Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

The Taking of Jake Livingston by Ryan Douglass

17 reviews

allyah's review

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, and Mass/school shootings

Minor: Alcoholism, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gore, Homophobia, Incest, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

readsandsuch's review

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The horror scenes are really creepy and unsettling. And I appreciated that while Jake deals with racism in his life, racism itself isn’t the horror of the novel. I do wish there was more world building. There were things happing towards the end with the spirit world that weren’t as fleshed out and confused me. I like the pace of the book but wish it was a bit longer. There were some experiences Jake had that I wanted him to sit with just a little longer. Overall I really enjoyed this book and was glad that it was the last in my readings for the Halloween season.  
 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Racism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Physical abuse, and Suicide attempt

Trigger warning for insect horror

oksanagold's review

dark sad tense

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Gore, Gun violence, and Physical abuse

Minor: Rape

If you are a highly-sensitive individual, I do not recommend this book. It can be very disturbing.

being_stupid's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Transphobia, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Abandonment

Moderate: Drug use and Mental illness

_danika's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Violence, Blood, Mass/school shootings, Stalking, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Animal death, Bullying, Cursing, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Car accident, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

books_and_ghosts's review

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Mass/school shootings, and Stalking

Moderate: Ableism and Incest

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, and Slavery

melaniereadsbooks's review

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Thank you to Netgalley, Bookish First, and Penguin Teen for an arc of this book. 

Jake Livingston can see Dead World, and it's having quite the effect on his life. But when the ghost of Sawyer Doon, a deceased school-shooter, escapes his loop and starts going after others, he finds a particular interest in Jake and his medium abilities. Jake will have to stop Sawyer before he kills more people.

There are a lot of really great things about this book.  I love the exploration of his sexuality that Jake goes through, and the character growth that happens. I love the idea of dead world and medium who has to stop the ghost that escaped his loop.

Some things that tripped me up about this book were the pacing and the writing style. Even though I thought the plot and characters were really interesting, I felt the pacing was too slow for what was actually happening, and I just didn't love the writing style.  There were times when it was too much in a characters head and other times when it spent too long on descriptions.

This was a good spooky thriller with a lot of meaning behind it though, and I absolutely love the cover! 

Pub date: July 13, 2021

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Abandonment