Book Review: The Taking of Jake Livingston by Ryan Douglass

Thank you Penguin Teen for my review copy.

My thoughts:

Black queer boy who can see ghosts? Say no more!

This book talks about the struggles of being a Black gay boy and how that is frowned upon in the community due to toxic masculinity. You can’t call yourself a man if you’re gay.  Jake suffered racism and micro-aggressions from the white people at his school especially since he didn’t fit their stereotype of a Black person in my personal opinion. The teachers did nothing and it was just a mess.

The story was told in two points of views Jake and Sawyer’s. My heart really broke for Sawyer while reading this story and even though I don’t agree with his actions, I can see why he did what he did. His mother failed him big time because she was so worried about her image and not helping and protecting her child. SMDH

I felt that I would have enjoyed this book if it was longer and the story was flushed out better. This book had a lot of potential and it kinda felt flat in some areas. I would have preferred more of a backstory when it comes to Jake seeing ghost and how his ancestors play a part as well. I didn’t find this book to be scary and for it to be compared to Get Out, I was expecting to be scared while reading and I wasn’t. Overall, this was a solid debut by Ryan Douglass and I do hope we revisit Jake Livingston in the future.

About the Book:

Sixteen-year-old Jake Livingston sees dead people everywhere. But he can’t decide what’s worse: being a medium forced to watch the dead play out their last moments on a loop or being at the mercy of racist teachers as one of the few Black students at St. Clair Prep. Both are a living nightmare he wishes he could wake up from. But things at St. Clair start looking up with the arrival of another Black student—the handsome Allister—and for the first time, romance is on the horizon for Jake.
 
Unfortunately, life as a medium is getting worse. Though most ghosts are harmless and Jake is always happy to help them move on to the next place, Sawyer Doon wants much more from Jake. In life, Sawyer was a troubled teen who shot and killed six kids at a local high school before taking his own life. Now he’s a powerful, vengeful ghost and he has plans for Jake. Suddenly, everything Jake knows about dead world goes out the window as Sawyer begins to haunt him. High school soon becomes a different kind of survival game—one Jake is not sure he can win.