I was so excited to read this book and it did not disappoint!
The book follows Jake and Sawyer from their own points of view. Jake is a medium and can see ghosts, specifically death loops of people who have died. He tries his best to ignore the death loops but sometimes he cannot help watching, which people mistake for him zoning out. Jake and his brother are also the only black kids in his school so it makes him stand out even more, when he just wants to fit in.
Sawyer is not your average kid in school….he tries to kill himself and ends up having bad thoughts about people in his school. When he takes these thoughts to another level he ends up shooting kids in his school and ends up committing suicide.
When Jake’s next door neighbour is killed in his house by an unknown suspect, Jake, with the help of his medium skills, finds out it was another ghost that killed him and tries not to get involved, but when the ghost comes knocking at his door he cannot ignore it!

The book kept me reading long into the night! It wasn’t scary, just suspenseful and I loved Jake and his awkwardness, it made him much more real!

I would recommend the book to teens but make sure to read the content warnings as the book may cause some distress.

Thank you to the publisher, author and NetGalley for the arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Taking of Jake Livingstone follows Jake, a teenager who happens to be able to see ghosts. He is just struggling to manage his home and school life when things are complicated by the appearance of Sawyer, a vengeful ghost of teenager who commited suicide after he commited school shooting. Sawyer is out to get the people he failed to kill whilst he was alive and is haunting Jake at the same time, and it is up to Jake to stop him and save lives.

I enjoyed this book, especially the horror elements (some of the visuals were so creepy!!) but nothing about it completely blew me away. The spooky atmosphere was well created and great halloween read vibes but I did think the prose lacked a little flair. It felt like something you read once and enjoy it but not something I will read again and again.

That said I'm always happy to see moe queer books out in the wild and I loved seeing Jake grow into himself and growing more comfortable with his sexuality and his powers. I also thought his relationship with his family was super interesting and well explored. Sawyers arc was also pretty tragic and a heavy topic to deal with, but I liked seeing how Jake coped with this and how prior events shaped the actions and motivations of both characters.

DNF at 40%

Finding it difficult to articulate what I wanna say here, so this review is in list form!

Pros:

• Great representation of black & queer characters
• A good, original synopsis
• Brings horror to the YA scene, something I think is needed more!

Cons:
• Two-dimensional characters who I just didn't enjoy reading about
• The only character who had any kind of depth was Sawyer, which was uncomfortable because of...
• School shooter sympathy? Sawyer's chapters felt like they were intended for us to empathise with him, which is a nope from me
• Choppy writing

All in all, this read like a children's book with added gore. Take the gore out and make it children's or up the writing and make it YA. This strange in between just didn't work for me.

I DNF'd when <spoiler>a ghost uploaded a TikTok</spoiler>. Seriously? (That may have been disputed after I finished reading but I wasn't hanging around to find out). I was hoping this would be a nice quick Halloween read but unfortunately, no. :(

<i>Thank you to Netgalley & Andersen Press for an arc in exchange for an honest review.</i>

It's taken me a few days to gather my thoughts on this one. The concept of this book made it a must read but for me it didn't live up to the hype. The story focuses on Jake who is one of the only black kids in his high school. Jake can see the dead, most of which are harmless. However, a vengeful ghost by the name of Sawyer begins haunting him.

This book covers many issues, quite potentially too many issues. It's like everything awful that could happen to a human is packed into one story and honestly I feel like that made the story lose focus sometimes. It was very fast-paced and would have benefited more from building the characters earlier on. At times it didn't really make sense and I found myself re-reading parts to understand what was going on as it jumps around so fast. To begin with I found Jake a hard character to like but as we got more of his background throughout the story his behaviours were more understandable.

It was very interesting to have chapters from Sawyer, who was a school shooter, but I found these leave you with uncomfortable feelings of almost sympathising with him. Maybe that was the authors point?

Overall the book definitely has potential and I applaud the author for openly discussing so many difficult topics but it just missed the mark for me.

Thank you to Net Galley for the advance copy.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It kept me gripped from very early on. I would definitely put it in the horror genre as the the story gets very dark. It tackles racism and being closeted extremely well. I learned from it without it feeling like a lecture. I shall definitely keep reading this author.

Actual rating 3.5/5 stars.

Jake Livingston is one of the few black students at St. Clair Prep, along with his extroverted and popular older brother. He is introverted by nature and often feels compared to his brother or judged due to the colour of his skin. This only partially explains his isolated school life, however. Jake Livingston has the ability to see and interact with the dead. They appear wherever he is, often playing out their harrowing last moments as Jake is attempting to live an ordinary teenage existence besides them.

I can think of few times I have been as sad to find I did not love a book more, than with this one. Everything about this screamed excellence but I had a few issues throughout that I could just not overlook.

Jake was a very interesting character but I never felt that I truly knew him. There was another character who was provided with their own perspective, often through diary entries, and I wish that Jake had also been given the same chance to share his backstory. Perhaps this would have aided in bonding me with him more. I felt I did know facts about him and an exploration of his emotions frequently appeared, but something about the structure of the story kept me at a distance from really feeling I had a grasp for who he actually was.

I also found this lighter on the horror elements than I had anticipated from the cover, title, and synopsis. This was a dark read but not in an eerie or creepy way. This was the direction I thought the book would take and whilst it did not ruin my enjoyment to not find this not to be the case, it did mean I had to alter my expectations accordingly.

Whilst I was disappointed to find these elements that did not wholly work for me, I also found many others I loved. I adored the inclusivity this contained. I want more books about black, gay teens and I appreciated the focus on Jake's struggles in dealing with lack of acceptance both receive, in his community. It proved truly harrowing to read of Jake's emotions as he is forced to confront the cruelty and harsh treatment that the world contains.

Ultimately, I had a fine time with this book. It wasn't the perfect read for me but I also acknowledge that it doesn't need to be. Far more important is that, with the publication of this book, more individuals have been provided with the chance to see themselves inside the media they consume.

I was really looking forward to reading this book about a teenage black guy who is also gay....and a medium.  It deals with some really heavy subjects but for me the supernatural aspect didn't quite work.  I read a lot of horror and supernatural stories and I am always looking for something new.  Sadly this didn't live up to my expectations as a whole, though I really loved Jake, the main character.
2.5 stars