Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Jackal by Erin E. Adams

120 reviews

juliatindell's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Jackal was an incredible book. A horror story with a mystery that kept me on edge and a message at the heart of it I won’t soon forget. Highly recommend!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Child abuse, Death, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Pedophilia and Sexual violence

The mentions of child sexual assault are brief and not very detailed but are relatively frequent.

tey_lynn's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Cursing, Death, Grief, Gore, Racial slurs, Animal death, Death of parent, Animal cruelty, Blood, Racism, Confinement, and Violence

Moderate: Child death, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Kidnapping

widgetknits's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Blood and Body horror

Minor: Sexual assault

chilivanilli28's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Blood, Death, Animal death, Kidnapping, Torture, and Gore

bookishkellyn's review

dark mysterious tense

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

3.5

Liz experiences a racial awakening after becoming the prime suspect in her biracial goddaughter’s disappearance. Her search to clear her name compels her to solve the overlooked ritualistic killings of other Black girls. Slow start and pitiful main character but creative plot reveal.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Gore, and Murder

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Racism

Minor: Racial slurs and Sexual assault

jaymebeetus's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? N/A

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Grief, Racism, Classism, Hate crime, Murder, Animal death, Blood, Child death, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death and Mental illness

Minor: Rape, Child abuse, and Pedophilia

laguerrelewis's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

4.5

Jackal was a powerful read, offering both an engaging thriller tale and a rumination on Black womanhood in predominantly white spaces. Adams’ writing is dripping in atmosphere, and Liz is a protagonist I cared for immensely. The mystery elements were surprising and kept me on my toes until its very satisfying conclusion, and the tension really builds in a way that keeps pages turning while still allowing for reflection and rumination. A perfect read for a chilly Halloween!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Body horror, Alcohol, Gore, Blood, Child death, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Animal death, Murder, Police brutality, Death, Racial slurs, Racism, and Violence

Minor: Vomit, Sexual content, and Rape

jaygabler's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

Thank you Random House for the free book. The debut novel by Erin E. Adams has a missing-girl mystery thriller setup, but don't let the plot details distract you from the characters and setting: whodunit is ultimately less important than what the protagonist will choose to do next.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Child death, and Murder

Moderate: Domestic abuse

Minor: Child abuse

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