The Taking of Jake Livingston was well written YA paranormal with horror elements that revolved around Jack’s ability to see ghosts and his fight against evil ghost. The story was about school shooting trauma, abusive childhood, bullying, homophobia, colour and sex discrimination, parental negligence, sadisms, revenge, sociopathy, depression, friendship, coming out of shell and, fight against wrong and evil.

Writing was engaging, vivid, emotive, and atmospheric. It was written in first person narrative from Jake’s perspective and intermittent Swayer’s perspective in diary format. Plot was intriguing.

It started with Jake struggling at St. Clair Prep for being only closeted black kid, picked and bullied by teachers and students. Him being introvert and not able to talk with anyone, and able to see ghosts in their death loop made his situation even worse. But when kid in neighbourhood turned up dead mysteriously and his house being vandalised with no fingerprints or break in, he was sure it was done by ghost of Swayer, a shooter of Heritage High School, who has escaped his death loop and making his life even more difficult.

It was interesting to read what Swayer wanted and why he was after Jake, how he escaped his death loop and why he murdered people at his school and was still killing after death.

Characters were realistic and flawed. Jake was amazing throughout the book. He was silent kid, didn’t talk to anybody, wasn’t doing good in studies, hated school and his tormentors but never said a word about it to anyone. Ability of seeing ghosts made him absent minded and lost and no kid wanted to be friends with him. Those who tried to talk with him, he kept pushing them away as he cannot tell anyone about his ability and risk being labelled crazy on top of everything. He was vulnerable, lacked confidence and it hurt my heart to see him easily losing hope, not able to figure out what Swayer wanted and how to fight him. His past was surprising and poignant. It helped in knowing what made him the way he was. I loved how he stood up once again and got strength to fight eventually. His development was great and I loved how he learned to speak his mind, took control of his life and understood his family better.

Swayer was complicated character. I had mixed feeling for him. At first, I felt sad for him for how his family treated him and how he was treated at school. I hated his family for ignoring his mental health and treatment and students at school for not standing up for him. Like Jake, I also felt there was no surprise the kid exploded at the end, he was pushed too far of his limits. But at the same time, I hated him for shooting innocent kids. Those kids who died didn’t do anything to him. He was sadistic and didn’t feel bad for what he did. On contrary he went to killing people, taking revenge against those who did him wrong. Another reason I didn’t like him for how he treated Jake.

Jake’s friends and family was great. I didn’t like his brother at first but he was fighting being a black kid in school on his own way, and I got to know him more as the story progressed and loved how he stood up for Jake whenever needed.

There were lots of heavy topic dealt. It made the story touching and thought provoking. Jake’s ability of seeing ghosts was interesting to read. Most of action sequence happened in astral projection. I struggled with those at first but then I got used to it eventually. Romance provided much needed relief in this heavy story.

Twist and turns were good. It was no mystery who was murdering people and what Swayer wanted but I couldn’t say how things will turn out eventually and how Jake would fight him. Climax was interesting with some character development. End was great and satisfying.

Why 4 stars-

I struggled a little getting into book. It was a bit confusing at some point and it took me time getting used to all out of body experience.

Overall, The Taking of Jake Livingston was well written, atmospheric, thought-provoking and emotive YA paranormal.

I recommend this if you like,
stories with horror/ paranormal element
heavy theme
great character development
LGBTQ story
complex plot
astral projection scenes

3.5 stars.
First things first, there wasn't much of a horror touch for me. I mean the story was good and I enjoyed it, but the end could have been better, it felt too rushed.

In terms of character, Jake's was well development and even Sawyer in terms of narration was well depicted., For me, there wasn't much to the story, although I enjoy LGBTQ+ rep books and especially horror is one of my favorite genres. It was one time read for me.

Thank you so much for the e-ARC. :)

A great book- but it was a bit tricky to understand!
While I loved the story of Jake and his pals, I kept getting stuck on the eco-mist parts of the book!
That alone is what dropped it to a 3.5 for me, but the ending really saves it!

This was, unfortunately, a DNF at 80% for me.

The writing was actually pretty spectacular and the story was compelling, with well-drawn characters and a really interesting storyline. But it was reaching much darker depths than I was expecting and I felt pretty unprepared for that.

It was violent to a degree I felt uncomfortable with, though, again, I think that is just because I wasn't expecting it.

I do feel there was a bit of a lack of world building at the beginning, I felt disoriented and confused because you're dropped into this world where Jake sees these ghosts and though HE is used to it, there isn't much time for you as a reader to become oriented to it.

Still, I found the writing really fantastic and I look forward to seeing what Ryan writes next. I'm going to rate 4 stars based on the writing itself. I do not feel comfortable rating a book I did not finish lower than that.

It's hard to articulate what I didn't like about this one. I don't think it was inherently bad in any way, I just couldn't click with it. The world building seemed to be lacking a little, and I think I just didn't really understand/couldn't picture the sequences that involved the ghosts. I didn't really get much from Jake either, he just seemed to spend all his time in a daze, so you don't really learn much about him other than he can see ghosts, he's gay and a little bit awkward.

I also can't really get on board with sympathising with a murderer and found the Sawyer elements a bit odd for that reason, especially because he seemed to end up with more a personality than Jake, which is a shame.

Horror is not exactly my jam. Cemetery Boys totally rekindled my love for the genre where characters-can-see-ghosts, and I just had to pick this up. And let me tell you – this book did not disappoint. It was a breath of fresh air, and just so much fun with lots of snarkiness, a great sense of humor, and a whole load of mystery. This book made me laugh out loud, and we love that. It was not exactly horror-y (you know what I mean?). But I loved it nonetheless.

But I think one of the most notable reasons as to why someone should read this book is because of how the author - Ryan Douglas - succeeds in bringing out the homophobic culture prominent in our society and discusses really heavy topics in such a short book of 244 pages. Highly recommend this book.

This book was so good but SO HEAVY. I'm not sure if there's anyone with a list of trigger warnings out there, but you may want to look into it before reading just in case.

The Taking of Jake Livingston is a dual-POV supernatural thriller. Jake Livingston lives under the radar, largely due to his ability to see the echoes of ghosts and ghouls after death. Normally, this is just grotesque creatures and people, often stuck in their death loops. But when Sawyer - a deceased school shooter - starts gaining strength in the spirit world with revenge in mind, Jake is suddenly in a game of cat and mouse. Because Sawyer's endgame? Possess Jake and finish offing those he didn't get to when he was alive.

This story has so many layers to it. It's a story of two boys dealing with their own traumas. Jake is traumatized by his father and struggles to accept his queerness and reconcile that with his blackness and his place in an all-white school. Sawyer is a deeply traumatized queer teen as well, and the two's stories slightly overlap. You can see why Sawyer is drawn to Jake.

Sawyer's POV is especially chilling to read and difficult to stomach. Ryan Douglass did a great job researching what can turn someone into a serial killer, and it pays off in a story you can't help but sit back and watch. The day he decides to shoot up his school is chilling. (TW: attempted rape, later in Sawyer's story)

I also really enjoyed seeing Jake's journey towards self-acceptance and confidence. There's a central theme of self-esteem that is mirrored in both characters, but Jake takes his story down a different path. He's a thoughtful character who seeks to be understood and luckily he finds his voice and people who care.

The only reason I dock this a star is that I felt confused with the writing at times. The spirit world Jake explores his powers within isn't always well-defined or easy to understand, and sometimes I found myself getting lost in his chapters because of this. It doesn't detract from how powerful the story is, but the confusion on how Jake's powers worked made the finale a bit difficult to comprehend.

This was a heavy but powerful read you shouldn't miss.

Many thanks to Penguin Teen and NetGalley for the e-ARC. All opinions are my own.

Ryan Douglass wrote The Taking of Jake Livingston to be a thought-provoking novel. It is a coming-of-age story, sprinkled with a dash of horror and suspense. While I was not necessarily wowed by the horror and suspense elements, I did find Douglass’s social commentary to be enlightening.

Douglass provides insight into the types of struggles that a gay Black teen can experience at both school and home. Throughout the novel, Jake deals with many ignorant people. I enjoyed reading how Jake’s character grow from one who ignored the homophobic and/or racist comments to someone who learned to find his inner strength and stand up for himself.

The Taking of Jake Livingston was a really great YA horror book that explored race, sexuality, gun violence, and some other heavy topics through the lens of a fast paced murder mystery with a magical twist. I think this would be a great book to read during spooky season and really enjoyed the mystery elements.

This digital ARC was offered in exchange of an honest and unbiased review:
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3,5*
Pros: Incredibly scary and full of suspense. Plays with some of my biggest fears, like astral projections and sleep paralysis (both have happened to me several times and I hate it so much 😭), but now with evil spirits. Imagines how the life of a teen medium is. Black and queer male lead. Talks about mental illnesses, toxic family relationships, difficulties socialising, and other important topics.
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Cons: Lacking emotional depth from MC. Secondary characters are more used as props.
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Trigger warning: Violence, death, school shooting, bullying, suicide, depression, other mental illnesses.

Ryan Douglass's debut is a chilling, dark story that isn't afraid to "go there" in terms of content and realism, especially exhibiting the harsh realities of a young closeted queer black teen attending a PWI and all of the discrimination that comes with it. That alone makes this novel incredibly important.

The paranormal aspects of Jake being a medium were interesting, and the exploration of how he copes with constantly experiencing death is wonderful, but at times it felt that there was something missing in regards to explaining the how and why of it all.

This book deals with a lot of triggering subjects, including school shootings, domestic violence, and sexual assault, which I unfortunately could not finish reading through. To spin this into a positive - if a reader is looking for a real, gritty story that is unafraid to push those boundaries and really delve into the horror genre, this book is definitely recommended.

3.5 stars

I don't read much horror, but the cover and synopsis of The Taking of Jake Livingston definitely had me curious. It isn't a very long book, so I was finished pretty quickly. While this was a good book and Jake was an interesting character it lacked for me in certain areas. I felt like there was too much going on and that made it hard for the story to really go deep with parts of the story. Definitely a spooky read, but maybe my expectations were just a little too high?

3.75stars

This book took me a while to finish, mostly because of my own personal preferences since I’m a mood reader. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I don’t necessarily read much Horror HOWEVER, this book will absolutely change that for me. I loved the dreamscape moments, the dual POV, even the slow burn romance. I wish the book was a bit longer but again that’s personal preference. The authors writing was absolutely immersing.

Can we talk about the scene with the bugs?!? TALK ABOUT MY NIGHTMARE! 🙈 I literally SQUEALED reading that scene!

The pacing for the first half of the book was a little slow for me? It DEFINITELY got action packed the second half and I flew through it. I loved the friendships and wanted to see more of them and their banter.

Definitely recommend this read for spooky season!

TW for sexual assault, racism, homophobia and school shooting.

Thank you to penguin teen and netgalley for my e arc

I've really been on a thriller/horror kick lately so I was so excited to dive into The Taking of Jake Livingston! It's a dark, challenging, fast-paced paranormal thriller, and it really lives up to the comparison with Get Out and Danielle Vega! It perfectly blended the commentary on identity, when it is stripped from you, race and colonialism, and trauma.

I was on the edge of my seat the entire 250 pages, as the book did a really good job of conveying the life-or-death urgency for the characters. This is not a book to read alone in the dark or at night. I had to put it down to finish in the morning cause i was getting a spooked :). I loved the aspect of the ghosts and how well thought out it was. The writing and descriptions made the ghosts feel tangible and spooky, which really added to the atmosphere. I know some readers would have preferred the book to be longer to develop certain aspects more, but I actually liked the pithy prose and the straight-to-the-point this book was.

Overall this was such a great horror read, and I absolutely cannot wait to read Douglass's future books.

THE 411...

Those that love Horror Noir with atmospheric/creepy vibes may find a new favorite in The Taking Of Jake Livingston, it is intense across the board invoking many emotions all at once. Jake is a black gay Medium who is caught in a life of trauma having to see the death loops of victims that are sort of in limbo. This means his reality bleeds into the spirit world where Ghouls, Demons and Ghosts wander aimlessly. He sees the gruesome ways many have been killed accidentally & those that were not, like the mass school shooting executed by Sawyer Doon. Sawyer, a Caucasian male who was briefly in therapy and mostly at home with a mother who was more ashamed to have a son who struggled with mental health. Sawyer is now haunting Jake and also killing students he wasn’t able to get to before committing suicide at the school. Jake finds himself trying to stop Sawyer while also dealing with racism at his school, bullying, homophobia, and memories of an abusive father who tried to pray away the fact that his son is gay. Told in dual POV, we get to be in Jake and Sawyer's thoughts all throughout until it's made clear what it is that Sawyer is after. Haunting and absolutely THE scariest book I've read in a long time. 

WRITING & FINAL THOUGHTS...

I could NOT put this book down! I worried constantly for Jake & how living through the horror of death loops alone would affect his own mental health. Then seeing him in a school where he’s the only black student and how the teachers/students interacted with him, was maddening and heart breaking. We get to live in Jake and Sawyer's minds, the latter felt like the toughest to read from. Sawyer's thoughts are from beyond the grave, we're reading excerpts from his journal and it's made very clear that Sawyer is aware he's struggling with mental health. He's having deeply disturbing thoughts of self harm as well as harming others and it felt as if it was only a matter of time before he gave in and acted on these impulses. We see him go in and out of therapy mainly because his mother feels it brings shame to their family. I can't say I felt sorry for this character however, I do feel his mother failed him and in doing so contributed to the events that took place at the school. Jake's POV was also tough for different reasons. I felt paranoid at times which made sense since he couldn't allow himself to fall into a deep sleep for fear of Sawyer's ghost killing him. It feels like Jake has become numb to it all but it's still very shocking to read what he's witnessing. Towards the last quarter, Jake does have a romance take off (LOVED Alistair) and being that he experienced so much trauma just to exist, I really wanted to see more of him coming into his own. I wouldn’t have minded it being a bit longer just to see more of Jake & Alistair’s relationship really have a chance on the page. All in all I was completely engrossed by this story!

Content Warning: CW: Homophobia, Bullying, Child abuse, off the page domestic violence, Racism, attempted rape, violence, school shooting (graphic), abandonment

4.5/5!

Jake Livingston is one of the only Black kids at St. Clair Prep, one of the others being his infinitely more popular older brother. As if fitting in wasn’t hard enough, Jake can see the dead. In fact, he sees the dead around him all the time. Most are harmless and stuck in their death loops as they relive their deaths over and over again without interacting often with people. But then Jake meets Sawyer, a troubled teen who shot and killed six kids at a local high school last year before taking his own life. Now a powerful, vengeful ghost, Sawyer has plans for his afterlife - plans that include Jake.

THE TAKING OF JAKE LIVINGSTON first caught my eye because of the comparisons to the movie Get Out. I’ll pretty much read anything compared to one of my all-time favorite horror movies. I think the examination of race and microaggressions definitely hits that mark, but if you’re looking for a similar story, this is something totally different. I mean that in the best way!

THE TAKING OF JAKE LIVINGSTON is a fantastic take on paranormal meets thriller meets horror. This book has so much to unpack and was a much deeper story than I expected when I first picked it up. The subject matter can at times be difficult to read about. I found the chapters where the reader was given insight into Sawyer’s mind to be a lot darker than I expect from a YA book, but they were powerful, important to the overall story, and very well written. It’s hard to talk about the plot without giving anything away, but it’s an easy book to recommend for anyone interested in the mixture of genres this book falls into. My only issue was that I felt the progression of the story stalled at times in the middle of the book, but it never stopped me from wanting to know more and loving the book. I look forward to reading more by Ryan Douglass in the future!

Get Out meets Danielle Vega in this YA horror where survival is not a guarantee.

Jake Livingston is one of the only Black kids at St. Clair Prep, one of the others being his infinitely more popular older brother. It’s hard enough fitting in but to make matters worse and definitely more complicated, Jake can see the dead. In fact he sees the dead around him all the time. Most are harmless. Stuck in their death loops as they relive their deaths over and over again, they don’t interact often with people. But then Jake meets Sawyer. A troubled teen who shot and killed six kids at a local high school last year before taking his own life. Now a powerful, vengeful ghost, he has plans for his afterlife–plans that include Jake. Suddenly, everything Jake knows about ghosts and the rules to life itself go out the window as Sawyer begins haunting him and bodies turn up in his neighborhood. High school soon becomes a survival game–one Jake is not sure he’s going to win.

This book was short and lil bit slow in the start, and I couldn't connect with any of the characters!

This book is social thriller with mystery and LGBTQ representation!
I liked but I'm lil bit disappointed. It could have been a lot better.

I will preface this by saying this isn't my normal genre, and as someone who is afraid of most things, I needed to really break up my readings of this book. But I think this book would be highly enjoyable to lovers of horror.

I still thought this was a solid debut; the character development and the pacing were amazing, and I was fascinated by how the author chose to explore themes of racism, homophobia, and school shootings through this haunting, intense story.

I was really excited about the concept of this story but the execution felt rushed. This was a really short, quick read, but because of that I think we missed out on a lot of background info. I wanted more of how Jake became/found out he was a medium. I didn't understand why Sawyer targeted Jake specifically (he even says if it wasn't Jake, it would be someone else). Everything from the secondary characters to the plot felt unfinished.

I did enjoy the descriptions of the ghosts, how River and Jake came together, and that a Black, queer horror story exists in the YA world. I wouldn't hesitate to read more from this author as I believe the ideas are good and with experience I think the details will be better.

The taking of Jake Livingston was an absolute page turner. It was quirky, dark and also funny. I love books with ghosts and mediums. It's been a while since I read one in this genre. Don't get me wrong, this book is gory and dark as hell, it has enough substance to it, to make it more interesting.

The book was about Jake Livingston, a closeted queer black kid. His high school had very few black kids and he always felt out of place. To make matters worse, he was a medium and he was constantly seeing ghosts.

A lot of different aspects about being a medium was mentioned in this book that I had no idea about. For example, there were ghosts stuck in their death loop where they kept reliving how they died in a constant loop. How horrific is that!

The villain was a ghost called Sawyer who was vengeful and wanted to take over Jake's body. The rest of the book was how Jake handled it. It was a great read for me. I would recommend it to Paranormal YA readers.