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daniellekat's review
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
I have no words to describe this book. I am in awe. Stunning artwork and beautifully written.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Child death, and Death of parent
Moderate: Blood
Moderate: toxic masculinity Minor: gangslawbooks600's review against another edition
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Representation: Black characters
Score: Seven points out of ten.
This version of Long Way Down circled my recommendations for a while and when I saw this in a library I visited, I immediately wanted to pick it up. Soon enough, I did and then I read the Long Way Down adaptation, but not before glancing the blurb. Despite being heavy, this story was enjoyable, leaving me wondering what the original text is like.
It starts with the first character I see, Will, whose last name remains undisclosed with his brother Shawn, when someone shot him, and no one reported on it. That is all according to the rules: don't cry, don't snitch and, most prominently, get revenge. Thus begins Will's quest to get Shawn's gun and shoot the shooter but he gets on an elevator and has to wait until it reaches the ground floor. In the elevator, Will meets other people who have died in a shooting, all due to the third rule. Once someone shoots another person and they get revenge, the cycle neverendingly continues. Sometimes the poetry is part of the art, which I enjoyed observing. The pictured helped me visualise the story more, but the poetry wasn't that impressive. It was one of many examples where someone pressed the Enter key many times and called it 'poetry.' The conclusion is open, as it's unclear whether Will will get revenge or break the third rule. I hope he chooses the latter.
Score: Seven points out of ten.
This version of Long Way Down circled my recommendations for a while and when I saw this in a library I visited, I immediately wanted to pick it up. Soon enough, I did and then I read the Long Way Down adaptation, but not before glancing the blurb. Despite being heavy, this story was enjoyable, leaving me wondering what the original text is like.
It starts with the first character I see, Will, whose last name remains undisclosed with his brother Shawn, when someone shot him, and no one reported on it. That is all according to the rules: don't cry, don't snitch and, most prominently, get revenge. Thus begins Will's quest to get Shawn's gun and shoot the shooter but he gets on an elevator and has to wait until it reaches the ground floor. In the elevator, Will meets other people who have died in a shooting, all due to the third rule. Once someone shoots another person and they get revenge, the cycle neverendingly continues. Sometimes the poetry is part of the art, which I enjoyed observing. The pictured helped me visualise the story more, but the poetry wasn't that impressive. It was one of many examples where someone pressed the Enter key many times and called it 'poetry.' The conclusion is open, as it's unclear whether Will will get revenge or break the third rule. I hope he chooses the latter.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Gun violence, Death, Blood, and Death of parent
Full trigger warnings: Gun violence, death of a father in the past and a brother, blood, grief and loss depictiongalexy_brain's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
A very poignant graphic novel. I'm still not sure whether I'd like to read the long-form book, but this book absolutely challenged my beliefs. I wish the book had done more to challenge or explain why you have to live by The Rules, because I found myself quite frustrated by that . This was likely the point and I just don't get it, and maybe this is explained in the original book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Grief, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Death of parent and Blood
Minor: Chronic illness
cozyreader9752's review
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Grief, Death of parent, Gun violence, Murder, Death, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence
avisreadsandreads's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, and Child death
Moderate: Death of parent and Blood
Minor: Drug use
alexisgarcia's review
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
wow wow wow. this was so heartbreaking. the art style was the best part in my opinion. it was absolutely beautiful and added to the story. i just wish we got more of a resolution to the story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Grief, Murder, and Child death
tigger89's review
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This is the first graphic novel adaptation I've ever read that I've actually liked. I don't know if it's because it's also the only time I haven't read the original novel(I've heard of it and I know what it's about, but I've never read it) or if it really is just that good, but I was blown away by the quality. In my mind, there's three things that go into a good graphic novel adaptation: the art, whether or not it made use of the strengths of the visual medium, and faithfulness to the original.
Starting with the art, this book was drawn and painted in a beautiful watercolor style by Danica Novgorodoff. The softness of the art was a perfect contrast to the difficult subject matter, providing a cushion for the reader. When moments became sharper the art changed to reflect that, with some parts shown in stark silhouette or drawn as black-and-white sketches. I have nothing but compliments about the art, and I'm glad they didn't choose to go with a more traditional comics-inspired style, because I believe that would have cheapened the violence.
This book also made excellent use of the visual medium to enhance Reynolds's verse. When Will describes the territories in his neighborhood, the thoughts are scattered over a map taking up an entire two-page spread. Lingering effects reach from one panel into another, and silent panels provide a moment for the reader to stop alongside the characters and reflect. Monochrome vs full color is also used to great effect, signifying what's past and present, even as the time periods blur together in the same image.
I can't speak to the faithfulness of the adaptation, because as I said I haven't read the original novel. I did peek at the preview on Amazon, and recognized much of the text. From what I can tell, my conclusion is that this adaptation is different — particularly, the addition of some dialogue to the graphic novel version — but not necessarily unfaithful. I'll leave it to others who have read both to judge for certain, though!
Starting with the art, this book was drawn and painted in a beautiful watercolor style by Danica Novgorodoff. The softness of the art was a perfect contrast to the difficult subject matter, providing a cushion for the reader. When moments became sharper the art changed to reflect that, with some parts shown in stark silhouette or drawn as black-and-white sketches. I have nothing but compliments about the art, and I'm glad they didn't choose to go with a more traditional comics-inspired style, because I believe that would have cheapened the violence.
This book also made excellent use of the visual medium to enhance Reynolds's verse. When Will describes the territories in his neighborhood, the thoughts are scattered over a map taking up an entire two-page spread. Lingering effects reach from one panel into another, and silent panels provide a moment for the reader to stop alongside the characters and reflect. Monochrome vs full color is also used to great effect, signifying what's past and present, even as the time periods blur together in the same image.
I can't speak to the faithfulness of the adaptation, because as I said I haven't read the original novel. I did peek at the preview on Amazon, and recognized much of the text. From what I can tell, my conclusion is that this adaptation is different — particularly, the addition of some dialogue to the graphic novel version — but not necessarily unfaithful. I'll leave it to others who have read both to judge for certain, though!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Gun violence, Death, Death of parent, Murder, Violence, and Grief
pika_chuu's review
emotional
sad
tense
4.75
Powerful read. Illustrations and words were amazing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Blood, Death, and Child death
Moderate: Death of parent and Gun violence
shaipanda's review
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
Damn - this really packs a punch
Edit: switched from 5 to 4.5 stars though because I feel like it wasn’t as devastating and I didn’t connect with the story as much as I could have if it had more dialogue or was just generally longer - loved the way it is already but just couldn’t keep it at 5 stars
Edit: switched from 5 to 4.5 stars though because I feel like it wasn’t as devastating and I didn’t connect with the story as much as I could have if it had more dialogue or was just generally longer - loved the way it is already but just couldn’t keep it at 5 stars
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Blood, Death, Death of parent, and Gun violence
kaitlynnnng's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
This is another book that’s difficult for me to rate.
I’ll start off by saying that I’ve read other books by Jason Reynolds, and I loved them, and I do think Long Way Down is an important book, so I don’t regret reading it, and it’ll definitely go in my classroom library, but it didn’t really do anything special for me.
This book tackles important topics like cycles of violence, and it reminds readers that what you’re told to think or do isn’t always the right thing to think or do. It was just incredibly brief! A majority of the story takes place in a 60-second time span, so I feel like I didn’t have time to know the characters or connect with them on any level. This is especially true of the people Will meets in the elevator. For a majority of the book, I wasn’t sure if these people were actually dead or if they were just believed to be dead, and they were introduced so quickly after one another, which left me distracted and confused.
I did listen to the audiobook while I read this graphic novel, and I enjoyed Jason Reynold’s commentary at the very end. It was the best part!
I’ll start off by saying that I’ve read other books by Jason Reynolds, and I loved them, and I do think Long Way Down is an important book, so I don’t regret reading it, and it’ll definitely go in my classroom library, but it didn’t really do anything special for me.
This book tackles important topics like cycles of violence, and it reminds readers that what you’re told to think or do isn’t always the right thing to think or do. It was just incredibly brief! A majority of the story takes place in a 60-second time span, so I feel like I didn’t have time to know the characters or connect with them on any level. This is especially true of the people Will meets in the elevator. For a majority of the book, I wasn’t sure if these people were actually dead or if they were just believed to be dead, and they were introduced so quickly after one another, which left me distracted and confused.
I did listen to the audiobook while I read this graphic novel, and I enjoyed Jason Reynold’s commentary at the very end. It was the best part!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death and Gun violence
Minor: Child death and Death of parent