Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Taking of Jake Livingston by Ryan Douglass

121 reviews

__helena__'s review

adventurous lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Mass/school shootings, Suicide attempt, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Death, Violence, Murder, Bullying, Homophobia, Child abuse, and Racism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Slavery

lthumphrey's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Gore, Grief, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Bullying, Confinement, Suicide attempt, Animal cruelty, Death, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, War, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Self harm, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Pedophilia, Slavery, Alcohol, Cursing, and Rape

jaztrainorreads's review

challenging dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

This is a weird one for me. Let’s start with the stuff I loved. 

I loved the characters, even the ones we didn’t see much. Fiona and Allisyer, even from the brief descriptions, you could absolutely tell who they were.

The development of Jakes character from bad to worse to good was really endearing, so felt genuine. worry for him, the scene on the merry-go-round had my
heart crying out for him.

 

I loved the premise and  how some really difficult issues were approached The portrayal of every day racism was shown through the micro-aggressions of Jakes peers and others was so realistic and the descent of sawyer. 

Now, my issue is that I feel like I haven’t read a full story, this easily could’ve had 100/150 more pages even jsut to flesh out the story more and explain a few things. 

I felt in instances, I was thrown form scene to scene with no real idea of what was happening, like Jake finding River. Or the final battle. 

I still have lots of questions about things that just weren’t explained, or were half explained. Really, I just want more! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Racism, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual assault and Child abuse

belliz4's review

dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence and Violence

Moderate: Sexual violence and Racism

Minor: Homophobia

alyvia_jeane's review

dark emotional funny sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Murder, Racism, Homophobia, Violence, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Pedophilia

Minor: Domestic abuse

sglance9's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Stalking, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Homophobia, Child abuse, Suicide attempt, Sexual assault, and Racism

schausjk's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mass/school shootings, Gun violence, Racism, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Classism, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Emotional abuse, Violence, Pedophilia, Blood, Gore, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Mental illness, Hate crime, Grief, and Child death

Minor: Drug use and Body horror

ecn's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Gun violence, Homophobia, Blood, Child death, Bullying, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Suicide, Vomit, Body horror, Child abuse, Classism, Death, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Outing, Hate crime, Incest, Mass/school shootings, Mental illness, Violence, Toxic friendship, Suicide attempt, Sexual assault, and Suicidal thoughts

katiej's review

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Perfect spooky read for the spooky season. I was gripped throughout. Really intriguing concept of ghosts and mediums contacting each other and interacting with one another. I also found the sub plot around coming out and accepting who are really powerful.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mass/school shootings, Violence, Gun violence, Suicide attempt, and Death

Moderate: Racism, Racial slurs, and Sexual assault

Minor: Homophobia

the_wistful_word_witch's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I loved this book, and it was a great spooky season read. This was an amazing, haunting, sad story that comes with a lot of trigger warnings. It's dark, complex, and reflective of a lot of the trauma that I think a lot of Black queer folk can relate to, apart from the ghost story. Luckily, there's just enough of a budding romance and new friendships to temper all the harsher emotions, so that the reader doesn't feel swamped by them.

Poor Jake is a bit beaten down by life in so many ways and just wants to be different from who he is: one of two Black boys in his school, gay, and never quite fitting in. Plus, the ability to see ghosts, spectres stuck in the moments leading up to their deaths, doesn't help, especially when a very violent ghost decides that Jake is the thing he wants most.

As a parent, I found this book so hard to read because it shows just how hard being a teenager can be, especially when things like racial and sexual identity, mental health, abuse, and bullying are thrown into the mix. I wanted to reach out to both Jake and Sawyer and give the hurting little boys inside them big hugs.

I really liked the way that Ryan Douglass resolves the story, though. It's a bright spark of renewed hope and life after all that darkness.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Violence, Body horror, Murder, Physical abuse, Blood, Bullying, Car accident, Child abuse, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mass/school shootings, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Racism, Stalking, and Suicide

Moderate: Sexual assault and Animal cruelty

Minor: Drug use