The Taking of Jake Livingston, written by Ryan Douglass in 2021 explores racism, identity, and the psychological issues experienced by the two protagonists, Jake and Sawyer. Jake Livingston, as one of only a few black students in his high school, feels like an outsider among his white classmates and teachers. He is haunted by the ghost of Sawyer Doon, a boy who shot and killed six kids at a neighboring high school before taking his own life. The novel employs an intriguing narrative structure using the first-person perspective alternating between Jake’s and Sawyer’s diaries. By telling the perspective of two different boys, Ryan wants the reader to understand the trials of teens who are mentally isolated by common social issues, including racism, sexual orientation, abuse, and bullying.

As a young black man, Jake goes about his day carefully; he is wary of coming across as too "angry" or "threatening" to his white peers who might stereotype him. Being conscious of how he comes across to his white peers helps him avoid lots of trouble. However, his actions do not magically erase the ingrained racism at his school, and Jake continues to face frustrating microaggressions and blatant discrimination from his peers and teachers. For example, his teachers often single him out in class discussions about race, and he is often subjected to horrifying racial slurs. Some of his classmates purposefully mispronounce his name and mock him with suggestions that he knows everything about black culture. Outside of school, Jake also experiences harassment and racial profiling from the police, which adds to his anxiety and sense of isolation.

Adding to the complexities, the two protagonists, Jake and Sawyer, are both gay, causing many to treat them with indifference or with physical abuse. For example, Jake’s father beats him up after he finds out Jake is gay and Sawyer is sexually abused by his uncle. While they are both traumatized for being gay, the effects on each boy are quite different. Jake becomes withdrawn and quiet, afraid of letting others see his full personality, and Sawyer takes his frustrations and trauma out on others. Even after his horrific suicide, Sawyer decides to continue revenge the world as a ghost by haunting Jake and trying to get into Jake's body to control him. He kept pestering Jake even after Jake discover him. Their different personalities also lead to their fate.

The story delves deeply into mental health, revealing how Jake's anxiety and isolation grow due to the racism and the abuse he experiences. In addition, because he is the only person who can see ghosts, his family and friends cannot understand him. Not being able to talk to anyone about what he was going through adds to his sense of hopelessness. Jake's struggles with depression and anxiety leave him feeling isolated and disconnected from those around him, even his closest friends. He realizes that if this cycle continues, his psychological issues will also continue, so he decides to seek help. Fortunately, his friends and family give great support and help to him fight against Sawyer's ghost. As a result, Jake’s life gradually improves, and his mental health crisis is successfully resolved.

However, Sawyer’s experience is different. He has lived in an extremely depressive family environment since he was a child. His father abandons the family, leaves his mother, him, and his sister. He doesn't get along well with his sister, Annie, and the two often argue over small things, which leads to bigger family conflicts. His mother also has a strong desire to control the two children. As Sawyer wrote in his dairy discovering Momma had looked Annie’s dairy many times, “Momma loves to know everything about us. She snoops in our rooms and swears she doesn't” (69). With much pressure brought by the family, Sawyer's inner thoughts are also changing - he becomes more and more manic and depressed. Although he experiences slight improvement after seeing a psychiatrist, gossip from schoolmates and the sexual abuse from his uncle leads him to a deeper abyss, which leads to him to kill his classmates and himself. While Sawyer had many opportunities to avoid the tragic shooting and suicide, those opportunities for help were pushed away by others. In the end, Jake and Sawyer start a fight. Jake managed to get Sawyer's soul out of his body. Sawyer is finally able to let go of his attachment to the living world, and Jake finds a sense of peace and understand about the traumatic events of his past. While there is no clear reason for Sawyer to choose Jake, it is clear he becomes envious of the support Jake receives, so he works to ruin his life like his own life was ruined.

Even though Jake and Sawyer deal with similar issues, they have very different lives. Jake's family and friends give him understanding and support, allowing him to find his own happiness. The cross narrating of the boys’ perspectives gives a comprehensive understanding of their experiences, their morals, and their hearts. Readers follow Jake's feelings closely while getting to know Sawyer's motivations and demons. The reader can relate to these adolescents in many ways, as discrimination and psychological problems are prevalent in today’s youth. Many young people, like Sawyer, do not get enough attention or support, which can lead to them lashing out with violent behavior. Ryan Douglass clearly suggests through his engaging and impactful story, that we should be tolerant and understanding of each other’s differences and be observant of potential psychological problems hidden around us. If we can discover them and get these troubled teens help in time, we can avoid greater tragedies. We can have more “Jakes” will happen and less “Sawyers.”