason Reynolds's much-lauded story could hold up to the hype. But Long Way Down exceeded even those expectations; via a true economy of words, author Reynolds weaves an intimate, punch-to-the-gut story of what happens when fifteen-year-old Will's older brother Shawn is shot to death ... and Will, tucking Shawn's own gun into the waistband of his jeans, heads out to kill the person who killed his brother. Hyped-up and refusing to back down to what Will sees as his duty, he leaves his apartment and still-devastated mother and boards the elevator on the seventh floor, heading down - and it's what happens as the elevator stops on each floor, a new passenger with ties to Shawn boarding each time to provide the angry young Will another piece in the puzzle of his brother's life and death, that has the potential to shape what Will might do ... or become. The visceral impact of Reynolds's words and the portrait they paint of a young, grieving man caught up in gun violence, make this an incredibly potent and brilliant read, as well as one of my favorite books of 2019.  4.5/5 stars