This YA debut by Ryan Douglass is an exceptional blend of genres--horror, mystery, thriller and contemporary--that brilliantly captures how Jake, a Black gay teen medium, copes with the varying kinds of violence threatening him.
Jake is the only Black 11th-grader at St. Clair Prep: "I hate it here.... It's like there's a giant floating Black kid sign over my head encouraging my teachers to pay me bad attention." His older brother, Benji, fights back against this kind of flak, but Jake stays silent. At home, he is "muted" around his mom, his "only good parent," whom he doesn't want to disappoint. And everywhere he goes, he studiously ignores dead world, a realm visible only to mediums like Jake that is superimposed over reality "like a subaquatic wasteland of lost matter," where ghosts who haven't crossed relive their deaths.
Then a poltergeist acts out of its death loop. Jake recognizes the ghost as Sawyer Doon, the white school shooter who killed six classmates and then himself last year at Heritage High. Now his ghost has murdered one of the survivors--and is stalking Jake. Though unsure what Sawyer wants from him, Jake knows that only he can stop Sawyer's vengeance.
Jake battles with accepting a responsibility he never wanted. He would rather focus on Allister, the new Black boy in school: "When our hands touch, green light blossoms... a breath of ivy creating one aura between us." Dating would be a reprieve from his condescending teacher who commands him like a dog and from the slave jokes made by his bully. But Jake can't get too close to anyone, or Sawyer will hurt them.
Douglass creates a clever and effective parallel between what Jake can't control--racism and how his body is perceived, a toxic father, an irresponsible brother, his mother's expectations--and his fight against Sawyer. The story builds to a rewardingly chilling and sentimental climax, as Jake must look deep within himself for the power to break the cycles of harm entrapping him. Douglass includes entries from Sawyer's diary, revealing how familial and societal failings combined with inner turmoil to push a broken boy to murder. A clear comparison is drawn between Jake and Sawyer, a careful message that while strength does not surface easily, it is mineable. Moments of levity--skipping class for sundaes, a house sneak-in and car getaway--brightly contrast haunting scenes ("a chaos of bugs" squirming in Jake's ears) and serious topics ("white gay boys can be gay because gay is all they are"). The Taking of Jake Livingston is an extraordinarily crafted exploration of agency during Black gay teenhood. --Samantha Zaboski, freelance editor and reviewer
Shelf Talker: A Black gay teen must stop the murderous ghost of a white teen school shooter in this genre-blending YA debut about finding inner strength and one's own powerful voice.