arc received from the publishers. thank you, penguin!

The Taking of Jake Livingston, or: Area Boy Is Really Going Through It All The Damn Time. I thoroughly enjoyed this quick-paced, chilling tale, which follows Jake, the aforementioned Area Boy. He has enough to deal with, being one of the only Black kids at his private college prep high school, but he also constantly sees the dead. All the time. In his vision, the 'dead world' constantly overlaps with his own— among unfinished equations and failed tests, ghosts caught in their own death loops are constantly distracting him, repeating the moments they died until they finally fade away... or break free.

Jake thinks he has it under control; keep his head down, tell ghouls to leave him alone, pretend they aren't there, and he'll be fine. But then he meets Sawyer Doon, the ghost of a school shooter who killed six of his classmates and then himself at a different high school a year ago. He breaks free from his death loop and decides to continue his work from the afterlife, fueled by his victims. With bodies piling up and the ghost focused on him as part of his grand revenge plan, Jake's previous medium knowledge becomes useless as he fights to survive both in the real world and the dead world. 

When I say this book had it all, I really do mean that. A social horror that uses ghosts, possession, and astral projection as an avenue for explorations of homophobia and anti-Blackness? Check. Horrific, bone-chilling scenes that made me afraid to sleep at night? Check. Kickass friends and a suave, charming love interest we should ALL be simping for? Check. A complicated main character, a complicated villain, and a complicated story that all deliver in a satisfying way? Check!

I'll admit, this book did take me a second to get into. It does switch between Jake's POV and Sawyer's, which I didn't expect, but the way it's organized makes sense once you get to the last third. TAKING is also crafted with intentional brevity, which was a bit strange since most books I've read tend to serve some piping hot exposition and worldbuilding upfront and then let you chew on it while the rest of the story pans out. However, TAKING dives right into it and weaves the details and rules of its world around Jake as he moves through his day-to-day. The mentor figure isn't as prominent as one might expect (which was sad for me, she seemed really cool!), but these narrative choices were, in my opinion, done in a way that really underscores the plot. There's no info-dumping because Jake is, despite being trained as a medium, ignoring what's around him as best as he can. The rules of ghosts and ghouls are there but don't matter very much when Sawyer upends what little Jake lets himself know. I really loved the way this was done once I thought about it, and I'll admit, Allister and Fiona smoothed over everything else for me. I adored them both. 

I can see how others may want a more fleshed-out story, but I loved how in the present this story was and it ticked a lot of uncommon boxes that I really liked to see in paranormal books (which are somewhat spoilery, so they'll stay unmentioned). There were some heavy topics in here, especially about microaggressions and school violence, but I also enjoyed Jake's personal journey and the arc he went through with his friends and love interest. I hope a lot of Black queer kids will be able to see themselves in this book.