A review by minimicropup
Jackal by Erin E. Adams

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Main POVs šŸ‘Œ: 
  • A New Yorker returning to their PA hometown for their childhood best friendā€™s wedding and staying with their Haitian mother, with whom they have a complicated relationship. Thereā€™s a reluctance about returning due to trauma, shame, and fear from the past and a recent relationship break-up.
  • An unknown narrator describing the circumstances of each of the missing Black girls over the townā€™s history.
 
Atmosphere šŸ‘: Confusing, jarring, pensive. The writing holds the undercurrents of tension without drowning you in it.
  • Set in Johnstown, Pennsylvania in different eras, with the main action being present day
 
Cred Rating šŸ‘: Supernatural true crime realism
  • Realistic IRL horrors from our world merged with those of another realm. 
 
Growls and Howls šŸŗ: 
  • Can we please have everyone describe characters the way this author does from now on? I loved getting the descriptions of the charactersā€™ skin, hair, and style. It wasnā€™t overly detailed, and it helped bring the characters to life.
  • The writing was jarring at times in a way that knocked me out of the story. I wasnā€™t skimming and yet I found that I had to re-read lines or go back a few pages to figure out what was going on occasionally. I especially struggled with this during the final action fight-for-your-life scenes.
  • I have biases Iā€™m not even aware of. This book helped me with that. I identified so much with our MC because of the authorā€™s skill at gradually placing you in someone elseā€™s mind and body. I donā€™t know how to say this in a way that isnā€™t cringey, but I came away from this story having more empathy about the pressures and experiences unique to young Black men and women in America. Like, insight into those subtle paper-cut-type wounds from how one is treated because of appearance and ancestry, and how they accumulate and harm how we view ourselves and others.
 
Reading Journey šŸ˜µā€šŸ’«: All the ups and downs, twists and turns of an IRL drive through hilly Pennsylvania. Sometimes I got spun around, took a wrong turn, ended up going in circles, but it was worth it for the views.
 
Mood Reading Match-Up:
  • Cerebral suspense/mystery
  • Occult/supernatural entities, ā€œstay out of the woods!ā€ energy
  • Subtle horror using metaphor, allegory, and personification to explore IRL horrors of racism, classism, and generational and regional trauma.
  • Subjective, poetic type writing 
 
Vibes: šŸ«¢šŸ˜µšŸ¤”
 
Content Heads-Up: Missing and murdered children. Prejudice and discrimination due to race and social status.
 
Format: Library Digital via Libby
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