Happy Tuesday bookworms and welcome to my review of The Taking of Jake Livingston! Thank you to Penguin Teen Canada for sending me an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review! Before I begin, this book has many content warnings. You can click the button below to view a list I have compiled. Now let's dive in! Content warnings
Racism, racist micro aggressions, school shooting, homophobia, slurs, emotional and physical abuse, suicide, violence (graphic), death (graphic), attempted rape of a minor, mental illness, sociopathy, sadism, gore, bullying, parental and medical negligence, torture (graphic), animal abuse/torture, drug use Jake Livingston is one of the only Black kids at St. Clair Prep, but what makes fitting in even more complicated is that he can see the dead. Most of the time they are stuck in loops, reliving their deaths over and over again, that is until Jake meets Sawyer. Sawyer was a school shooter who then took his own life and it seems that his vengeful spirit has more plans for his afterlife. Suddenly Jake is thrown into a very dangerous situation, and it's going to take everything he has to stay alive.
When I first heard about this story I was intrigued about the element of seeing ghosts and was very excited to see the representation. I'm going to start off by saying that this is a book that has many incredibly heavy topics in it that could be triggering for many people. Please check out the content warnings before picking this book up. This is very much a horror book, not thriller. I personally wish I had been aware of the content warnings before requesting an ARC copy. One element of the plot that confused me the most was the extent of Jake's powers and how they could be used. At many points a random fact or ability would appear with no explanation as to why it came or how it worked. For example the ectomist, which I still do not fully understand. Jake unfortunately felt like a very one dimensional character, we don't explore his personality very much and I found him more to be a vessel for the plot than actually being interested in him as a person. What I disliked the most, and what made me feel the most uncomfortable was Sawyer. Throughout the book we get diary entries from him, leading up to the school shooting. These entries were extremely disturbing, detailing much of the plot pertaining to the content warnings listed above. At many points it feels as though you should be sympathizing with him because of what he has been through. This made me very uncomfortable as he does many horrific acts throughout the book. Some final thoughts that come to mind are: don't read this book at night, and don't read this book when you're alone. This book made me extremely uncomfortable. I gave this book a 1/5 Stars ⭐️. That's all for my review of The Taking of Jake Livingston by Ryan Douglass. Are you a fan of horror movies? Let me know in the comments below!
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AuthorPaige is a bookstagrammer and blogger who loves all things bookish. From fantasy to mystery she can’t get enough! She’s always ready to recommend you a book and she can talk about her favourites all day. When she’s not reading, you can find her watching Marvel movies, playing video games, and taking bookstagram photos. Visit her on Instagram and Twitter for more updates. CategoriesArchives
April 2024
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