The Taking of Jake Livingston

This one was surprisingly good! From the cover, I thought it was going to be kind of funny and maybe lighthearted. Boy, was I wrong. Jake Livingston is a medium, but he does not know how to wield his powers, when Sawyer Doone, a school shooter/suicide, begins murdering students who got away from his first murder spree. The first murder took place right across the street from Jake's house. The chapters alternate between Jake and Sawyer, with two different narrators who were excellent. Sawyer’s chapters are journal entries, that Sawyer’s doctor asks him to keep after his first suicide attempt. The narrative tackles so many issues – sexual identity, racism, sexual abuse, school shooting - that it could have bogged down the plot but show more somehow it works. show less

The Taking of of Jake Livingston is an impressive, fast-paced YA horror debut with hidden depths. Jake Livingston is unique because he is a Black, gay student at a mostly white prep school and he can see ghosts and ghouls. Both of these aspects of his life make Jake feel constantly haunted. He can never get away from seeing scenes of death (even in PE class) and he is bullied and subjected to racism by some of the teachers and students at school. The racism is institutionalized and almost no one stands up to the racism or comes to Jake's defense.
Things get really dangerous for Jake when he is targeted by the vengeful ghost of Sawyer Doon, a school shooter who intends to finish the job and murder the students he missed the first time. show more The chapters from Sawyer's point of view were scary but showed what led to him being so troubled. Even though Sawyer did monstrous things, the reader develops empathy for him, as the abuse he suffered from was tragic. No one advocated for Sawyer. We also get a Sawyer's eye view on how he intends to infiltrate Jake's mind.
The supernatural horror is done chillingly well. Jake must contend with ghosts, ghouls and sinister ecto-mist, the seeping matter that eats ghosts. These visions create a constant feeling of creeping unease. The story is dark and violent, and perhaps not one for those who easily have nightmares. However, shadows can be conquered. Jake finds some sympathetic friends; there is a sweet love story and Jake's family learns to communicate and support each other better.
The Taking of Jake Livingston makes the reader think about how the worst monsters in the book are not necessarily the ghosts and ghouls, but the human horrors of racism, homophobia and abuse. There was depth and social commentary in this book that I was not expecting. Some aspects of the dead world and plot-line were a little confusing and could have been better developed. I would have liked this book to be longer. I really enjoyed Jake Livingston and am hoping for a sequel. #BookishFirst show less

This book packs quite a bit into a few pages. You have the only black boy and a white school. You have ghosts and frights and other things that go bump in the night. You have LGBTQ factors. As well as school shootings, death and everything else. Florida recently banned this book and it’s not hard to guess why. Do I think that book deserves to be banned… absolutely not. This book has a heaviness to it. The overarching idea is that Jake is trying to keep the ghost of a serial killer school shooter From killing anybody else. But he has to deal with his issues of being in the LGBTq community and how that affects his family. Parts of this book were completely stereotypical and other parts were unique. Overall, this is a very interesting show more read, but there is a lot there. show less

This book broke my heart and put it back together again. Incredible writing and so well done. I was entranced from start to finish and my eyes are still misty.

Third time reading, but first time not being a 5-star though this could just be my gradual shift away from YA. Still a really cool story with a Black queer main character. I particularly liked that we got to see both Sawyer and Jake in alternating chapters, since it gave the book more depth. Sawyer is a tragic character and those are important to read, too.

I love this cover and had saved this one for the perfect spooky season. I popped this one in on my nightly walks and I was ready!

To my surprise, this was actually a very socially heavy book. School shootings, homophobia, bullying, racism - it was staggering to go in thinking a I was getting a fun spooky paranormal read and be hit with so much sadness and pain.

I think if I'd gone into this thinking it would be heavier, I would have been ready - but I was not ready. The narrator was great, the story is compelling - but it was not what I'd been hoping for when I'd grabbed this one.

The Taking of Jake Livingston was one of my most anticipated reads of the year. The second I saw its glorious cover, I knew I had to read it as soon as I possibly could. Thankfully, I got the opportunity to read it earlier via a giveaway from BookishFirst.

While I definitely enjoyed the overall story, especially the representation for black, queer teen boys, I couldn't help but feel a tad disappointed. While Jake is at the center of this story, it felt like he wasn't necessarily developed at all. In fact, more characterization and development was given to the story's villain, an actual school shooter and all around psychopath, which felt like an odd choice. Additionally, certain plot choices felt very out of left field and distracted show more from the main story rather than help add to it. While I believe that trauma was represented well and is definitely a great attribute to the overall message of the book, it was especially effected by such choices.

Overall, while I may have had some issues with it, The Taking of Jake Livingston is a solid debut novel. I look forward to reading more from Ryan Douglass! show less