Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Jackal by Erin E. Adams

12 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

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

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

fkshg8465's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative 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

5.0

OMG. I want to teach a class just on this book!!!! Part historical fiction, part horror, part suspense, part  allegory, and all of it…what is the right word…around, because, triggered by, integrated with, embodies by…racism. This book was a mind bender, and I loved every minute of it, even the gruesome, because there was a point to it all.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Medical content, Physical abuse, Racism, Panic attacks/disorders, Domestic abuse, Blood, Gaslighting, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Rape, Stalking, Violence, Gun violence, Body horror, and Pedophilia

macleanbridie's review

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Toxic friendship, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Gaslighting, Stalking, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Death, and Alcohol

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

sarahbliss's review

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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: Death, Kidnapping, Racism, Animal death, Violence, Toxic friendship, and Child death

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, and Alcoholism

bambooboy's review

dark emotional informative mysterious reflective 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gaslighting, Grief, Alcohol, Animal death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Murder, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Alcoholism, Child death, Classism, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Sexual violence, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Gore, Kidnapping, and Violence

Moderate: Pedophilia, Stalking, and Vomit

michaelion's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring 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

5.0

This is the hardest review I've ever had to write.

This is the best book I've ever read.

This is the hardest review for me because I don't know what to say. I don't know how to say it all. It's too good. I can't talk about the amazing writing, the beautiful imagery, the twists the turns I fell for every time. It's so personal. It's everything I've ever been looking for. Not even a quarter of the way through I was recommending it to people. Please, please, do yourself a favor, please, read this masterpiece. Buy this masterpiece. Listen to the audio of this masterpiece! Thank me later. I love you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Animal death, Blood, Genocide, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Violence, Racial slurs, Addiction, Death of parent, Racism, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Animal cruelty, Death, Hate crime, Murder, Gore, Grief, and Stalking

Moderate: Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Trafficking, Xenophobia, Body horror, and Bullying

Minor: Eating disorder, Adult/minor relationship, and Sexual assault