Long Way Down, by Jason Reynolds.

Alright so boom. 

I’m doing my morning stretches around 6:30am. I’m eye-level with a vertical pile of books on the floor. I notice this one. I remember that it’s written in stanzas, like poetry. I also remember seeing it in the bookstore this past Tuesday and realizing, for the first time, that it’s a young adult book after having ordered it offline months ago and not noticing this detail at the time of purchase.

I’m in the frog stretch, considering donating it to my local library because clearly I have no use for it, and then I’m like eff it: I have no plans tonight because we’re still in the middle of a parachute. I’m gonna devote my evening to it and knock it out in a day. 

When I tell you this book sat me all the way BYKE! It is... so incredible. The poetry, the construction, the line breaks, the plot, the characters — absolutely everything about it is breathtaking. I’m in its pages, and I can only think about how many children in my grandmother’s neighborhood need this book, and how many futures could’ve been redirected if this had been required reading as opposed to some shit like Moby Dick. Cultural relevance matters in literature, and this book is the perfect example of that. It is the perfect success of that, too. 

It tugged at my heart. I love it immensely.

Purchase here, and please consider purchasing a few more copies for your local “inner city” library. (You know what I mean by “inner city.”)