Reviews tagging 'Hate crime'

Jackal by Erin E. Adams

53 reviews

zumpers's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Alcohol, Cursing, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Stalking, and Suicide

livlamentloathe's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

This was a great story about racism, lost girls, stories, and secrecy. I loved the split between Liz’s POV and the mysterious chapters about all the missing girls. It reminded me a bit of an Alex North novel. But I liked the messy nature of this. The way everything didn’t wrap up prettily and there’s still a lot of unanswered questions. But for once, not in a bad way. In a realism kind of way, where there’s clearly more coming for the characters of this world, but those details don’t matter or take away from what the reader experienced.

Infuriating! But in a well-written way. I hate white people so much. It’s unfortunate to be lumped in with such a defensive, intolerant race. Ugh and cops. ACAB forever. I think Mindhunter season 2 was the first time I truly recognized police inadequacy when bipoc lives are involved. When I was young, I really thought the duty of the police was to protect us. ALL of us!! I miss that level of naivety sometimes cause situations like that of Liz in this book scramble my whole brain. The way she saw things so clearly and the “justice” system can just decide “uh no actually.” I have so much privilege to even acknowledge this as if it’s still new to me. Autistically, I just fucking wish everything would stop and shut down and reboot better. That the system wasn’t built around inequality and instead cops would DO THEIR JOBS. And racism wasn’t learned or inherited but was actually as unlikely as white people expect it to be. I read this back to back with Bad Cree and the whole notion of “we have to do this cause the cops won’t” has been a big theme of the week.

It’s too bad Liz didn’t make a different decision at the end and go tear out the throats of the entire negligent racist police department.

Get wrecked, Doug.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Racism, Child death, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Gaslighting, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Death, Gore, and Stalking

Minor: Toxic friendship, Alcoholism, Eating disorder, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Colonisation

chefboyavi's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

This is one of those books I wish I could love. It has a strong premise but the writing style didn’t resonate with me. It’s overwritten in a way that makes me feel like the author doesn’t trust the reader to follow her where she wants you to go. I think if it were a bit more restrained, it would be a great book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Hate crime, Sexual assault, Addiction, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Suicide, and Violence

sampetsdogs's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Racism, Classism, Child death, Death, Pedophilia, Blood, Sexual assault, and Hate crime

Moderate: Animal death, Eating disorder, and Gore

sjclay122's review

dark emotional 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Blood

Moderate: Rape, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Child death, Toxic relationship, Racism, Kidnapping, Gun violence, Death of parent, Violence, Murder, and Hate crime

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Kidnapping, Body horror, Hate crime, Grief, Murder, Violence, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Stalking, Blood, Gore, Child death, Gun violence, Death, and Classism

Moderate: Physical abuse, Death of parent, Sexual content, Child abuse, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Alcoholism

Minor: Suicide, Bullying, Eating disorder, Sexual assault, Fatphobia, Pedophilia, Rape, Racial slurs, and Vomit

Misogynoir. Missing person/child. Descriptions of corpses (human and animal).

audaudaud's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Alcoholism, Racism, Blood, Hate crime, Kidnapping, and Death

fkshg8465's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative 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? Yes

5.0

OMG. I want to teach a class just on this book!!!! Part historical fiction, part horror, part suspense, part  allegory, and all of it…what is the right word…around, because, triggered by, integrated with, embodies by…racism. This book was a mind bender, and I loved every minute of it, even the gruesome, because there was a point to it all.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Medical content, Physical abuse, Racism, Panic attacks/disorders, Domestic abuse, Blood, Gaslighting, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Rape, Stalking, Violence, Gun violence, Body horror, and Pedophilia

archaicrobin's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

2.0

Liz reluctantly returns to the small and equally small minded town where she grew up for her friend Mel’s wedding. The town has a dark past of young black girls going missing and turning up later in bloody pieces, so when Mel’s daughter Caroline goes missing under Liz’s watch, it’s a race to find her before the worst occurs. The reader is taken on a journey to find out who or what took Caroline. 

Jackal started off very strong with interesting characters, excellent commentary on the double standards between missing white girls and missing black girls, and the deep rooted racism that permeates small southern towns. 

I was really into this for the first half of the book but unfortunately half way through, the story begins to get out of hand. There’s a lot of possibilities thrown around that aren’t ever really brought up again or are explained with knowledge that Liz shouldn’t realistically have. There was also a supernatural turn to the story that was very sudden, didn’t make any sense, and wasn’t really explained well. Along with the supernatural twist there was also a weird romance thrown in without much background and it was essentially a throw away storyline inserted to have yet another, red herring in this already jam packed mystery. I feel like the author has a great handle of the story at first but as it progressed things just got a little out of hand.

Along with the drawn out and confusing second half there are also quite a few typos that took me out of the story. One in particular that really got on my nerves was the switch between Liz referring to Mel as Melissa sometimes randomly for no reason with no context. One line she’d say Mel, two lines later it was Melissa before being Mel again. This inconsistency was minor but it really disconnected me from the flow of the story. 

Overall, this was great at first and had a lot to say but lost it towards the halfway point. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a thriller with weird vibes and doesn’t mind a pivoting storyline but not for fans of thrillers or those looking for a tight mystery. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Murder, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Grief, Animal death, Racism, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Death of parent, and Gore

sydoodle's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

I adored this book. It is difficult to find thriller novels that truly chill you to your core, but this book did just that. I did guess the major plot twist, but I flipped back and forth between different possibilities up until the moment of the reveal. Never knew what was coming. Loved.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Racism, Murder, Hate crime, and Child death

Moderate: Alcoholism and Body horror

Minor: Eating disorder