A review by hearth_hobbit
Jackal by Erin E. Adams

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I received a free copy of this eBook from Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine in exchange for an honest review.

Genre: Horror, Paranormal, Mystery/Thriller

You make like this book if you like:
  • Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson
  • True Crime
  • Us (Movie)
  • It Part I (Movie)

3.5 Stars: I liked it

Summary: Liz reluctantly comes home to her hometown in Johnstown, Pennsylvania after years away to attend her best friend’s wedding. While at the wedding, the happy couple’s daughter, Caroline, goes missing while Liz is watching her. Driven by grief and fear for Caroline’s safety, Liz is willing to do anything to find Caroline including confronting the town’s unsavory past. 

Thoughts: I love looking at the symbolic meaning of a story, which is probably why I love Horror so much as a genre. Horror is a great vehicle to discuss societal fears and systemic injustice. This book explores a couple of different topics but the main theme revolves around the way missing and murdered Black girls cases are often forgotten and/or ignored. Prior to reading this book I had been listening to Black Girl Gone, a podcast that sheds light on overlooked cases of missing and murdered Black women and girls. I don’t think you necessarily need to have prior knowledge to read this book but after hearing several years worth of episodes from this podcast, it helped me to appreciate this book and its themes. The main character ends up unearthing decades’ worth of missing Black girls that go missing on the same day every year. While in the book it seems like that's super obvious and if someone who doesn’t even live in this town picks up on it, then it's a mystery that should’ve been solved a long time ago and that, of course, is the point. The fact that Black girls go missing on this day annually is not lost on the people who live there and it becomes a part of the town’s lore.

For the most part I did really enjoy this book. The author does a fantastic job of creating a tense and chilling atmosphere. However, I think the story would have benefitted from having the paranormal aspect of the story woven in sooner. For a good portion of the book it seems like the big bad could be anyone. I felt like it when it was revealed that the villain was supernatural, it was too far in. To be honest, I also didn’t completely understand the resolution to the story. Still, I’d be interested in reading something from this author again.