Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Jackal by Erin E. Adams

29 reviews

jillaay_h's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Gaslighting, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

roxanne_blythe's review

challenging dark informative mysterious reflective sad 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

I love this book for all of the commentary that it makes about race,  gender, and relationships. 


This book is about a bunch of black girls that go missing in the woods. And it’s very interesting that this town. nobody talks about the fact that so many black girls have gone missing in the woods. It gets swept under the rug.

And as Liz is trying to uncover the lore of the town, it becomes supernatural???

Like I knew that there was someone doing this, but also a hinted at a supernatural being in Liz’s dreams.

I still don’t understand the symbolism of a shadow being taking the souls of black women. Like the way, I understood it was that these black girls in general are creators of the culture. And that there wouldn’t be an American culture without the contributions of black women. And how people just take and take and take  from black women until there’s nothing left.

That’s the way I interpreted it, I don’t really understand why she picked a jackal of all creatures. Also, Anubis? Don’t know where that’s coming from. Like one of the girls and her mom had a fascination with ancient Egyptian history, so maybe that’s where it came from??

Honestly, everybody in this town is a suspect all white people were suspicious to me. I did think Nick and  his  father had to do with it. And then I realize Doug had something to do with it when it was revealed by Kerstyn, his wife that his father lost a job at a steel mill.

Chris also was suspicious to me but he turned out to be innocent. Actually I take that back. Nobody in this town is innocent in fact everybody was complacent in the kidnapping and murder of these girls. Pisses me off and it’s actually really upsetting because this happened in real life.

I think where the book kind of lost me was once Lucy was revealed so this shadow being in existence since the 1920s, but they didn’t actually start taking girls until 1985. What didn’t really make sense to me was if Lucy was a black girl or not because her narrative was giving very much white girl…  or I could just be Jack but I’m reading as a white woman.

I can’t really give this book a rating just yet but I did really enjoy it. I think I kind of lost the plot. When’s Lucy was revealed, and we found Caroline.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, and Racism

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

clarkg's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Overall, I found this book to be a pretty compelling thriller with a decent twist ending. It's explorations or race, class, gender, and the geography and topography of the land were unlike anything I have read before and I valued Erin Adams' unique creative vision. That said, some moments felt heavy-handed and trope-y, which took me out of it a bit. Even with that caveat, I would still recommend it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Confinement, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, and Alcohol

carolynkwolff's review

challenging dark emotional sad 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gore, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Kidnapping, Murder, and Classism

Moderate: Child abuse

Minor: Sexual content and Sexual violence

mynameisrebecca's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Racism, Xenophobia, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Bullying and Police brutality

Minor: Rape

theboricuabookworm's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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

4.0

A gripping and intense (semi-paranormal) thriller that leaves me just a little wary of forests now. The book ends masterfully illustrating a point that Liz was trying to argue for the entire book: the world only cares and believes when the bad things happens to the white women even when the Black women have been the primary - and sometimes only - victims. Throughout the entire book, my suspects kept jumping and that is a credit to Adams ability to make us - and Liz - trust in different people every time. I'm not a thriller person much at all but Jackal is certainly one I will recommend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Gore, and Racism

Moderate: Child abuse and Kidnapping

Minor: Rape, Violence, and Vomit

storyofmaryam's review

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

After reading the author's not it was really seeing how the life of the author heavily inspired the setting of the story. i learned a lot about Appalachian history from the story and a reminder of how class and race are used by wealthy elites to maintain control. The main theme was the struggles, tension and violence that manifest from white working class communities against black families how structures of oppression stoke and encourage it. I'm not too keen on thrillers so I would say the third act wasn't as satisfying but overall an informative read and I'm looking forward to reading more from this author 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Racial slurs, Rape, Kidnapping, and Murder

goferreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

4.0

This book made me think in ways I wasn't expecting.  I'd love to read more by this author!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Minor: Child abuse and Sexual assault

juliatindell's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Jackal was an incredible book. A horror story with a mystery that kept me on edge and a message at the heart of it I won’t soon forget. Highly recommend!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Violence, Kidnapping, and Murder

Moderate: Pedophilia and Sexual violence

The mentions of child sexual assault are brief and not very detailed but are relatively frequent.

stephanielee's review

dark emotional 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Racism, Violence, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Child death, Domestic abuse, Blood, and Grief

Minor: Child abuse