Jake Livingston feels like an outsider because he’s one of the only Black kids at St. Clair Prep and he’s not as popular as his older brother. Jake can also see dead people. He sees the way people died on a loop in the place where they died. Teens start dying in mysterious ways, and they were all connected to a school shooting in a different high school. Jake meets Sawyer, the ghost of the school shooter who is taking revenge on the survivors of the shooting. Jake has to figure out a way to stop Sawyer before he takes over Jake’s life next.

At first glance, this was a horror story with gruesome deaths. However, Jake’s story had a lot of layers. Jake felt like an outsider at school because of his race and his ability to see ghosts. At home he also felt like an outsider because he didn’t think his family would accept that he was gay. After a while, I realized that Jake and Sawyer had a lot in common. They had both been abused by their family, and were headed on a similar path. It was up to Jake to decide if he had the same ending as Sawyer or not.

There were quite a few disturbing scenes in this book. Jake witnessed many deaths on a loop. There was a school shooting as well as a suicide. There was also an attempted rape and child abuse. These are potentially triggering scenes but they were brief.

The Taking of Jake Livingston is a creepy horror story!

Thank you Penguin Teen for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I’m beginning to realize that I like the darker side of YA in my books. I don’t know exactly what that says about me (😱😱) but I think that’s why I ended up loving The Taking of Jake Livingston. It wasn’t a cookie cutter book that most of YA is becoming now a days, at least in my personal opinion anyway. This had depth and emotion and a main character with grit. ⁣⁣
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Jake is an outcast, and the only other black student (besides his older, more infinitely popular brother Benji) at an all white Prep school. Jake has a secret that makes him withdrawn from the rest of the world. He can see the dead. Most of the time they’re harmless but definitely distracting. That is until Sawyer starts haunting his house and his life. Sawyer a troubled kid while alive is now a powerful spirit hellbent on vengeance. And he plans on using Jake to get what he wants and finish what he started before he took his own life.⁣⁣
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This was a really powerful book. Definitely thought provoking. You have two different characters from two different backgrounds going through some similar situations. Each going through a crises of sorts. ⁣⁣
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Jake is a black teen attending an all white school where some of the white students are not keeping their racist tendencies quite a secret. And the school who’s supposed to protect it’s students is not stepping in to help. ⁣⁣
On top of that he has to deal with seeing dead people everyday pretty much all day. Which makes it hard keeping dead world and the real world separate sometimes. ⁣⁣
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Then there’s Sawyer, who even though he is white he had his own reasons for being an outcast. A lot of it not being his fault. He was dealt a crappy life with a crappy family. His poor excuse for a dad is gone, his mom neglectful and his sister always trying to rile him up or get him in trouble. Sawyer was definitely not a good guy but if someone had intervened and really tried to help him he might have turned out differently.⁣⁣
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I felt very emotional while reading both Jake and Sawyer’s stories. It pulled at my heart strings, blew up my brain a couple of times and had me reaching for a trash can, ready to expel my lunch on more than one occasion. This was not a feel good book a lot of the time. It felt real and raw which I can respect. ⁣⁣
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Among the dark moments there were sprinkles of romance, friendship, and some not so sinister ghost sightings. Which saved my psyche from going full on black for the duration of the book. ⁣⁣
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If you like your YA a little dark and enjoy horror and/or the paranormal I highly suggest this attention grabbing book.⁣⁣
𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐏𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐮𝐢𝐧 𝐓𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐠𝐢𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐞𝐀𝐑𝐂 𝐢𝐧 𝐞𝐱𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐲 𝐡𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰.

DNF @ ~45%

Typically I wouldn’t review a book that I didn’t finish but my reasons aren’t really the fault of the book itself. The subject matter was too heavy for me, especially considering the ages of the characters. As it shifted between POVs it gradually became more difficult to read to the point where I just couldn’t stomach continuing. It’s because it’s YA that the dual perspectives between Jake and the school shooter were so tough to get through. It also felt that the school shooter’s parts seemed to justify his actions (whether it’s a justification or just an explanation of cause and effect is really up to interpretation).

I did find that the writing was interesting and both characters are going through incredibly tough times. I recommend checking the trigger warnings because I’m sure there are a lot and remember that nearly ever warning for the book pertains to teenage characters. I didn’t find the ghost aspect of the story particularly scary or creepy but the story itself is very grim and often heartbreaking.

Book review

This was an unexpected read! Something that threw me for a loop was this cover. I wasn’t expecting this to be such a heavy and dark book given this animated cover.
Jake is one of the only Black students at his prep school. AND he’s gay. AND oh yeah, he’s a medium and can see ghosts. So he definitely feels on the outside of the world he lives in. And now he is being haunted by the ghost of Sawyer Doon, the troubled teenager who shot and killed 6 kids at his public high school before taking his own life. Jake finds himself fighting for survival as he tries to figure out why Sawyer is haunting him and to keep him from killing again.

Things I liked:
This is a fast paced and short book, so I blazed through it. It felt paced out well and I was definitely wanting to find out what happens in the end. I loved the queer and black representation and seeing what Jake faces everyday at his school.
I liked the dual POV between Sawyer’s diary and Jake’s current timeline.

Things I disliked:
The writing style of this book was very hard for me to get into. The descriptions of the after life were neat but I couldn’t follow the plot very well. And the plot in general was just something hard for me to get into. I just felt like I jumped into the middle of a story and couldn’t ever catch up. In summary, I felt like the idea was good but it didn’t end up hitting the nail for me.

Takeaway: if you’re looking for an interesting read for this spooky season with a supernatural element, this could be a really cool book for you to check out! But be prepared for some heaviness including racism, homophobia, school shooting, sexual assault, and abuse.

3.5/5

There was a lot of buzz about this book and I actually ended up reading it because it was the choice for two of my book clubs. This is a strange book for me to rate. The topics were extremely heavy, with school shootings, abuse, etc. but the actual character development and the story progression just felt very young and juvenile. The paranormal elements felt a little out of place and I feel like this book could have been so much better if it really dug into the horror aspects and went a scarier route, especially with the topics included.

I really wanted to like this book since the premise sounded amazing and it's one of my favorite genres. The changing perspectives made the book so confusing causing me to DNF the book.

this book..this book was good. Jake is such an interesting character to read from as was Sawyer. Jake is a black, gay boy and I know so many people out there will really relate to him. It’s nice having a character you can see yourself in in the media. The book discusses so many important topics such as micro aggressions and the hardships queer and poc go through.
this book has everything people need and more.

The Taking of Jake Livingston was a very interesting and quick read. I love paranormal books and this was right up my alley.

The book follows the titular Jake, who just so happens to be a teenage medium. Navigating life as one of the few Black students at his high school is tough enough, but add being gay and seeing ghosts everywhere definitely makes things more difficult. Jake didn’t ask for his gift and he doesn’t fully understand it.

Soon he becomes the target of a murderous ghost determined to take over Jake’s body. Of course at the same time Jake finally meets a boy he might like. Jake has to figure out how to stop the ghost and find a way to have a personal life.

Overall I liked this book. Some things felt rushed, especially the final showdown with the main ghost. This is a shorter book, so I would have liked more explanations. I’d loved to have see more about Jake learning about his powers. Plus a more solid understanding of why the ghost does what he does.

Actual rating: 3/5 stars

I'm not a big fan of paranormal horror specifically with spirits or hauntings but occasionally it can work for me. This one half worked and half didn't. I did enjoy how the main character, Jake could see spirits and it was basically like a power. I didn't enjoy how the main ghost was portrayed because it felt more like satire than something to be taken seriously.

I would argue that the ghost is supposed to be taken seriously because they were actually a school shooter who committed suicide which in itself is a dark topic. I feel like even though this was YA, it could have dealt with the topics in a more mature way than it did. The topics were mostly dealt with fine, it was more just Jake's interactions with the ghost that felt like Casper the ghost and not a murderous spirit.

I did really enjoy the race commentary and how it feels to grow up in a majority-white neighborhood and school. As someone who had a similar experience growing up, it felt really accurate and resonated with me. I also really liked seeing Jake explore his sexual identity and what that means for him. It felt really realistic and you can tell this book is own voices in both aspects.

This was really similar to me in feelings as Cemetary Boys. I enjoyed the story but it felt like younger YA/a bit juvenile for me personally. I do really love some YA stories but this one just felt too young and I didn't connect with it as much because of that. I think this might be a really good book for 13-15 year olds but once you get to the 16+ range I feel like it might be a little too young for them.

Thank you to Penguin Young Readers Group, Ryan Douglass, and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Definitely an intense and creepy book. I'm glad there's so many BIPOC books coming out, especially in the horror thriller genre.

Such a fantastic story. I love the representation of Black Queer Teens it is much needed and a delight.

When I was in second grade I found a copy of The Sixth Sense by David Levithan. I had heard about how scary the movie was from family members and it was the first book I remember giving me nightmares. Ryan Douglass’ debut novel made me so nostalgic for that early reading experience that I couldn’t help but love it!

The story follows Jake, a black kid living in Georgia and attending a mostly white prep school. Jake is your pretty typical teenage boy, except for one thing. He sees dead people. Everywhere. Most of the time it’s just a mild inconvenience. He sees replays of car accidents on his way too and from school. People throwing themselves from windows or off of freeway overpasses. But every once in a while, he comes into contact with a spirit just angry enough to shake him.

in the case of our story, that ghost is school shooter Sawyer, and he is angry.

There was a lot to love about this book. Douglass write deliciously creepy scenes that make you pause and wonder if the noise you just heard is your cat up to their normal antics, or something more sinister. Much of what Jake describes seeing in these death loops could be considered quite terrifying to those uninitiated into the horror genre

But what really blew me away about Douglass’ debut was the difficult subject it explored through Jake and Sawyer’s lived experiences. Themes of mental health, racism, domestic violence, LGBTQIA+ issues, school shootings, and bullying were all handled with care and sensitivity while also adding to the story, giving it an emotional depth that horror sometimes lacks

While much of the novel was spent in Jake’s head and what he was dealing with, I also appreciated the small cast of characters that filled out the novel, especially his friend and love interest. The romance was sweet and not too overwhelming.

Overall, I gave The Taking of Jake Livingston 4.5🌟 and would recommend to anyone looking for a solid ghost story, a YA novel that tackles difficult social issues in a sensitive way, or pines for the days of Goosebumps and Christopher Pike.

I struggled a bit with this one. I love the hook, the main character, and the representation is awesome. I didn't love the school shooter character or think that we needed to be in his head, and I think it's kind of dangerous to perpetuate the stereotype of violence being due to mental illness, of abused people going on to abuse others, and of all homophobes being secretly gay. I do think that some of my negative experience reading this book was due to the format of the e-arc, so I'm definitely going to also check out the final print version.

Thank you Penguin Teen for my copy!

I cannot wait to see where Ryan Douglass goes next with his writing. This didn't completely work for me but it shows the author's potential and I look forward to this future work!

Jake Livingston is a young man who’s dealing with low self-esteem and dabbling with the question of “How can I be seen?” This question is pretty ironic considering that he’s a medium and that means he can be in contact with the living and dead worlds.
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Along with dealing with his own nuisances, he learns of Sawyer Doon, a menace to himself due to personal experiences and him letting bitterness turn into evil. Sawyer decides the only way to seek revenge is to get back at those that tormented him while he was alive and somehow Jake ends up in the mix of things. Jake finds himself having to deal with earthly and ghoulish beings while learning to fully let go of hateful emotions and embrace himself.

I will say this is a heavy book from the beginning and some trigger warnings: sexual harassment & assault, family abuse, sexuality abuse, severe anxiety. I appreciated the story and I can attest that Jake is fully “living” by the end of the book.

This was an interesting (and very, very dark) YA horror novel. It's gritty and isn't afraid to take the reader to uncomfortable places. I also like how the author connected these themes with issues surrounding race and sexuality. I can't wait to see what Douglass writes next!

The plot was really interesting and it's a cool premise, but I had a hard time getting into this one.

While there were aspects of "The Taking of Jake Livingston" that I found extremely creative and entertaining, this novel was not my particular cup of tea. I wanted to love it for so many reasons, but unfortunately, there were too many moments where I wasn't sure quite what was happening or how the events played into the larger idea of the book.

Jake, a medium of sorts who can see ghosts and ghouls and spirits, is haunted by the spirit of a school shooter. While Jake tries to battle the spirit that haunts him, he is also navigating high school life as one of the only BIPOC students in his school.

It seemed as though the novel bit off more than it could chew - with the telling of an LGBTQIA+ love story, amidst the backdrop of being one of few Black students in a school, amidst a school shooting story, amidst a whole lot of paranormal activity.

This is an intense and creepy story. It's excellent and unsettling and I very much hope that there will be a sequel. I'm not sure that there can be a villain as intense as Sawyer Doon, but I would still love to spend more time with Jake.

All I needed to know about this book was that it was about Black Horror and I was sold. But ultimately when it came down to it, I wasn’t as scared as I wanted to be. More grossed out. But we’ll get into why. I just wish some things had been different.

Jake is one of the only Black kids at his school. He’s so much less cooler than his brother, which makes him an easy target to be bullied. Add on to that the fact that he can see the dead, and you can see why it’s always said that he’s weird. But one of the dead people he meets is Sawyer. He is a teen who did committed a school shooting and then turned it on himself. Now as a ghost he has vowed to get revenge from in his after life. And it involves taking Jake.

Ok so I went into this wanting something light and outside the box when I started reading this. I wanted something that that would be scary and completely different from my last read. But then when I read this, it was a lot heavier than I thought it would be. I thought it just be scary, but this turned out to be so much more. It took a look at the pain of being African American and LGBTQ and living with a parent who doesn’t accept you. It explored the pain of feeling like no one is there to protect you because the other parent is too scared to call the other out.

I guess what I’m saying is I thought it tried tackling so many topics that another aspect of the story got lost. It wasn’t scary at all. The ghosts were in so many scenes, but they weren’t doing creepy things. (If that even makes sense…) Like the story opens with ghost, but instead of being scared, I think I laughed and said wth out loud.

The was a surprise. Since it was Black Horror, I figured I needed to love it. But even though it didn’t quite hit the mark for me , there were some surprises. Like the ending. That’s when it seemed to actually have some really scary/serious shit started happening. I just hate that once you’re like ok, this is scary it ends.

Normally I don’t care for more than one POV, but this time I was ok with it. To be honest, I think this was the best way to handle this story. Especially the way things ended. It wasn’t something that could easily be explained from just one person. I was glad that the author decided to do more than one POV. Which brings me to the narrators. They were also wonderful. Michael Crouch is one of my all time favorites. I love reading whatever it is he has narrated because it always turns out amazing. And this one was no different. This was my first time listening to anything that Free narrated tho. He also did well which made this audio even better.

This book wasn’t what I was expecting and took things a lot deeper than I expected. It wasn’t as scary as I thought it should be, but I thought it turned out to be a great story. It had a surprising and shocking ending, all things I like. So its no surprise that I liked this one too.