Ryan Douglass is a queer horror author and freelance writer from Atlanta, Georgia. His work on media representation has appeared in HuffPost, Atlanta Black Star, LGBTQ Nation, and the National Council of Teachers of English, among others. He received his BA in theater studies from Hofstra University and is currently a nomad floating across the United States. The Taking of Jake Livingston is his first novel.
 

CHILLING, TIMELY GHOST STORY: This is a ghost story with social impact. Readers will be alternately scared of and horrified by the supernatural elements as much as the racist, bullying, and homophobic behavior of the characters in the story.CROSS-GENRE APPEAL: While at its core a ghost story, The Taking of Jake Livingston will also appeal to readers who enjoy thriller, horror, mysteries, and stories that question the status quo.EXCITING DEBUT AUTHOR: This is Ryan's debut YA novel and he is a talent. His writing is gripping, timely, and utterly unapologetic. It is impossible to read The Taking of Jake Livingston and not be impacted.HOTLY ANTICIPATED: With the hardcover set to hit shelves in just one month, this book has been hotly anticipated in the YA community. It has over 16,000 adds on GoodReads and already has over 70 reviews and 170 ratings by readers with an average 4.25/5 star rating. A book review of The Taking of Jake Livingston went viral with over 153k views and 57k likes and over a 1000 comments on Tik Tok boosting the title's online presence resulting in an immediate spike in preorders. With over 600 preorders now, this title now appears in Amazon's top 20 YA ebooks for Black and African American Fiction!

An Instant New York Times Bestseller!

Get Out meets Holly Jackson in this YA social thriller where survival is not a guarantee.

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.