miropo 's review for:

The Taking of Jake Livingston by Ryan Douglass

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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

---

The Taking of Jake Livingston was fantastic! I love YA, and when it mixes POC and queer characters it has all my attention. One thing I appreciated right away was that the characters weren’t 12 — their maturity felt more in par with their age, which doesn’t often happen with YA. The way Jake interacts with his family, classmates, and others came across as very authentic. His view of ghosts and demons also made sense to me; he reacted much like I imagine I would in his place.

I’m less sure about how we were meant to feel about Sawyer.

Yes, he was bullied, but he still chose every step that followed. Jake was also bullied and, while he made a serious mistake by stabbing someone, it was nowhere near the level of destruction Sawyer caused. I wasn’t convinced we should excuse Sawyer just because of his past.

That said, I really loved the story overall. My only wish is that there was more. The love story ends right as Jake and his crush decide to date, which fits with the theme of “no life after the closer.” I get that the focus was on the supernatural rather than romance, but part of me wanted to see that thread developed. Still, I also know that if there was a sequel, it might not hit the same heights.