Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

The Taking of Jake Livingston by Ryan Douglass

21 reviews

jackiie's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Bullying, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Death, Domestic abuse, Murder, Racism, Stalking, Car accident, Child abuse, Outing, Violence, Suicide, Alcohol, Physical abuse, Blood, Sexual assault, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, and Drug use

asinglebird's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Adult/minor relationship, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Blood, Drug use, Mass/school shootings, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, Hate crime, Homophobia, Gore, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Domestic abuse, and Fire/Fire injury

wrensreadingroom's review

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Mass/school shootings, Suicidal thoughts, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Body shaming, Bullying, Incest, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Cursing, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Classism, Medical content, Car accident, and Child death

outsmartyourshelf's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.25

Jake Livingston is one of a very small number of black students at St Clair Prep. He's not a swot, but neither does he fight against the rules like his brother, instead he tries to fly under the radar, however, he has an unusual problem. Jake sees ghosts, ghouls, & ectoplasm everywhere he goes & now he's being haunted by the ghost of a white school shooter, Sawyer Doon. Most ghosts are little more than replays of their death over & over, but Sawyer is different. He isn't tethered to one place, & he can communicate with Jake, & also commit murder. Jake doesn't know why Sawyer has chosen to haunt him but as things become more & more dangerous, he realises that if he doesn't banish Sawyer to the afterlife, he might be joining him sooner than he'd like.

Many of the characters in this aren't very nice, even Jake's older brother Benji bullies Jake & mistreats his on/off girlfriend. The best things are the friendship that grows between Jake & Fiona, another student at SCP, & his tentative friendship/possible relationship with new boy, Allister. The issue I had was that there was no explanation of when/how Jake is able to see ghosts etc & how long this has been happening, you're just thrown into the story. I also didn't find it credible that Jake would allow Sawyer to take over his body, yeah it's because he wants to try & find Sawyer's weaknesses to use against him, but he commits a crime using Jake's body. What about DNA evidence that could put him in the vicinity? Or if someone had seen him near there? Overall, it deals with some difficult subjects & I didn't really enjoy reading it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Racism, Bullying, and Homophobia

Moderate: Drug use and Animal cruelty

goldendreams's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Death, Homophobia, Murder, Racism, Violence, Gun violence, Mental illness, Child death, and Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Child abuse, and Alcohol

Minor: Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Slavery, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Domestic abuse, and Cursing

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

the_wistful_word_witch's review against another edition

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

jjames_mal's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful tense fast-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

4.5

This YA horror follows Jake, a teenage medium, after the ghost of a school shooter becomes super attached to him. And, this book has almost every content warning that I can think of so please be warned. 
This book was super fast-paced and action packed (so action packed that I didn't really know what was happening sometimes), and at only 240 pages I really wish it was longer. I loved (most) of the characters and the ending, and I can definitely say that The Taking of Jake Livingston is being added to my list of books that made me cry.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gun violence, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Body horror, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Animal death, Racism, Mental illness, Mass/school shootings, Murder, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Incest, Adult/minor relationship, and Rape

Minor: Drug use and Alcohol

her's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Homophobia, Gun violence, Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Bullying, Murder, Sexual assault, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Pedophilia, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Death, Racism, Racial slurs, Mental illness, Mass/school shootings, and Incest

Minor: Drug use

parasolcrafter's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

3.75

this book was fine but the two major events happened so fast i think i got whiplash 😭

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Mass/school shootings, Fire/Fire injury, Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Violence

Moderate: Ableism and Drug use