Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “The Taking of Jake Livingston” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

The Taking of Jake Livingston

Ryan Douglass (Goodreads Author)

4.64 · Rating details · 90 ratings · 17 reviews

Get Out meets Danielle Vega in this YA social thriller 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 ...more

Get A Copy

Hardcover, 308 pages

Expected publication: July 13th 2021 by Putnam

More Details... Edit Details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about The Taking of Jake Livingston, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

Young Adult Novels 2020

376 books — 868 voters

YA Debuts 2020

151 books — 584 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

Average rating 4.64 ·

Rating details

· 90 ratings · 17 reviews

More filters

Sort order

Start your review of The Taking of Jake Livingston

Jan 27, 2021 myo (myonna reads) rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2020-anticipating, 2021-anticipating, lgbt

this book was short but very good with the pacing, i enjoyed how it dealt with black queer trauma and microaggressions when it comes to going to predominantly white schools. can’t wait to see what the author writes next.

flag 91 likes · Like · see review

Nov 27, 2019 The Artisan Geek marked it as to-read

27/11/19
I am always up for horror! Especially when it's black literature! I need it NOW.
Also, the only black kid at a prep school? This book is basically me, but without the ghost LMAO! :)

You can find me on
Youtube | Instagram | Twitter | Tumblr | Website ...more

flag 28 likes · Like · see review

Dec 23, 2020 farith marked it as need-this-like-air

gay and spooky:
yes.

flag 22 likes · Like · see review

Jan 04, 2021 sol marked it as to-read

Shelves: bipoc, lgbtqia, horror

BLACK HORROR

flag 12 likes · Like · see review

Mar 09, 2018 rin marked it as to-read

this sounds cool??

flag 7 likes · Like · see review

Jan 11, 2021 tessie rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2021-july-releases, rep-poc-author, genre-horror, rep-lgbtq-gay

ok so there are some books which are just very hard to review and i think this is one of them, so i’m not even going to try (for now, at least)

so instead, some thoughts i had while reading:

•one of my only reasons for not giving it five stars is that i found the writing hard to visualise at some points - maybe this is because i haven’t read that many horror novels, so i would say this was very much a me issue - i did LOVE the writing though

•relating to this, and this is kind of random, but a co ...more

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

Feb 04, 2021 Gina Adams rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2021-most-anticipated

Thanks to the publisher and edelweiss for an early copy!!

I’m heartbreakingly unimpressed with this story. Let me begin by saying I’m forever grateful for the recent uptick in stories about Black boys, especially Black queer boys, just being boys. The heavy racism topic stories need to be told, of course, but so do Black stories of all genres and characters.

Unfortunately, this book just wasn’t good. It’s about Jake Livingston, who can see ghosts. The ghost of a local school shooter, Sawyer Doon Thanks to the publisher and edelweiss for an early copy!!

I’m heartbreakingly unimpressed with this story. Let me begin by saying I’m forever grateful for the recent uptick in stories about Black boys, especially Black queer boys, just being boys. The heavy racism topic stories need to be told, of course, but so do Black stories of all genres and characters.

Unfortunately, this book just wasn’t good. It’s about Jake Livingston, who can see ghosts. The ghost of a local school shooter, Sawyer Doon, starts heavily interfering with Jake’s life. Jake, of course, sets out to stop him.

That’s what this story is about, but there’s no why. I don’t know why Jake can see ghosts, or why Sawyer came after him specifically. So much of this story is messy, unexplained, and just not fleshed out.

I can’t tell you any personality trait about Jake other than him being generally anxious. You don’t learn anything about his past or childhood. You don’t learn about what he wants to do with his future, either. This is just kind of one of those stories that’s so in the present that it doesn’t even matter who the characters are.

The weird thing is, you get a ton more information about the school shooter. He actually has his own POV in this story - his journal entries from the weeks leading up to his rampage. Immediately, knowing I was reading from his perspective made me uncomfortable. I don’t wanna say it’s actually school shooter apologia, but it does make you feel bad for the guy. There’s also a notable lack of discussion of Sawyer’s actual acts of violence. I don’t think they were necessary or anything, but that coupled with the view into his mind just give you an honest soft spot for him which seems harmful or insensitive. I think troubled kids do deserve our compassion and attention, of course. But by this time he’d already committed the murders and I just wasn’t in the mood to feel bad for him. He also murdered some people from beyond the grave which was just confusing.

All the paranormal stuff in this story was confusing. There were astral projections and body snatching and other realms and an astral family sword and ectomist and so much weird shit that just seemed to be slapped in in order to keep the vibes spooky. Jake randomly has new powers revealed whenever it’s convenient, like the ability to see auras or when he needed to take sleeping pills at the school so he could wake up in an astral projection at the school. It all seemed like plot devices and Jake didn’t seemed invested in his own powers at all.

The romance was strangely paced. So was Jake’s family’s backstory. There was an incident with his dad that just got told at the strangest and most convenient times to the story, and that made it feel so detached. He was kinda mad at his mom and you found out she didn’t stop his dad from doing something to him. And later he was happy with his brother and you found out he did stop the dad. Like this incident was kind of used as the only litmus test for whether his family treated him well or not.

Like I said, I’m glad there’s a spooky Black queer book coming out. How could we not be glad about that??? And I think the genre coupled with the awesome cover will get a lot of teens to pick it up. I think teens may be more lenient on this story and find more to appreciate about it. I’d still put it on displays at work and recommend it to the kids. But it just didn’t really work for me in the slightest. ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Feb 23, 2021 Mari marked it as to-read

Shelves: lgbt-tbr

Again. No, I DON'T LIKE HORROR.

Except when it's queer, it seems, because I have been pretending I don't want to read this for like two months because wanting to read horror is unexplored territory and it scares me.

...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Mar 07, 2021 h o l l i s added it

Shelves: 2021-reads, abuse, arc, assault, baa-baa-black-sheep, contemporary, dark, crime-mystery, ebook, family-focused

Hm. I'm leaving this unrated for now (for good?) because my thoughts are kind of all over the place.

I honestly think this would make a great movie because the atmosphere and the ambience, though hella confusing, still did a great job at creeping me out. Some of the visuals were, again, sometimes confusing but somehow still managed to be translated into my brain. But so much of this needs more. Yes, the story is short, so I guess a lot of this surface level non-explanation could be blamed on tha ...more

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

Dec 30, 2020 jocelyn marked it as to-read

Shelves: poc, dark-spooky, gods-demons-spirits

have i stopped thinking about this cover since it was revealed?
no. thank you for asking.

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Feb 24, 2020 Sapphic Shelves marked it as to-read

me, banging pots and pans together: CAN THIS BOOK BE RELEASED ALREADY?!

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Jan 26, 2021 Starr ❇✌❇ marked it as to-read

Shelves: keeping-an-eye-on-ya, got-an-arc

Can I just say how PUMPED I am I snagged an arc of this!

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Jan 29, 2021 Gobuaz7 rated it it was amazing

Personally, I think it's a book that we should all read. ...more

flag Like · see review

Jan 28, 2021 sarah rated it liked it

Shelves: 2021-read

3.5 super cute and very real I just didn't love the ghost stuff because they were a bit confusing ...more

flag Like · see review

Dec 23, 2020 Annie marked it as to-read

Shelves: 2021-releases, lgbtq-plus, poc-mc

American Horror Story WHO?? (but seriously I'm watching that show now and it's great, and this book also sounds great) ...more

flag Like · see review

Jan 10, 2021 Gretal rated it really liked it

This book was really short but nevertheless packed quite the punch. I loved the writing style, the characters, the plot. And I look forward to seeing what Ryan Douglass writes next.

flag Like · see review

Haley rated it it was amazing
Feb 23, 2021

Djenne Grant rated it it was amazing
Mar 02, 2021

Samady rated it it was amazing
Jan 14, 2021

Illinoiser rated it it was amazing
Jan 14, 2021

David Anthony rated it it was amazing
Mar 11, 2018

Esseje10 rated it really liked it
Jan 14, 2021

Lachelle rated it it was amazing
Aug 25, 2020

Gogabe10 rated it it was amazing
Jan 14, 2021

Margot T. rated it really liked it
Jan 04, 2021

Daniel Aleman rated it it was amazing
Jan 02, 2021

Chrijo1 rated it it was amazing
Jan 27, 2021

Georgia Fradico rated it liked it
Feb 09, 2021

Pasaan10 rated it it was amazing
Jan 14, 2021

Bianca rated it really liked it
Feb 19, 2021

« previous 1 2 3 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend It | Stats | Recent Status Updates

Readers also enjoyed

See similar books…

Genres

Horror

92 users

Young Adult

56 users

LGBT

37 users

Fantasy

25 users

GLBT > Queer

21 users

Fantasy > Paranormal

18 users

Contemporary

16 users

Fiction

12 users

Thriller

11 users

Paranormal > Ghosts

9 users

See top shelves…

About Ryan Douglass

Ryan Douglass

83 followers

Ryan Douglass was born and raised in Atlanta, where he currently resides, cooking pasta and playing records. He enjoys wood wick candles, falling asleep on airplanes, and advocating for stronger media representation for queer Black people.

Follow him on Twitter: @ryandouglassw