Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

Jackal by Erin E. Adams

51 reviews

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

kwaeisig's review against another edition

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

5.0

This book will have you at the edge of your seat! Despite it being fiction, the realities of living life as a Black woman echo throughout the pages. Terrifying, frustrating, and flat out maddening at times, this book will have you talking back to it working alongside the main character to figure it out and snap out of it! 

the white mom being killed is breathtaking and heartbreaking and also pleasant to read in a sad way. She did not believe her black friend when she told her about Black girls and disregarded her daughters blackness when connected to other Black girls that went missing. It was also upsetting because her death garnered more attention than the Black girls gone missing. More attention than her own daughter gone missing. Served her right to die. When you make biracial Black children you cannot choose when to acknowledge their blackness and when to shut them out. It’s unfair and cruel and ultimately set her daughter up to be held captive longer despite her friends thoughts, evidence, etc.

 

This book does not end with a complete “happy ending”. There’s something to be said about small towns across the US that are heavily segregated with many “folk tales”. There are truths in every tale we are told if we take time to decipher them and trace their origins. 

I will be purchasing a copy of this book for my personal library, I loved it so much! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Alcoholism, Death, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Murder, Racism, Child abuse, Classism, and Grief

Moderate: Blood, Torture, Rape, Mental illness, Animal death, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Cursing

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

bkwrm1317's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Great debut thriller/horror novel that will make you afraid of the woods and the dark. You think you heard something? 

No you didn’t. Blending supernatural and cultural horrors of what it means to live in this country right now, particularly for Black and Brown folks, the reader is faced with the horrors of this country’s basis in wealth and racial inequity. The central through line ringing loud in the readers’ mind is and should be: how is it that women of color, Black women in this instance, go missing without anyone blinking an eye? 

Inventive, haunting, and original, great debut by Adams. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Racism, and Gore

Moderate: Addiction, Death, and Alcoholism

Minor: Sexual violence

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

shereadytoread's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

Overall I enjoyed this book a lot. It is fast paced and the interludes break up the story in a way that adds context and helps you engage more with the mystery. It touched on a lot of heavy topics, but it wasn't full of gratuitous violence. It is a book that plays with a lot of red herrings; so with a lot of plausible endings, it gives you the choice to think through the mysteries and try to figure it out. The supernatural elements I think could have been a little stronger but still really good especially for a debut. This was a book that I think could have been a little longer with some aspects better explored but I don't think there were any glaring plot holes that took me out of the story. 

This was the Diversify Your Reading Book Club's Pick for Into the Woods theme in August. The general consensus on this book was positive. 
You can join our virtual book club here:  https://bookclubs.com/diversify-your-reading-2/join/ 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Animal death, Child death, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Stalking and Alcoholism

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

dustghosts's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Death, Hate crime, Child death, Toxic friendship, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Racism, Racial slurs, Violence, Gore, and Body horror

Moderate: Animal death, Sexual content, Classism, Gaslighting, Blood, Violence, Vomit, Misogyny, and Grief

abrostek's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad 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

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Alcoholism and Domestic abuse

Minor: Death of parent