Long Way Down - Hardcover

Spare, laser-focused verse from award-winning US author Jason Reynolds is interspersed with Chris Priestley's tenebrous illustrations in the intensely powerful Long Way Down. (Guardian)

Jason Reynolds is a literary genius who gives voice to a generation. Long Way Down is powerful, beautiful, and will stay with you long after Will's journey ends. A masterpiece from beginning to end. (Angie Thomas, #1 New York Times Bestselling author of The Hate U Give)

A beautiful, rare thing (TES)

Magnificent. (The i)

'Told in verse, this title is fabulistic in its simplicity . . . It will pair well with Angie Thomas's The Hate U Give . . . This powerful work is an important addition to any collection.' (School Library Journal)

A raw, honest, almost visceral and painful exploration of the gun and gang culture and their impact on lives. If you only read one book this year - make it this one! (CILIP SLG)

Told in free-verse poems, this is a raw, powerful, and emotional depiction of urban violence. This astonishing book will generate much needed discussion. (Kirkus (starred review))

Spanning a mere one minute and seven seconds, Reynolds' new free-verse novel is an intense snapshot of the chain reaction caused by pulling a trigger. Reynolds' concise verses echo like shots against the white space of the page, their impact resounding. He peels back the individual stories that led to this moment in the elevator and exposes a culture inured to violence because poverty, gang life, or injustice has left them with no other option. In this all too real portrait of survival, Reynolds goes toe-to-toe with where, or even if, love and choice are allowed to exist. (Booklist (starred review))

Will's voice emerges through free-verse poems that are arresting in their imagery and convincing in their conversational cadence. Gripping and lightning fast, this will be a strong recommendation for discussion, particularly within groups of varied reading interests and abilities. (The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books)

Written entirely in spare verse, this is a tour de force from a writer who continues to demonstrate his skill as an exceptionally perceptive chronicler of what it means to be a black teen in America. (Publishers Weekly (starred review))

Jason Reynolds is a critically acclaimed American writer and poet and winner of the Kirkus Prize for Young Readers. From Jason: "Here's what I know: I know there are a lot - A LOT - of young people who hate reading. I know that many of these book haters are boys. I know that many of these book-hating boys, don't actually hate books, they hate boredom. So here's what I plan to do: NOT WRITE BORING BOOKS. " This is the first of his books to be published in the UK. jasonwritesbooks.com @jasonreynolds83 Chris Priestley lives, writes, draws and paints in Cambridge. He has lived in England, Wales and Gibraltar. He left home in 1976 to go to art college in Manchester. He was there for four years before heading off to London to seek his fortune as an illustrator. He worked mainly for newspapers and magazines as an editorial illustrator, caricaturist and political cartoonist. He has always written stories, but he was an illustrator for twenty years before his first book was published. He has had at least one book published every year since and continues to illustrate as well.