The Taking of Jake Livingston
Penguin Young Readers Group · Paperback · July 12, 2022
An Instant New York Times Bestseller!
We earn from qualifying purchases.
- Who it’s for
- If you want a tense, page-moving YA thriller with an unsettling aftertaste, this clicks.
- Genres
- YA Supernatural Thrillers, YA Horror, YA Ghost Stories
- Published
- Penguin Young Readers Group, July 12, 2022
Nearest books
Matched by what the books are about, then ordered by what their readers also loved.
White SmokeTiffany D. Jackson66% matchShares YA Supernatural Thrillers, YA Horror and YA Ghost Stories
Don't Let the Forest inCG Drews66% matchShares YA Horror
GrownTiffany D. Jackson58% match
All Your Twisted SecretsDiana Urban58% match
Where Sleeping Girls LieFaridah Àbíké-Íyímídé, Natalie Simpson57% match
Cemetery BoysAiden Thomas, Avi Roque58% matchShares YA Ghost Stories
The Weight of BloodTiffany D. Jackson64% matchShares YA Horror
For younger readers: Blood in the Water
For older readers: The Only One Left, The Ghosts of Gwendolyn Montgomery
Start with three books, and this one can be the first.
Members get a new edition every morning: a route out from their books to essays, research and talks, with the reason for each.
Start with this bookAbout this book
An Instant New York Times Bestseller! Get Out meets Holly Jackson in this YA social thriller where survival is not a guarantee. Sixteen-year-old Jake Livingston sees dead people everywhere. But he can't decide what's worse: being a medium forced to watch the dead play out their last moments on a loop or being at the mercy of racist teachers as one of the few Black students at St. Clair Prep. Both are a living nightmare he wishes he could wake up from.
Continue reading
But things at St. Clair start looking up with the arrival of another Black student—the handsome Allister—and for the first time, romance is on the horizon for Jake. Unfortunately, life as a medium is getting worse. Though most ghosts are harmless and Jake is always happy to help them move on to the next place, Sawyer Doon wants much more from Jake. In life, Sawyer was a troubled teen who shot and killed six kids at a local high school before taking his own life. Now he's a powerful, vengeful ghost and he has plans for Jake. Suddenly, everything Jake knows about dead world goes out the window as Sawyer begins to haunt him. High school soon becomes a different kind of survival game—one Jake is not sure he can win.
Tense and Unsettling
If you want a tense, page-moving YA thriller with an unsettling aftertaste, this clicks.
Come here for
- supernatural tension with a psychological edge
- bullying, dread, and teen pressure
Expect
- fast, immersive pacing
- material that also works for discussion or performance
Where it sits
| YA Ghost Stories | 60% |
|---|---|
| YA Horror | 36% |
| YA Supernatural Thrillers | 34% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- YA Ghost Stories
- African American YA
- Prejudice & Racism for Teens
- Authors
- Ryan Douglass
- Publisher
- Penguin Young Readers Group
- Published
- July 12, 2022
- Format
- Paperback
- Reading lane
- YA Ghost Stories