The Taking of Jake Livingston

In this book, we follow Jake, a medium who can see ghosts and ghouls all around him in everyday life. He has to see them relive their deaths. As a young, Black, closeted gay man just trying to survive high school, this starts to weigh on him. When a ghost of a school shooter starts following him around and terrorizing him, Jake has to come to grips with himself in order to save himself and those around him.

This book was WAY darker than I anticipated. Make sure you check the content warning for this book because there are many. This book was fast paced, emotional, and so incredibly dark. There were explorations of race, sexuality, mental health, and abuse. The 2 main characters, Jake and Sawyer, are extremely well fleshed out as the story goes on, and we really get to see how they got to where they are and what their motivations are for going forward. There are definitely some parallels in their lives, and we get to see Jake try to battle to not go down the same path Sawyer has. I really enjoyed this book, even though there were moments where I was shocked by how graphic and dark things got.

I recommend this book to people looking for a scary, thought provoking book. Just check the content warnings first!

TW: animal cruelty, child abuse (physical & emotional), death, depression, domestic abuse (physical & emotional), body horror (graphic), bullying, gun violence, gore, homophobia, murder, racism, school shootings, sexual assault of a minor (attempted), spider-related body horror (graphic), stabbing, suicide (attempts, ideation, & actual)