A review by coryyalva
The Taking of Jake Livingston by Ryan Douglass

adventurous emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I was so so so excited for this book. The concept was so intriguing to me. Jake's struggle between the world of the living and the dead had so much potential....but the potential fell flat so quickly.

About halfway through the book the direction that the story seemed to be going in seemingly disappeared and the author suddenly started driving the characters in directions that didn't seem to go anywhere. Suddenly a book that was so intriguing with characters that were both lovable and disturbing turned into a long drawn out battle with confusing focus shifts.

To sum it up quickly: the first half of this book felt as though it had been reviewed a thousand times and the last half felt like it was thrown together quickly and read over once before publishing. I felt as though the second half of the book did not get the love and care that the first half got.

The ending was everything I wanted it to be, but the middle completely lost me as a reader.
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