The Taking of Jake Livingston Review

 The Taking of Jake Livingston by Ryan Douglass 

Narrated by Kevin R Free and Michael crouch

Synopsis

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. 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.

I gave this book 4 stars and the audio 5 stars. Let’s talk about the audio first. It was dual narratoration. They seem to coincide with one another keeping the pacing together. I find that important with multiple narrators. For if one is off it can throw the story into a funk when the next one picks up there section.  The two narrators also fit the character they were reading. Which help pull you into the story. They did a great job building the spooky/ creepy atmosphere for the story.

Now the book it self was enjoyable. I found it fast pace and a easy read. With something constatly happening it kept you engaged. In the synopsis it talks about him deal with a racist teacher and while she did say some things to be racist. I did except more but really it didn’t go into it as much as other books I have read. Really the book seemed to be more about the ghost and him being a medium with a little bit of friendship, love, and self discovery thrown in at the end. Which was what I wanted to read from this story. Don’t go in thinking of finding it scary. Its more a ghost story to tell around the camp fire. A fun spooky haunt.

Do you like ghost stories? What was the last one you read?