Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Jackal by Erin E. Adams

22 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

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

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

kerrygetsliterary's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Blood, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Alcoholism, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, and Violence

chefboyavi's review

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

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

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

frogggirl2's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

After the intriguing first chapter, this book changes perspective and gets off to a very slow start.  This is not a new or original story; kidnapped girls, racism in Appalachia - none of this is groundbreaking.  This whole let's take everyone relevant to the plot into the woods (because one of them is clearly guilty) so we can see who betrays us thing is just tedious, ridiculous, derivative and boring.   Everyone is a suspect and there's no way of knowing who the guilty party is so it's just a lame plot device.  There's a lot of showing not telling; if you have confidence that your book has clearly conveyed your message, you don't need to actually word by word spell out the metaphor of the novel on the last page.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Murder, and Racism

mfrisk'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

4.0

I really enjoyed this book. It touches on the history of the area, has a good build up of thriller elements, and a lot of social commentary around race and class. Where it gets a bit confusing is the more supernatural/horror elements that while interesting I’m not sure are weaved into the story enough early on for them to feel fully realized. That being said I really look forward to reading more from this author given that this was a debut. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Animal cruelty, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Racism, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Blood, Murder, Grief, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Eating disorder, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Sexual content

emzhay's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Gore, Murder, Racism, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Alcoholism

Minor: Sexual content