In Jackal, we are following Liz, who comes back to her hometown for her best friend, Mel's wedding. During the wedding, Mel's daughter Caroline disappears in the woods. Young black girls have been disappearing in these woods for years. Will Liz be be able to put the mystery behind the lost girls to rest and find Caroline in time?

This is definitely 4.5 stars for me. I loved Liz as our protagonist, and I love the little glimpses we are shown of the missing girls lives. The detail in this book was so good, I could picture everything as it was playing out. I can't wait to get the physical copy of this book. I loved this story so much, I just felt like it was dragging a little in some parts, or this would definitely be a solid 5.

Thank you so much NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for giving me the opportunity to read for an honest review.

Big thank you NetGalley and to the publisher for the chance to review this book pre-release. WHOOH. Jackal is an absolute ride. The horror aspect of the story hits you in a couple different angles, and Ms. Adams does a fantastic job doing it. The plot was strong, and the world-building was so detailed I felt like I was sitting right in the middle of this story. Giving this a GLOWING reccomendation for all those who want horror, suspense and a little bit of that realism that you experience when watching a movie like Get Out that reminds you that some of these experiences are based off things that are currently happening to so many people around you. Fantastic book. A more formal review will be available on my IG/TikTok and Goodreads.

An interesting and intriguing read. Not exactly horror or thriller but spooky nonetheless. Nice touch to set this in the rust belt of Pennsylvania, I get a bit creeped out whenever I have to drive through that area. My only gripe is the ending felt off compared to the rest of the story. A lot of depth in the beginning then just a bit of disappointment.

Special thanks to the author, randomhouse, & netgalley for my advanced copy.

This was a decent read definitely not your typical mystery/thriller. I wouldn’t say it’s a horror because it didn’t scare me much. But the gruesome scenes gave horror vibes.

The beginning definitely pulls you in but toward the second half of the novel it started to lose me. The original assumption I had of what was going to occur immediately changed the deeper I got into the story. I wasn’t really surprised once everything was revealed.

The writing was great though I just thought it was going in another direction. It started so well building up the suspense with the eerie scenes, the character development, and detailed scenarios. The vivid descriptions made it easy for me to really envision what the characters were dealing with. Almost like watching a movie. But once I was about 60-70% in things got iffy. You’ll have to read it to understand what I mean.

I loved there were so many twists because not only did this add depth to the story. But it keeps you guessing and unsure of who to trust. One minute you think this person’s the killer and the next it’s someone or something else. At one point I was sure Liz was the killer and was just having blackouts.

Overall, I enjoyed this because it takes you on a journey. You won’t be able to guess who’s behind the whole thing!!!! I recommend this for spooky season for sure.

This was an interesting mixture of mystery/suspense that included some elements of horror, though I have to admit there were never any moments in which I felt scared, or even really on-edge with anticipation of something scary coming. I felt like it could have been 4 stars for me if it had fallen solidly into one category or the other. The addition of the supernatural horror element detracted from a solid suspense novel, yet was also not fully developed enough to put it squarely in the horror genre.

I really enjoyed this! I was sucked in from the beginning and could not stop reading. I did feel a little meh towards the end but I did like how everything wrapped up. The author’s descriptions were fantastic and really had me scared for Liz throughout.

I really liked where the story was heading, until the last quarter of the book. With so many suspicious characters, the book could have had a huge twist, but instead it was odd and not at all expected. I felt it didn’t match the story at all, and was a bit confusing.
The two narratives were good, but again, with the big reveal it didn’t work. For all the thrilling content and the bread crumbs of clues building up, I really expected an equal ending.

Absolutely beautiful story. it has a little bit over everything you need mystery, horror, thriller and a whole lot of suspense. This is a must read of the year the author does a beautiful job of mixing in the realities of this world and the fantasy of the one she created. I felt for the characters and was right there with them as I was reading. Wonderfully done, can't wait to read more by this author.

I really enjoyed this book. I read a lot of thrillers and true-crime novels. Even though I like them, there is always the issue of humanizing the characters and victims. I genuinely felt for the victims and their families in this book. This book used multiple POVs to introduce us to each victim. We were also introduced to the family of the victims. The author included a lot of themes like domestic violence, social class and racism in the justice system in the novel. I empathized with Liz a lot and understood her motives. I appreciated how subtle the book was. Some social thrillers are very direct ,which I appreciate , but I liked how we slowly saw how racism and sexism affected Liz and how her friends and family contributed to this. There was a horror aspect to it that I did not enjoy as much. . I think the aspect of missing girls was horrific enough and that aspect wasn't needed. The book was not perfect but I appreciated how the book focused more on the humanity of the victims and their families, ,instead of actually solving the crime. I would give this book 4.5 stars.

Liz comes home, reluctantly, to her best friends wedding. The wedding is held in the woods. The same woods where Liz had a frightening experience where another Black girl was taken. During the wedding Liz is suppose to keep her eye on Caroline, her best friends daughter, but Caroline is suddenly gone. While Liz is determined to help find the girl she discovers there are many missing girls. All of them taken in the woods. All of them Black.

I loved the premise of this one but unfortunately it didn’t work for me. It was a slow paced literary horror book. It definitely had an uncomfortable, creepy vibe. It also had some social correlations and I did like the idea of a Black thriller/horror book as that’s not something I see often. It felt a little to out there for me in the end.

Thanks to @netgalley and the publisher for an arc of this one for an honest review.

Liz does not want to return to her childhood home but her best friend is getting married. Being back in Jonestown PA comes with alot of feelings for Liz; stress, anxiety BUT the fear of its woods is most pressing. Black girls have not made it out those woods alive and when her god daughter becomes one of many missing, Liz must push aside fear of the trees, darkness and death to find her.

For the most part I highly enjoyed Jackal. I think the author did a stellar job of mixing in the thriller and suspense aspects of this story. Also, she does an wonderful job of describing the racism that Black peoples dealt/deal with while living in the mountains of PA; that racism (or imo white resentment) here takes the form of something truly dark and sinister.

Now, I did have some issues as I was a bit confused on the horror portion and maybe Im overthinking…. but what did the ‘Jackal’ represent here? And was it real or nah? This imo caused a bit of lagging towards its end. Still though, if you have a love for a steady pace then pick this up. It Definitely took me back to my love of creepy suspense reads.

Wow. I was hooked by the description of this book and was not let down. Jackal examines small town life through the lens of a Black woman returning to town for her friend's wedding. Small town racism seems to be at play when we learn of a potential serial killer targeting Black girls spanning many decades.

This book is full of twists, turns, and quite a few red herrings. The author is great at shifting the reader's attention, making it difficult to settle on a single suspect.

Amazing. Overall a well-paced story. drew me in right away and kept me hooked up until about the halfway point, where things slowed down... but then it picked back up with new clues in this small-town who-dun-nit with wild twists and reveals. This kept me guessing who the killer was ‘til the end! Adams did a great job leading us toward one suspect and the other. As someone who has always loved the woods, this made me see it in a new way: trees hide things.

I was actually laughing out loud at a few points, and there were so many great cultural things I could relate to as a Black person. I love to see the varied expressions of Blackness represented here: the upper-middle class Blacks; the French Blacks; the loud, angry, “ghetto” Blacks; the Southern Belle Church Mamas—and all the different ways they’ve been broken, how things affect them, and the various psychological coping mechanisms used to stay safe and sane in a racist world.

Excellent job building the atmosphere of the place—the woods, the town, the connections between the townspeople, the class/historical material analyses. This was such an immersive story that was hard to put down, and I appreciated the little details, like how one of the girls who went missing always had her edges laid with Eco Styler.

This was an incredible book. The story follows Liz, a Black woman, as she returns to her majority white Appalachian hometown for her best friend's wedding. The night of the wedding, her friend's daughter goes missing in the woods, bringing up memories, and new stories of Black girls across the years who have gone missing and been found murdered and mutilated. Liz is drawn deeper into the mystery in more ways than one as she fights to bring her friends daughter home safely. Jackal is frightening as a horror story, but it is even more deeply disturbing as an allegory for white supremacist violence and isolation.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Ballantine for the free ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

Jackal defies all genres. There's a little bit of horror, a little bit of mystery, a sprinkle of thriller, and a whole lot of suspense. This started off as a 5 star read for me, but the direction the ending wound up kind of ruined it for me. It would have been nice for the book to keep its realistic feeling rather than the supernatural path it took. Now don't get me wrong, I love fantasy and supernatural feels, but here it felt randomly placed. I thought we were going in one direction and it wasn't even in the same zip code. Overall, I really did enjoy this book. As a debut, Erin E. Adams amazes. The built up was unreal. It's no secret that black girls and women go missing in the country all the time without little care about what happens to them. She was able to tackle racism and classism while telling another story with such intricate detail and crossing between multiple genres. I applaud her. Some of the best writing I've seen this year!

4 stars

You can read all of my reviews at Nerd Girl Loves Books.

Wow. This book was a crazy ride. I started reading and couldn't stop until I finished it. I thought this was a mystery/thriller, but it's so much more. There is a horror element to the book that I didn't know was there going in, but thinking back, it makes sense because I was so tense reading it. There were so many times were I had no idea what was going to happen next and the story had plenty of twisty turns and false leads. The writing was so well done that it kept me second guessing throughout the book. The story deals with tough issues including racial prejudice, domestic violence, and class and wealth inequity. The book requires the reader to suspend disbelief toward the end, otherwise it won't make a lot of sense. I struggled with this until I realized there were other elements besides a mystery.

Liz Rocher is returning home to small-town Johnston, PA to attend her best friend's wedding. She's never felt comfortable living there, being one of the few black girls in a predominately white town. She fled after high school, going to college and creating a career in the big city. During the wedding the bride's daughter Caroline goes missing, leaving behind a bloody piece of fabric. The search begins but Liz starts to notice a pattern of young black girls going missing at the beginning of each summer. As she digs into the mystery, and the long list of potential killers, she creeps closer and closer to danger.

The book is well-written and caught my immediate attention. The chapters are short and alternate between present day, the days that several of the young girls go missing, as well as a day in Liz's life when she narrowly missed being attacked herself. This back and forth creates tension and just enough information to keep the reader guessing until the crazy ending. Initially I agreed with some reviewers who said the ending was weird, however the more I thought about the story and the layered meanings behind the last few chapters, I changed my mind and enjoyed and appreciated what the author was trying to say. I recommend you read this book and judge for yourself. Just make sure you carve out several hours to read because once you start the book, you'll be hooked.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group, Ballantine, Bantam. All opinions are my own.

A gripping and thrilling story that kept me hooked. I didn’t want to put it down. Though I’d classify it as a horror thriller, the elements of race and societal expectations made it way more than the standard horror tropes.

2.5 stars rounded up.
I really wanted to like this book as I found the premise and the story itself extremely interesting but i sadly could not vite with the waiter's prose. it felt too slow and overdescriptive and for what? nonetheless i enjoyed the horreur elements in it and i would recommend it to friends.

Thank you to Erin, Netgalley, and Bantam for an advance copy of Jackal.

Unfortunately I did not finish this book.

I enjoy social horror and I enjoy current events being a part of fiction, I think it's a great way to keep social issues in your head while also getting a little escape into a manufactured story. However, in my opinion this book threw unnecessary quips in and I had to draw the line at “when my mom started noting the number of American flags going up in the neighborhood, I got scared.” I cannot subscribe to the idea that flying the flag of the country you're from equates to being a Trump supporter, racist, alt-right, or whatever else the author was trying to imply with that statement, I find it to be agenda-driving and fear-mongering and there is more than enough of that going around.

Not what I expected. While not for me, it is going to be popular. ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.