“An intense snapshot of the chain reaction caused by pulling a trigger.” —Booklist (starred review) “Astonishing.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “A tour de force.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) A Newbery Honor Book A Coretta Scott King Honor Book A Printz Honor Book A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Winner for Young Adult Literature Longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature Winner of the Walter Dean Myers Award An Edgar Award Winner for Best Young Adult Fiction Parents’ Choice Gold Award Winner An Entertainment Weekly Best YA Book of 2017 A Vulture Best YA Book of 2017 A Buzzfeed Best YA Book of 2017 An ode to Put the Damn Guns Down,this is New York Times bestselling author Jason Reynolds’s electrifying novel that takes place in sixty potent seconds—the time it takes a kid to decide whether or not he’s going to murder the guy who killed his brother. A cannon. A strap. A piece. A biscuit. A burner. A heater. A chopper. A gat. A hammer A tool for RULE Oryou can call it a gun. That’s what fifteen-year-old Will has shoved in the back waistband of his jeans. Seehis brother Shawn was just murdered. And Will knows the rules. No crying. No snitching. Revenge. That’s where Will’s now headingwith that gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeansthe gun that was his brother’s gun. He gets on the elevatorseventh floorstoked. He knows who he’s after. Or does he? As the elevator stops on the sixth flooron comes Buck. BuckWill finds outis who gave Shawn the gun before Will took the gun. Buck tells Will to check that the gun is even loaded. And that’s when Will sees that one bullet is missing. And the only one who could have fired Shawn’s gun was Shawn. Huh. Will didn’t know that Shawn had ever actually USED his gun. Bigger huh. BUCK IS DEAD. But Buck’s in the elevator? Just as Will’s trying to think this throughthe door to the next floor opens. A teenage girl gets onwaves away the smoke from Dead Buck’s cigarette. Will doesn’t know herbut she knew him. Knew. When they were eight. And stray bullets had cut through the playgroundand Will had tried to cover herbut she was hit anywayand so what she wants to knowon that fifth floor elevator stopiswhat if WillWill with the gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeansMISSES. And so it goesthe whole long way downas the elevator stops on each floorand at each stop someone connected to his brother gets on to give Will a piece to a bigger story than the one he thinks he knows. A story that might never know an END…if Will gets off that elevator. Told in shortfierce staccato narrative verseLong Way Down is a fast and furiousdazzlingly brilliant look at teenage gun violenceas could only be told by Jason Reynolds.