Review: The Taking of Jake Livingston

The Taking of Jake Livingston by Ryan Douglass
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm a little sad that this book, a debut that I feel like it's been pushed off for at least two years again and again, is starting with a shockingly low GR rating. On the one hand, I can kinda see why at times, since Douglass doesn't shy away from imbuing his characters with flaws and messiness enough that I could see a lot of YA readers running for the hills. The fact that half the book is in a surprisingly sympathetic villain POV, a gay boy who turned school shooter and then ghost, doesn't really help - but then again, he's still undeniably the antagonist to Jake himself, also gay, but also Black and forced to put up with racism on top of that (witness the scene where he actually stabs a white classmate for making a slave joke to his face in class), and there's a certain element of Greater Scope Evil to it all in this short, punchy book. Maybe the subject matter turns a lot of people off...or maybe they're also under the sway of certain influencers who've no doubt been running whisper campaigns against Douglass ever since he wrote that HuffPost article criticizing activists in YA for being largely privileged and white themselves (to this day Douglass still throws frequent shade at the clique ringleaders online, and I don't blame him one bit, especially since a few of those who've taken potshots at him have been criticized or even cancelled themselves. Looking at you, Shaun David Hutchinson...but I digress.) For sure, though, if I was still working my bookstore job, I'd be giving this one as many customer eyeballs as I can muster.

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