Reviews tagging 'Eating disorder'

Jackal by Erin E. Adams

22 reviews

kace's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Death, Kidnapping, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Racism, Hate crime, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Blood, and Body horror

Moderate: Vomit, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Gun violence, Stalking, Sexual violence, Eating disorder, Cannibalism, Domestic abuse, Classism, Alcoholism, Suicide, Emotional abuse, and Alcohol

sarahbythebook's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

4.0

Full review coming soon

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Gore

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Racism

Minor: Eating disorder and Rape

katsmedialibrary's review

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Gore, and Child death

Moderate: Alcoholism and Animal death

Minor: Rape, Eating disorder, and Adult/minor relationship

edgaranjapoe's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Child death, and Racism

Moderate: Alcohol, Torture, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Grief, Physical abuse, Animal cruelty, Medical content, Violence, and Blood

Minor: Vomit, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual harassment, Panic attacks/disorders, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Cursing, Murder, Bullying, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Excrement, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Confinement, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Body shaming, Hate crime, and Sexual assault

melodyseestrees's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

 A thriller with multiple red herrings and possibly corrupt cops. So just another Tuesday, eh? Liz is a flawed character the reader can empathize with. Returning home for her best friend's wedding Liz faces the judgment and complicated feelings of being back but single for reasons she doesn't want to explain.

Her boyfriend and her were very toxic with each other. The relationship ended due to a domestic dispute incident. This is revealed that the supernatural element smashed her boyfriend in the back of the head with a lamp.

 
Many of the elements within the book are well done. This is including the guilty party being surrounded by equally suspicious characters. There is one character that was not fleshed out as well as most of the others. The brother of the bride. He is revealed to be violent and racist during Liz's high school years and he is sarcastic or otherwise plainly showing his distaste for Liz. Other than that he is not exhibiting any suspicious behavior and is removed from the final confrontation rather easily. It just felt like a waste for him to be so close to being a main person in this case only for him to get a quick off page redemption arc and then get written out until the wrap up.

It is revealed that while the police and guilty party are setting up the case against Liz due to her involvement he tells them to back off her because she is just trying to help.

 
The revelation of the supernatural element was jarring despite allusions made to it throughout the pages.

It was written like it was a man until the big reveal during the final confrontation.

Even when the perspective switches to the guilty side of the coin you may mistake foreshadowing for metaphor or symbolism. If the intent was to keep the reader in the dark about the true nature of all of the elements this is masterfully done. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Sexual violence, Blood, Violence, Death, Racism, Body horror, Alcoholism, Child death, Gore, Eating disorder, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Fatphobia, Child abuse, Rape, Violence, and Animal death

Minor: Stalking

The rape and some of the violence happen off the page. Violence towards children is tagged as child abuse to cover bases. It is not presented as a classic depiction of child abuse.

melodyseestrees's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Sandra Okuboyeho and William DeMeritt do fantastic narrations of their story sections. You will stay firmly on the edge of your seat hoping for the safe return of the missing girl and justice for the other girls. This story takes a twist towards the fantastical so if you don't like fantastical elements in your thrillers this will not necessarily be for you. If you go in knowing to expect the element towards the conclusion you will be less disappointed though as it is well done, just not very realistic. The spoiler tag reveals the unrealistic element solidly so click at your own risk.

The Jackal is a possibly demonic entity encouraging this random white family to murder black little girls and feed him the girls' hearts so he can become real. The white family is a father, a son, and the son's wife. The father taught the son to kill only little girls as the blame can be more easily spread out amongst the populace. The son wanted to kill specifically Liz out of jealousy over her mother being a doctor when he is unable to afford the education needed to become a doctor. It is racially motivated hatred and jealousy. The wife supports her husband unquestiongly and directly participates in at least one crime, the kidnapping of Caroline. The Jackal wanted to team up with Liz instead of Doug because of her 'pure heart' as he wants to become a God and knew Doug's hatred would burn up the body too fast.

 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Gore, Kidnapping, Child death, Death, Blood, Violence, Sexual violence, Alcoholism, and Eating disorder

Moderate: Fatphobia, Violence, Animal death, Child abuse, and Rape

Much of the specifics within the tags happen off page but the implications can be intense. If you see your triggers listed proceed with caution. A character gets their leg broken pretty descriptively. Some of the details around hearts are visceral. At two points there is a heavily described deer carcass. One of those points involves popcorn kernels. I couldn't tag violence against children so I tagged it as child abuse.

discarded_dust_jacket's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

As far as thrillers go, I wouldn’t necessarily call this story gripping in the I-couldn’t-put-it-down sort of way, but it does have this very haunting atmosphere that kept my attention. I found what the author has to say about growing up as one of the few Black children in a predominantly white town/neighborhood to be incredibly poignant, as well as the broader observations about life as a Black woman in this country:

“Your beauty is denied but replicated. Your sexuality is controlled but desired. You take up too much space, but if you are too small, you are ripped apart.” 

I can’t decide what it was about the ending that made me dislike it. Perhaps it was trying to do too much, or the tone of the narrative seemed to fall apart (intention maybe?), but in general, I was left a bit unsatisfied. 

The explanation of Jack’s character—his nature, his motivations, and his methods—were glossed over with these very wide, vague strokes (I’m wondering if he’s meant to be a metaphor for something and I’m just too dense to recognize it). Also, I feel like the ball got dropped where Chris is concerned. We suspect him, then we don’t, then for like one page we’re sure he’s the killer, then he disappears from the story entirely and the true killer is revealed, then he’s just sort of discarded. I didn’t really understand his true purpose in the story.  

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Racism, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Gore, Murder, Kidnapping, and Hate crime

Moderate: Eating disorder, Animal death, and Stalking

michaelion's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This is the hardest review I've ever had to write.

This is the best book I've ever read.

This is the hardest review for me because I don't know what to say. I don't know how to say it all. It's too good. I can't talk about the amazing writing, the beautiful imagery, the twists the turns I fell for every time. It's so personal. It's everything I've ever been looking for. Not even a quarter of the way through I was recommending it to people. Please, please, do yourself a favor, please, read this masterpiece. Buy this masterpiece. Listen to the audio of this masterpiece! Thank me later. I love you.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Animal death, Blood, Genocide, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Violence, Racial slurs, Addiction, Death of parent, Racism, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Animal cruelty, Death, Hate crime, Murder, Gore, Grief, and Stalking

Moderate: Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Trafficking, Xenophobia, Body horror, and Bullying

Minor: Eating disorder, Adult/minor relationship, and Sexual assault

ripxw's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Racism, Gore, Domestic abuse, and Hate crime

Moderate: Animal death, Violence, and Kidnapping

Minor: Child death, Suicide, Alcoholism, Eating disorder, and Death of parent

remie's review

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Kidnapping, Gore, Racism, Murder, Body horror, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, and Hate crime

Moderate: Police brutality

Minor: Alcohol and Eating disorder