📖 BOOK REVIEW⠀📚 The Taking of Jake Livingston
AUTHOR: Ryan Douglass @ryan_souflee
Publisher: Putnam Books @putnambooks
Stars: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ + 🐰
Published: July 13, 2021
The Review 📚 The Taking of Jake Livingston
✨ The Title/Cover Draw:
- This was the pick for Gabby’s Book Troop this month.
💜 What I liked:
- The main character, Jake, is extremely sympathetic. He is bullied for everything that is different about him. But he does have unique abilities which drives the story and are very enjoyable.
😱 What I didn’t like:
- While the writing is good, I am just not sure it was something that connected with me in style. Also there are definite trigger warnings. But despite the heavy subject matter I never felt heavy. Even with the horror aspect, there is a lightness to the writing style.
🚦 My face at the end: 🤦♀️
💭 5 Reasons to Read:
- 1. YA Horror!
- 2. LGBTQ+ themes
- 3. A very creepy ghoul
- 4. Finding your understanding friends
- 5. Everyone feels unique sometimes
🕧 Mini-Summary:
- Jake can see ghosts and is being hunted by a ghoulish serial killer who wants to finish the job.
All thoughts and opinions are my own.
📘 Summary 📚 The Taking of Jake Livingston
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.