A review by dustghosts
Jackal by Erin E. Adams

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this— easy to devour and I found myself hanging on to the mystery. The writing style struck a strange balance between being too straightforward (telling not showing, as the phrase goes 🙄) and too vague, which left me a bit unsure at the beginning. The story and themes feel big, ambitious, like they are tackling a lot of different, lived aspects of classism, racism, and misogynoir at once— some more successfully than others. I actually quite liked the supernatural aspects, here— my only complaint being that I think the author could have left them more open-ended/vague, as I think what lets that part down is the same aspect I mentioned earlier (too clean to be unclear, too vague to be satisfying). This is a bit of a romp and appropriately troubling and thoughtprovoking throughout. 
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