Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Jackal by Erin E. Adams

8 reviews

clarkg's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Overall, I found this book to be a pretty compelling thriller with a decent twist ending. It's explorations or race, class, gender, and the geography and topography of the land were unlike anything I have read before and I valued Erin Adams' unique creative vision. That said, some moments felt heavy-handed and trope-y, which took me out of it a bit. Even with that caveat, I would still recommend it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Torture, Violence, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Stalking, Child death, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Confinement, Excrement, Sexual assault, Vomit, Rape, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Pedophilia, Alcoholism, Addiction, Alcohol, Child abuse, Suicide, Grief, and Sexual content

faithfulgoddess87's review

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Kidnapping, Racism, Misogyny, Violence, Mental illness, Toxic friendship, Confinement, Gaslighting, and Classism

tey_lynn's review against another edition

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

archaicrobin's review

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

mysterymom40's review

dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Torture, Kidnapping, Gore, Violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Hate crime

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Stalking, Racism, Body horror, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Toxic friendship, and Confinement

Minor: Abandonment, Bullying, 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

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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

adavis16's review

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Murder, Cannibalism, Child death, Cursing, Kidnapping, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Confinement, Violence, and Stalking

nicoleisalwaysreading's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

incredible!!!! defies genre boundaries and is provocative, creative, and brilliantly structured. i wanted to read it again already right after finishing

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Classism, Grief, Mental illness, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, and Gore

Moderate: Racism