Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Jackal by Erin E. Adams

31 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

karenreadsbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

4.5

 This book is a thriller, a mystery, and a horror story. It's important to realize that before going into the book so you'll know what to expect. I found the story compelling and a quick read because I didn't want to put it down.

A small town. Racism. A history of "the flood" but no one really seems to know the full story of what happened there (or at least it's not a story that gets told). Girls going missing, those found have been brutally killed. Black girls. So the stories are swept away as accidents or animal attacks. But there's also something supernatural happening with the disappearances.

The ending comes together rather quicky so it would be easy to miss details of the final review. I listened to this on audiobook and rewound the final part to hear it again to be sure I caught everything. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Body horror, Murder, Animal death, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Child death, and Gore

calamitydane's review

dark emotional mysterious

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

5.0

I was in love from the jump. This is a wonderful mystery and an honest depiction of a black girl growing up in a mostly white southern town. I spent the whole time trying to guess who could have done it. There were so many potentials with good evidence to support them. I was texting my partner with guesses and reasons every five minutes

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Content Warnings

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

carolynkwolff's review

challenging dark emotional 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Child death, Classism, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse

Minor: Sexual content and Sexual violence

mynameisrebecca's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Physical abuse, Racism, Blood, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Murder, and Child death

Moderate: Police brutality and Bullying

Minor: Rape

manicpixiedreaming's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

had me in the first half, lost me in the end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Child death

Moderate: Physical abuse

sargasso_c's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.75

This book is a marvel and should be taught in literature classes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Alcoholism, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Xenophobia, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death, Racism, Animal death, Gore, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Stalking, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Abandonment, Kidnapping, Animal cruelty, Eating disorder, Domestic abuse, and Physical abuse

Minor: Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Vomit, Abortion, Medical content, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, and Bullying

jaymebeetus's review

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

livlamentloathe's review against another edition

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

cyannaslibrary's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

— 3.5 stars

what just happened?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Child death, and Racism

Moderate: Physical abuse