You are trapped in your own destructive sadness, which is what makes the elevator setting of this story so appropriate. The excruciating sensations of loss and anger and responsibility overwhelms all other thoughts. It reveals what Reynolds calls the “feeling of anger when you’re so upset and don’t know where to put the pain.” Grief replaces rationality with uncontrolled rage and creates a tidal wave of emotion that demands to be felt. Long Way Down inspires empathy by forcing readers to experience the protagonist’s anguish. We may not live by Will’s rules, but we can empathize with a grieving brother, and our blood still runs cold at the thought of our own mother experiencing the loss of a child: Sneakers, ice cream trucks, swimming pools…” He adds: “Even though this book is an obvious warning against gun violence, it is also meant to humanize young people in the midst of all of this” - an important message because it has become too easy to look away from tragedy when it isn’t happening in our own families.īut of course we understand the pain of loss very well, as it is one of those uniquely human things that unites us regardless of circumstances. “That actually have nothing to do with my books. “I talk to them about things that matter to them,” he said. Shortly after the novel was published, I asked the author how he spoke to young people about the subject matter of his work, especially those whose stories were not unlike Will’s. Codes of conduct that come from police brutality and poverty that make necessary certain rules, because they are put in place for safety.” Safety from the people who are supposed to protect us, safety that is actually an illusion because no one is ever really safe, which is the greatest tragedy of this story. “Every community has rules,” says Reynolds.
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