The Taking of Jake Livingston by Ryan Douglass

That is until the ghost of Sawyer, a malicious ghost with a troubled past who seems to have it in for Jake, shows up. Jake was fine (or at least surviving) just keeping his head down, avoiding confrontations, and doing everything he could to stay out of trouble and avoid the school bully, Chad. As you can probably guess, this makes life even harder for Jake who’s already living with the “weird kid” label. Even more rarely, they can interact with the world. Normally it’s just like watching a recording of someone’s final moments stuck in an endless loop, but occasionally the ghosts are sentient. Reminds me of when my now-wife first asked me out on a date and I didn’t realize that it was a date because there was no way that tall, smart, hot chick could possibly be interested.īut hey, at least I never had to deal with seeing ghosts. In fact, Alastor has to explicitly state that he’s interested and even then, Jake doesn’t seem entirely convinced. His low self-esteem means he doesn’t even recognize when a hunk named Alastor starts hitting on him. He’s so paralyzed by anxiety and the thought of getting in trouble that Jake never lets himself have any fun, take risks, or even learn to drive. Except for the gender difference, he’s basically teenage me. The whole thing feels like a scene from Get Out. There are never any Black characters (besides slaves) in the books read for English class, and slavery gets glossed over in history. Black history isn’t mentioned at all except for maybe a day or two in February so the school can look woke. Teachers are racist and assume everyone is straight. Ryan Douglass does a perfect job capturing my high school experience in The Taking of Jake Livingston. Being the only gay Black kid in a preppy, White private school sucks and I would know.

The Taking of Jake Livingston by Ryan Douglass