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Content warning: Gore, school shooting, revenge porn, attempted rape, bullying, homophobia, abuse by parents

Jake Livingston is one of the only Black student at St. Claire’s Prep. The ghosts reliving their deaths and ghouls following him don’t make high school any easier. When a mass shooter from the town’s recent past decides to pick Jake as his next target, it’s a race against escalating violence as Jake comes into his powers as a medium to banish the spirit once and for all.

An atmospherically horrifying new voice in horror that had me reading this book through splayed fingers from start to finish, while clinging onto the hope for a happy-for-now ending for Jake.

The representation of life at a prep school in this novel is superb. The kids can be colossal jerks and the teachers don’t seem to care, except when the bullying reaches a breaking point. This aspect is scary enough as is. Add in the hauntings and poor Jake can’t seem to get a break. The fact that there are other ghosts and ghouls which could ruin his day in addition to Sawyer, a school shooter back from the dead as a ghost with very real abilities in the physical world, and you have scares you can’t look away from.

Jake is my new favorite horror protagonist. He’s smart as far as his understanding of the ghost world goes, but he doesn’t hesitate to reach out for help. Fiona and Allister are such great side characters and clearly have their own inner lives beyond just Jake and his troubles. The blooming romance between Jake and Allister is equal parts cute and bittersweet as Jake is all too aware of how his school treats the marginalized and other reminds that society around him are not kind to people like them. It’s introspective and effective, especially given the context of the supernatural horror plot.

Without going too much into spoilers, one of the scariest things in this novel is the antagonism between Sawyer and Jake and their subtle parallels. They’re both gay, their families are a mess, and things generally aren’t easy for either of them. The fact that Douglass does not shy away from the idea that Sawyer did not need to shoot up his school to resolve his rage adds another layer to this already compelling ghost story.

I absolutely love this book! Ryan Douglass is a phenomenal storyteller. I cannot wait to see what other books he might pen.

This story grabbed me instantly and I could not put it down.

Advanced Reader’s Copy provided by NetGalley, PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group, and G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers in exchange for an honest review.

CW: racism, homophobia, bullying, physical abuse, school shooting, suicide, animal/insect cruelty, rape, violence, mental health struggles.

Jake Livingston is a sixteen-year-old teen trying to survive as one of the few Black kids in his high school. On top of that, he's gay - and worried about how his classmates (and Mom) will treat him if he comes out. To make matters worse, Jake's a medium. He can see dead people everywhere as their spirits replay their death scene over and over again. He sees them at home, at school, everywhere he goes. While it makes his life far more complicated than it needs to be, Jake tries to help spirits move on whenever he can. Until he runs in to the vengeful spirit of Sawyer Doon, who was a high school shooter before he took his own life. Sawyer's spirit has found a way to continue its killing spree, and it thinks Jake would make the perfect host body. Now Jake has to figure out how to send Sawyer's spirit on before he can kill again... and hopefully before Jake loses his own life.

I thought this was a really interesting premise, and I did enjoy the overall narrative. I wish Douglass had given readers more of the backstory as to how Jake has these skills. And while it's mentioned twice that Jake works with a medium to help him, that thread of the story could have been more prominent/provided readers with more information as well. With having entries from Sawyer's journal, readers get a better picture of who Sawyer is, what he's thinking and feeling, than they do of Jake. Some of the visual elements got a little confusing when Jake was astral projecting - honestly I think this book would make a great movie where so much of the action is better suited to being a visual element than words on a page.

This isn't a happy book, and at times it was hard to read given the physical and emotional violence. But I think it's an important dialogue to have - there's a lot of real world social commentary interwoven with the ghost story aspect of this book. I'd say this book is more disturbing than creepy/scary. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but it was a good read.

** Thank you to Penguin Teen and Netgalley for the advanced copy for my honest review**

Jake is a minority in an elite private school where everyone dresses in the same uniform and follows rules, but not only is he different from his skin color, he can actually see ghosts. Remnants of those left behind, and he can rewatch how they died over and over.. this tends to get him in trouble for zoning out. There’s something bigger out there haunting him and he can’t get the feeling of being watched off of him. Enter Sawyer Doon, a school shooter who is a vengeful ghost, and he wants Jake.

The book alternates between Jake and Sawyers journal and is creepy and atmospheric and touches a lot on mental health issues as well as race and sexuality. Sawyer deals with a lot of issues, that could have benefited from help, but clearly that doesn’t happen, so instead he seeks vengeance against his classmates. Family abuse is another major factor and bullying. It’s really sad to read but shocking how real it can happen.

For a YA horror, I really enjoyed the whole concept but I felt it was a tad short. The story could have delved a little deeper, but all in all, I’m all for black horror. In fact, there needs to be more. As sad as some of the subjects were, I felt in a rounded way it came together and made a great story! I can’t wait to read more by Ryan Douglass.

No matter how much Jake wants to fade into the background, he can’t. 1) He’s one of the only Black students at his school and 2) he can see ghosts. When he accidentally crosses paths with a vengeful ghost hellbent on hurting more people than he did when he was alive, Jake suddenly becomes the center of attention he never wanted to be.

The Taking of Jake Livingston has a lot of my favorite tropes in it. The chapters from Sawyer’s perspective were creepy AF, but also did a really good job of showing how he and Jake faced similar hardships (relentless bullying, homophobic fathers, etc.) but chose very different paths. They also did a good job of showing us how he was getting in Jake’s mind and corrupting him.

The story is dark and violent but also had a super sweet love story that I wasn’t expecting and some great supporting characters.

I would love to see a sequel to this that shows how Jake’s life changed after the decisions he made and the things he had to do during this story.

Thanks to BookishFirst and Putnam Books for this ARC!

Release date: July 13, 2021

TW // there are some graphic details about a school shooting

I wanted to love this SO BAD, but unfortunately it was a miss. There was just too much missing from the story for it to make any sense!

We’re pretty much thrown into Jake’s life and his limbo between the Alive world and Dead world, which would have been fine if, at any point, more backstory was given. But there wasn’t. The author just keeps layering more and more on, without explanation. There are ghosts, and then also ghouls—but wtf is the difference between them? Ghouls seem… worse? Idk. Auras, ectomist, astral projection… I know OF these things (mostly), but the author really does not explain them at all. And just when I was coming to terms with something, all of a sudden there were new things Jake could do or see. An ancestral sword? WHERE DID IT COME FROM? WHY??

Jake also has this random medium mentor, but we get no backstory on that either. How did he find her? I assume he needed someone to relate to, since his family acts like he’s crazy and no one really… talks about it? Is Jake the lone medium in his family? I get that he mentions trying to ignore his abilities himself, but I would have loved to hear more about his childhood and the progression of his abilities/why he feels the way he does.

We did get some background when it came to Jake’s father, who seems like the toxic root to a lot of Jake’s self-esteem issues, and why his relationship with his mom is strained. He’s also attending a school where he and his brother are the only Black kids, and he’s constantly facing microaggressions and racist shit from students and teachers. Jake seems to have anxiety, making it even harder for him to form relationships with people. Anxiety + ghosts = tough mix. It’s like we get this tiny look into Jake and his life, and we just need… more.

On top of everything, I really don’t know how to talk about the fact that the ghost terrorizing Jake was a school shooter, and we get passages from his diary and learn about his life. We learn things that make him somewhat sympathetic? But also not really? I feel like the author wanted to make sure we knew the guy was a sociopath and deserved to go to hell, but it kinda veered into nature vs nurture territory and like… what am I supposed to do with that?

Content warnings: school shootings, gun violence, suicide, abuse, sexual assault, racism, homophobia, homophobic slurs

*3.5 stars*

Okay I want to start off this review by saying that you should take all my thoughts with a grain of salt because this is definitely not a genre I typically pick up.

Some things that I really enjoyed in the book and thought were well done: The double perspectives. We mainly follow Jake Livingston who has the ability to see ghosts, as he realizes that the ghost of a school shooter, Sawyer Doon, is starting to come after him. You get the perspective of Jake who is being haunted by Sawyer and living in the aftermath of the school shooting, but you also get Sawyer's journal entries in the time leading up to the shooting. I found it so interesting to see the combination of the circumstances Sawyer is placed in, his experiences, and already fragile mental health come together to cause the shooting. It was really well done and just overall handled very well. I also thought the relationships between different characters were great. I found the relationship between Jake and his brother to be realistic, at least for my own experiences. The fears that Jake has about relationships were also so valid and relatable which I loved.

Overall I found the story to be enjoyable and thought that it was paced really well. There weren't any moments that really felt like they dragged or times that I lost interest. Obviously this book deals with some very dark topics but I didn't feel that the book left me emotionally drained like other darker books will. There were enough happy and uplifting scenes to balance out the darker elements of the story.

The biggest thing that hindered my enjoyment was confusion. There is a lot of astral projection and general ghost and haunting things that left me very confused. However if you really enjoy reading about those things then you will probably love this book. However that is just not really my thing and and I struggled to understand what was going on in those scenes. Even though I was confused, and this is not my typical genre, I still was able to enjoy the story. If you are like me and don't typically read this genre, I would still encourage you to give this book a chance!

This turned out to be a lot darker than I anticipated. I was very interested in the MC's ability to see ghosts and although some parts of it were explained, I needed more understanding of his ability and how he'd been living with this ability. Aside from that, the book deals a lot with very dark themes that might be challenging for some to read. It deals with the reality of teens who are learning about themselves in an environment that is unsupportive and violent. I enjoyed following Jake as he tries to survive and save himself and the people around him from Sawyer. I enjoyed the friendships that Jake makes and the changes that he experiences with himself and the relationships he has with the people around him. I wish there would a sequel that will explore Jake's abilities more and the ghosts and rules that he'd come to learn.

I really enjoyed this book! I thought that the themes presented were so incredibly important for our youth today and it was explained in a very thoughtful way. The characters were very engaging and developed at a pace that made sense. The only parts that were a little confusing to me were the scenes when it was heavy with the ectomist, and when Jake was battling with Sawyer. It was just hard to picture the descriptions in my head and seemed a little rushed, but other than that I really enjoyed this book and the journeys of the characters.

What a ride! This was spooky and so, so queer. My heart was pounding in some places, breaking in others, and swooning at the end. I loved it!

when i found out i received this arc i went bananas. black queer author, black queer main character, and ghosts? literally sign me up. i loved the parallel lives aspect of jake and sawyer and their own experiences leading up to everything that went down. jake was a very relatable and appealing main character as well, i was happy reading from his perspective. sometimes i did feel things got lost in translation (partially because i struggled with the descriptors and the scenes involving the ecto-mist and floating ghosts) but it was overall a great read. i adored jake and allister as well and wish i got more from them and their growing relationship, some stuff seemed to be “left unsaid”. a debut novel done so well and i can’t wait to read more from this author!

DNF

The pacing in this book was unbearable to me. Big events happened nearly every other page with no build up or timing in between. And so many elements were just thrown in with no backstory. Like boom! He suddenly has a medium mentor who we never meet and is never brought up again? Stuff like this happens so often and left me lost and confused

Also, I was so confused by the entire plot. The reason for why Jake can see ghosts was never given. And the world building in terms of the supernatural elements was never given. Suddenly words would be thrown out to describe the ghosts but no description of what they meant or how they worked. Like Ecto mist? What is that???

Finally, I think the handling of the school shooter needed to be handled better. The entire POV of the shooter seemed to be made to make the reader sympathize with him. Ive never been a victim of a shooting so cant speak personally, but it felt insensitive.

I love this cover and the idea, so im pretty disappointed in the actual book

This fell under expectations which is really disappointing. I expected Get Out horror vibes (as marketed) but didn’t really get any of it. I’m conflicted on how I feel about this book. Although we get Black queer representation, the romance felt rushed and underdeveloped, along with the rest of the story. Jake’s ability as a medium isn’t explained. Backstory on that would have been beneficial to the story as we progress through his development as one.

Actual rating: 3.5 stars rounded up

I want to say up front that 1. I somehow didn't realize this was a posession story, which I now realize should have been kind of obvious. Regardless, I usually stay away from horror involving possession as it's not my favorite thing to read. 2. This book frequently has a dream like quality that I also don't prefer. So what I'm saying is, this was 3.5 stars for me largely because of personal reading preferences, not because I don't recommend the book to people who would be into it. Okay, that said let's get into the review!

Jake is a Black, closeted gay high school student. Oh and he can see ghosts. In fact, he's being haunted by the vengeful ghost of Sawyer Doon, a school shooter who then shot himself. The story flips between Jake's perspective and the diary entries of Sawyer who clearly needed better mental health support but instead lived in neglectful and abusive circumstances. His story is both terrifying and tragic.

This book is definitely horror and there are super creepy scenes involving ghosts, insects, and murder. It's also quite dark and intense, maybe more so than I was expecting. It deals with with difficult subjects including homophobia, abuse, attempted sexual assault of a minor, racial microagressions, bullying etc. And there are no easy answers. Because sometimes the people who should be protecting you are themselves the victims of abuse.

That said, despite how dark this gets there are bright spots, like a slow burn romance side plot that (appropriately) never takes over the story. We also get a cool scene where Jake is supported and protected by the ghosts of his ancestors. This book isn't very long, and it doesn't try to deeply address the many issues is touches on. At its heart this is a ghost story and it does what it's setting out to do. But even just the representation here is important. Talking about intersectional identities and how being gay might be hard at times, but being gay and Black comes with an additional set of challenges.

I recommend reading this review which does a great job unpacking what the author got right here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I received an advance copy of this book for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Unfortunately I was not a fan of this book. Originally interested because of the horror aspect and the main character was a Black Queer kid but the ghost plot line made no sense to the story and it just didn’t flow well for me. I do love the representation for Black Queer boys.

I enjoyed this book a lot more than I expected. At first, I was a little timid because I had never read a thriller that had paranormal elements, but I ended up liking the premise. However, my favorite parts of the book were when we got to see Jake and Allister and their blossoming romance. I love ghost stories, but I LOVE to see a gay love story even more. This book takes the premise of a medium vs. a ghost but uses it as a platform to explore issues regarding race, sexuality, religion, mental health, and sexual assault. I will admit that the scenes where there are altercations between humans and ghosts, it was hard for me to picture. However, the ending was probably my favorite ten pages in any YA book I have read. This gay romance was not the center of the book, but it was written so well, and as someone who came out as gay at seventeen years old, it was extremely relatable. I cannot wait to see how this book does, and I will definitely be recommending it!

The Taking of Jake Livingston is described as a social thriller similar to Get Out. The main character, Jake, is a queer black teen who goes to an all-white school and can see ghosts. While Jake is a medium, ghosts are a minimal part of the story. Jake essentially ignores all the ghosts up until he starts getting stalked by the ghost of a school shooter.

The author never explains Jake's backstory, how he is medium, or what it means to be a medium. At one point in the story, the reader meets Jake's mentor out of nowhere, and then the mentor promptly disappears. The story would have been more interesting if Jake had not known he was a medium and didn't understand why all of these strange occurrences were happening. The author did not fully flesh out the medium aspect of the story.

The author made the decision to have chapters from Swayer's POV. That is a decision that I did not like. His backstory was sad, and I think it could lead to people feeling sympathetic towards him. Swayer's backstory was more elaborated on than Jake's.

This book has also been described to have a lot of social commentaries. The author writes about mental health, homophobia, racism, and mental and physical abuse, but like other aspects of the book, they weren't developed enough. There was a moment where Jake was physically violent in response to the racism he is experiencing, and it was random. There were some repercussions, but they just disappeared by the end.

This book was short, less than 300 pages. The author had plenty of time to expand on details and develop different aspects of the story that were just glossed over. Overall, the book was okay. It could have been a lot better. Since it is so short, it can be a quick read if you want to give it a try.

Thank you so much Penguin Teen and NetGalley for the chance to read this in exchange for a honest review! I really enjoyed this book Jake is a 17 year old medium who’s mom isn’t really there for him and a brother who ignores him. Jake is haunted by a Ghoul who had been the shooter of a school shooting named Sawyer. The book goes back and forth between Jake in present day and of the months leading up to wholly Sawyer did what he did. They is LGBTQ representative in this book one being our main character Jake. This was such an incredible book I would read it over again multiple times! TW: School Shootings, Mental and Physical Abuse, Almost R*pe.

Thank you to Penguin Teen for sending me an e-ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.

TWs: suicide, mention of domestic abuse, bullying, racism, school shooting, homophobia, attempted sexual assault (minor), mental illness, child neglect, scenes with graphic death and violence

4/5

The Taking of Jake Livingston is a young adult paranormal horror novel and it was everything I hoped it would be. If you're looking for a fast paced, spooky, and gay (!!!!) book then this is definitely for you.

Jake Livingston is a Black teen boy, struggling with his sexuality, who has often struggled with finding his place in his predominately white school. Jake has been able to see ghosts for as long as he can remember, most of them harmless (albeit spooky). However, that changes once he meets Sawyer, the vengeful ghost of a school shooter who committed suicide a year ago.

Jake's life begins to spiral as he tries to deal with this new ghost who makes him question everything he knew about the afterlife, while also trying to deal with the racism that he faces more and more at school (that nobody in the school seems to care about).

I really enjoyed this book. Ryan Douglass's writing is beautiful - there was such descriptive imagery that added so much to the story. I was able to visualize the setting, characters, and events so well (which doesn't always happen for me in horror novels) thanks to the author's writing and descriptions. The way that the author describes Jake's paranormal experiences, and ghosts overall, is very unique. I loved the concept of the eco-mist

Douglass was able to fit such a grand story into a shorter book and I was impressed with how well this was done. For the most part, the story flowed at just the right pace. The only issue I had with pacing was near the end, where I felt like some aspects were a bit rushed.

I also wish that we were given some more background on Jake's gift. While we get to learn a little bit about how Jake started to lean more into being a medium in his teens, I would have liked to see some flashback scenes where we see Jake realize that he is different from other kids and can see or experience things that they can't.

I also thought the romance in this book was wonderful. The romance is not a main plot point, but is well developed. I appreciate that Jake's struggle with his sexuality was not thrown out the window as soon as a romantic interest was introduced. Jake he still had to grapple with this part of his identity and learn how a romantic relationship could fit in with other aspects of his identity, which is much more realistic. Jake and Allister are also so sweet together, so there's that.

Overall, this was a great, quick read. It does cover some heavy topics and social issues, however, so definitely check trigger warnings before reading. If you are a fan or horror or paranormal books, you will love this. I could also see this as being a great introduction to the horror genre overall!

There are a lot of genuine creepy parts of here, so if you're looking for quality spooks in your horror, you will not be disappointed. However there were some issues with pacing and clunky writing that didn't always work for me, especially when it came to descriptions of the other realm and Jake's powers. I feel like Douglass could've added another cumulative 20-50 pages for more magic-building as it were, which might've cleared some things up. All in all, I did enjoy it and am looking forward to what the author comes out with next.