Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Jackal by Erin E. Adams

13 reviews

clarklyn's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-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? Yes

3.0

I have lots of complicated feelings about this book. I really enjoyed the first part of the book but then it fell off the rails for me and I got lost. I don’t think it knew what it wanted to be…thriller, true crime, mystery, horror? 

It seemed like it was thriller/true crime but then I got ambushed by supernatural horror at the end. I wanted to like it, I appreciated the authors perspective and introspection on being a Black woman. However, to be honest, Liz wasn’t a super likable main character, although I was rooting for her and got incredibly frustrated with every obstacle she faced. The “best friend” was SO cruel to the main character but then they pick back up like it was nothing? Mel left Liz in the woods, the woods Mel KNOWS Liz is terrified of, after throwing her phone into the brush…what an absolute fucking asshole!!?

Sometimes the internal narrative was overly lyrical and flowery. It felt very forced and inauthentic and just isn’t my type of writing I don’t think. We spend more time in the main characters head than we do in the story. 

Another aspect to this review is that I listened to the audiobook which I would not recommend for this book. I think my experience would have been much different if I had read it and maybe I will give it a second chance one day. The narrator struggled when reading the dialog. The sentences ran together and it was incredibly difficult to tell who was saying what at times. Her voice, while pretty and soothing, was very hard to follow and listen to in regard to the story. She was very soft spoken and mumbled her words sometimes and I just couldn’t follow at certain points. 

I almost DNF’d at one point because I was so confused and frustrated. I powered through and while I didn’t *not* enjoy the book, it just wasn’t my favorite and I was left more confused than anything. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gore, Kidnapping, and Racism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Classism, Toxic friendship, Addiction, Gaslighting, and Toxic relationship

clarkg's review against another edition

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. 

---

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.

---

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 against another edition

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

---

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.

---

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.

---

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 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

4.25

---

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. 

---

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 against another edition

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

---

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 against another edition

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

---

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