The book received generally positive reviews from critics. On Metacritic, the book received an 84 out of 100 based on 11 critic reviews.[3]
The book continued to receive acclaim among many critics lists after and during its time of release. A Long Way Gone was nominated for a Quill Award in the Best Debut Author category for 2007. Time magazine's Lev Grossman named it one of the top 10 nonfiction books of 2007, ranking it at number three, and praising it as "painfully sharp", and its ability to take "readers behind the dead eyes of the child-soldier in a way no other writer has."[4] A Long Way Gone was listed as one of the top ten books for young adults by the American Library Association in 2008.[5]
