Hey friends! I have such a great book to share with you all today! Keep reading to find out more.
About the Book:
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.
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About the Author:
Ryan Douglass is an author, poet, and freelance writer from Atlanta, Georgia. His work on race, literacy, sexuality, and media representation has appeared in The Huffington Post, Atlanta Black Star, Everyday Feminism, NerdyPOC, Age of Awareness, LGBTQNation, and Medium, among others.
His debut novel, THE TAKING OF JAKE LIVINGSTON, is a YA horror out through Penguin/Putnam July 13th, 2021.
Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads |
Review:
I’ve really been on a thriller/horror kick lately so I was so excited to dive into The Taking of Jake Livingston! It’s a dark, challenging, fast-paced paranormal thriller, and it really lives up to the comparison with Get Out and Danielle Vega! It perfectly blended the commentary on identity, when it is stripped from you, race and colonialism, and trauma.
I was on the edge of my seat the entire 250 pages, as the book did a really good job of conveying the life-or-death urgency for the characters. This is not a book to read alone in the dark or at night. I had to put it down to finish in the morning cause i was getting a spooked :). I loved the aspect of the ghosts and how well thought out it was. The writing and descriptions made the ghosts feel tangible and spooky, which really added to the atmosphere. I know some readers would have preferred the book to be longer to develop certain aspects more, but I actually liked the pithy prose and the straight-to-the-point this book was.
Overall this was such a great horror read, and I absolutely cannot wait to read Douglass’s future books.
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