Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of A Long Way Down

A Long Way Down
A Long Way Down
Author: Nick Hornby
Genre: Literature & Fiction
Book Type: Paperback
reviewed on + 3 more book reviews


My overall impression of the book is: "meh." It'd be a good read for a holiday on the beach because it's light and airy and attempts to be funny (and is, at quite a few parts, but mostly I could tell that he was just trying too hard, you know?). The premise is really interesting: four strangers each go to commit suicide atop the same building, and each is fully confident of his/her convictions behind such an act, but upon running into each other, they begin to doubt the validity of the others motives. So, they're each saying "I deserve to die," but that "you don't, because you're too young/a parent/haven't thought things through/too crazy/etc to die yourself." Essentially, they save each other. But one of the characters (Jess), really the main one who drives the story line along, is awful and rude and completely impossible to relate to, so that made the the ability to really "get sucked into" the book difficult. I had high expectations and I thought this book was just "okay".