It’s a long way down from the eighth floor to the lobby

I read Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds. It's a beautiful, haunting, poetic cautionary tale written in verse. I loved it, and I love Jason Reynolds.

I read this book just before Halloween, and this poem, along with so many others, have been stuck in my throat:

THEN THE YELLOW TAPE

that says DO NOT CROSS
gets put up, and there's nothing
left to do but go home.

That tape lets people know
that this is a murder scene,
as if we ain't already know that.

The crowd backs its way into
buildings and down blocks
until nothing is left but the tape.

Shawn was zipped into a bag
and rolled away, his blood added
to the pavement galaxy of

bubblegum stars. The tape
framed it like it was art. And the next
day, kids would play mummy with it.


In my neighborhood, front yards were decorated to look spooky and scary. One house was decorated with yellow police tape... and I haven't been able to wrap my head around the fact that what's a halloween novelty to one is an awful reality to another. 

In Long Way Down, fifteen-year-old Will Holloman is forced to consider the potential consequences of his actions as he, armed with a gun in his waistband and seeking revenge, waits for the elevator in his building to reach the ground floor. 

As the elevator descends, different ghosts of shootings past... each connected to Will in sometimes surprising ways... enter the elevator with him. They share experiences, question him and challenge his motives. It’s a long way down from the eighth floor to the lobby, but it only takes seven floors, 60 seconds and six ghosts to make him question his quest for revenge.

Check out Long Way Down on NPR.

Get this book for teens who love stories written in verse. Get this book for all Jason Reynolds fans (The Boy In The Black Suit, All American Boys, When I Was The Greatest, Ghost).

This book is a provocative page turner about family, tradition and the cycle of violence that will stick in your throat and lodge in your heart for days to come.