Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

68 reviews

te_ss_i's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Cultural appropriation, and Classism

bt_wannabe's review

emotional fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

Beautiful, lyrical, and poignant. A minute that will stay with you forever.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Gun violence

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Child death

susaned's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

Powerful novel in verse about gun violence. Will, a teen set on revenge after his brother's shooting death, gets on the elevator with a gun and has a ride down full of ghosts and smoke. You coming? Ends the book. So much death and tragedy in Will's life already.  Will he join the ghosts? Simply an amazing book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Violence, Grief, and Murder

sydneyo_0's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Poetry normally isn’t my favourite thing to read but I believe that using poetry really helped set the emotional tone and the pace for this book. It’s an emotional book and it can be hard to get through but I think that this is a book that everyone should read at least once in their life.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, and Grief

louiepotterbook's review

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Violence, Grief, and Murder

mamaofperfectpayton's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gun violence, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

hazeleyeddreamer's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gun violence, Racism, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Classism

librarybookfamily's review against another edition

dark reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.75

Breaking the cycle of gun violence is hard when everyone follows the rules of the street. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death

Minor: Child death, Drug use, Gun violence, Grief, and Death of parent

creolelitbelle's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Reread: Reading this book again causes me to think even more critically about the nuances within the writing and formatting. I love the narrative being bookended with the image of elevator doors and how text drops down on the page depending on mood and deep thought. Everyone who visits Will has a different story to tell but all connect back to the tough decision he has to make by the time he reaches the end of his long way down. A Christmas Carol with its ghostly visitations and advice must have been an inspiration for this book. Ghosts of Rules victims past, maybe. 

Long Way Down made me think about what communities in areas thick with violence deal with regularly like Baton Rouge. People have to make choices how to live with and handle the violence around them, and older family and friends teach them how to do that. Will's journey down the elevator is a great example of thinking through our actions before we react. We would do well to listen to advice of those who came before us, but sometimes they're gone before we can hear their thoughts. This novel in verse can be read quickly but takes some pondering and flipping of pages back and forth to fully let the implications of characters' choices sink in. 

Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it. Charles R. Swindoll

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Grief, and Murder

booknerdz28's review against another edition

emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I read this in a couple of hours and it is honestly so good!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing

Minor: Alcohol