JACKAL pulls off something rare and unexpected in the thriller genre. For the first quarter of the book, I thought I knew what kind of story I was reading, but for the last three-quarters, I never saw a single twist coming—and what more can you ask for? Somewhere between a crime thriller and out-and-out horror, it's a compelling and fearless exploration of Blackness, cruelty, bravery, and what we become when justice is denied. Parts of the narration felt a little abrupt, and the ending came on a little fast for me, but the author definitely achieved what she set out to do, and I hope this book is widely read.

This is a powerful story, both of a missing African American girl and her "auntie Liz" who is determined to find her. part mystery in the present and the years of murdered AA girls, whose murders were denied as murder. It is a coming of age story, a story of racism and racial violence over many generations in this town. It is also a story of how being forced to be "good", to confirm to mainstream white standards keep people weak and afraid and unable to tell themselves the truth and trust themselves. How power and passion were what made some girls targets. It veered a little into horror/symbolism, which for me took away from the power of the story. But overall there was a lot of strong and beautiful writing 4.5

Wow! This book was an incredible debut novel. The pace was a little slow in the beginning, but I love how the author keeps you guessing.
It was so well written, looking forward to more from this author!


Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.
I will post this review on my good reads account ( https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/146670520-amber )


Content warning: kidnapping, gore, child death, alcoholism, domestic violence, racism

This was a great book. I loved every paragraph, every sentence and every word of this masterpiece! I read it in 12 hours, which is a lot for me to do! It had everything and more laid out in the novel! I sure hope she writes more! I am totally hooked!

Eloquent and captivating, with a remarkable storyline, “Jackal” is a phenomenal read!

A sincere thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for providing me an advanced readers copy (ARC) of “Jackal” in exchange for an honest, voluntary review.

As someone who has always been facisnated by Appalachian folklore, this book is IT. Vibes and unexplained mysteries aside, Adams masters tension by mixing in the still all too real horrors of life in, specifically, rural America.

Liz returns home for her friend Mel’s wedding.
Mel’s daughter Caroline disappears into the woods at the wedding when Liz is supposed to be watching her. Girls have been disappearing in those woods for 32 years.
This was a great book with a supernatural twist. So creepy I couldn’t hardly put it down.
Thanks NetGalley and Random House for the opportunity to read this book!

I really wanted to like this title. Jackal by Erin E. Adams had an interesting premise, black girls are going missing in Johnstown PA and there's something bad, supernatural?, in the woods. I found the combination didn't work for me though. There were too many explanations for what was going on muddling the story.

Thank you to Netgalley, and the publisher for allowing me to read this digital ARC.

"Do not go seeking the devil and he will not find you."
I love books that give me real life anxiety. Jackal did exactly that. Liz Rochet's search for Caroline is harrowing and hopeless at times. Add that to Liz's constant paranoia and insecurity and Erin Adams' unrelenting commentary on America's inherent systemic racism, you have a beautifully written, very spooky, and well-paced Debbie Downer of a book.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Jackal is a thriller/suspense novel set in a small Appalachian town with a stark divide between the white and black communities of the town. Liz returns after many years away from the town intending to enjoy her best friend's wedding, but finds herself in the midst of something much darker.

I truly enjoyed the majority of this book. The mystery was revealed slowly, with enough twists and turns to keep the action moving along and to keep things from being too predictable. I loved how the woods became their own character and I enjoyed the POVs from the monster at the heart of the story. I also truly enjoyed how fear and rage in all their different forms became centrals parts to this story, for the main character and the monster both. However the main thing that I disliked about this book was something that often happens in suspense novels, which is that Liz made a lot of stupid decisions that I thought she should know better than. When she suspected someone of being involved she was very obvious about it, putting herself and her missing goddaughter in danger. She did experience a lot of character growth though, and I really enjoyed seeing her journey through the book.

Jackal

Liz goes home to a small town in Pennsylvania for Mel’s, her best friend, wedding. During the wedding, Mel’s biracial daughter goes missing. During Liz’s search, she finds out that black girls go missing once a year, but the police don’t care. Hoping to find Caroline alive, Liz hopes to uncover this serial killer.

This is a well-written suspense novel with supernatural elements. The plot was well-paced, and there were enough twists to keep me reading. But it reminds me of why I don’t like suspense novels in general. Liz makes foolish decisions. Every time she suspects someone, she isn’t subtle about it. Her first suspect is Mel’s father. In her wisdom, instead of gathering evidence, she decides to voice these concerns to Mel while they are in the woods searching for Caroline. Then she’s surprised that Mel doesn’t take the accusation that her father not only kidnapped her daughter but is a serial killer. Liz is basing her accusation that he’s a racist hunter and an unproven antidote that he shot a dog after it bit a child. Mel, who, instead of being on her honeymoon, is instead looking for her lost daughter, doesn’t take this well. Liz is shocked. Liz’s love interest is also dim by having the bright idea of asking her out on the first day of the search party. Does he also hit on women during funerals?

A good suspense novel that falls for the cliche of having stupid main female characters.

4 stars

This review is based on an advanced reader copy provided through Netgalley for an honest review.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! A brilliantly written whodunit with a powerful ending! I thought that I had the villains figured out a few times, only to be proven wrong. Excellent characters with a mythology allusion at the ending.

"If there's one thing fear can do, it's make a beast out of a shadow. It turns us all into monsters." (from Jackal)

Jackal, overall, is a success. I'm sure Jordan Peele would love to get his hands on this tale. The characters are interesting, the town feels very alive and claustrophobic, Adams is saying a lot of important and insightful things with this story, and manages to keep us tense and suspicious along the way. Almost.
My only complaint are the chapters told from the perspective of a perpetrator (trying to avoid spoilers). They are so willfully obtuse that each time one would come up, I would be so thrown off of the story and what was happening that I started to get mad. It's one thing to have an author be mysterious and make you want to find out more as they gradually dole out more and more clues; it's something else to be seemingly intentionally murky. But I will say Adams does manage to wrap things up nicely and explain everything by the end. I just wish I hadn't had to keep being interrupted by maddeningly nebulous bits.

This was exciting and entertaining. Hard to put down once i got immersed into the story. Some parts were a bit confusing and the ending was a bit weird to me but overall i enjoyed and am blowed away that this is this authors debut novel.

I actually read the first chapter of this book in the RandomHouse Horror sampler. I didn't think it would be a book I was interested in, but after the sample ended, I couldn't stop thinking about it. Thank you NetGalley and Bantam Books for providing this ARC! What an interesting read this was. I really enjoyed the mystery, the downward and complicated spiral of our narrator's thoughts as well as the hidden narrator. The commentary on fear and how it affects so many aspects of society was well crafted and thought-provoking. I can see how the end may not be everyone's particular taste and I did find it to be an interesting choice. Overall a stunning read, surprised it is a debut, and looking forward to more from this author, highly recommend.

Link will be added to my review once it is posted closer to publication date.

This book is definitely a thriller. It kept up the suspense to the point that even times when I was confused with what was going on, I kept reading to find out what happened next. Black girls keep disappearing into the woods and are found mutilated. A rhyme that is said, don't look at it. Stay out of the woods.

The story keeps you in the dark about the killer until the end. Although the ending left me wondering exactly what was going on, and I felt unsatisfied by the ending..

Like many of the other three-ish start reviewers here, I did enjoy the opening of the book, which had solid footing, but it wasn't that the book pivoted into the supernatural that bothered me so much as I had too many questions of elements that didn't feel like they quite fit together as those pivots happened:

- Why these specific (human) villains?
- If those specific villains, why, for all involved, Black girls? (I understand completely the societal issues at hand here, but for those doing the hunting, why?)
- I really loved that there were pieces about the protagonists eyes and hints that she was hungry for things like the earth, but the reasoning behind those elements didn't feel quite satisfying enough.
- The flood that was alluded to in the opening pages really, really interested me, and I think there were some really good moments when Adams spoke about the architecture of the town, but I felt hungry for just a bit more.

What I loved about this book--and there was more to love than what felt unsatisfying (I acknowledge that ending a book that is a bit mystery/horror hybrid is *incredibly* difficult to land). The protagonist interested me, felt dynamic and had enough secrets that didn't feel like tricks as they were unveiled.

Additionally, the politics of race and class were a big part of the book in incredibly smart and important ways. Indeed, Black girls going missing for years could sail right under the radar of a police system that treats Black bodies much differently from white ones. (How many native women need to go missing to prove that? How many Black girls need to go missing? How many immigrants need to be neglected, children put into cages?) Even more compelling were the ways Adams dealt with class lines and what happens when there's the "other Black girl." (I could not help but think of The Other Black Girl the whole time I was reading this book--the two do very similarly interesting things and I would love to hear the two authors in conversation about their process and what they'd love to see in the future literary landscape because I can see they are both a part of an important change.)

I think Erin E Adams has a bright writerly future. She has an eye and ear for balance and I sense her work will only strengthen as she continues. In the end, I wanted more, and I missed the book when it was over.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reviewer copy in exchange for an honest review.

I am sorry to say this book is a mess. It starts out as a woman’s story and ends up as a supernatural and crazy tale that seems like Red Riding Hood on drugs. The most seemingly cohesive part is the black girls disappearing and no one in the white community being overly concerned. This is a seriously flawed book.

Thank you to NetGalley, Bantam Books, and Erin E. Adams for the advanced copy of Jackal in exchange for my honest review.

The publisher reached out to me offering a chance to read this "haunting, beautifully written thriller" and I can think of no better description for this book. Erin E. Adams is a very talented author and I am hoping to see many more thrillers from her in the future!

I found the big reveal to be very satisfying and one that I didn't see coming. There was one particular aspect of it that I didn't care much for (hence 4 instead of 5 stars), but I think it's kind of spoiler-y to say anything more than that.

Jackal will be on bookshelves October 4!

If you’re looking to kick off your 🍁fall🍁with a story that will make you question whether or not you’re seeing shadows late at night, this is it!

Jackal is the perfect mix of horror, thriller, and suspense. I was sucked in right away by Erin E. Adams’ writing. I thought the story was perfectly paced and as each chapter ended, I was left needing to know what happened next while racking my brain for the clues she left behind.

Based in the real town of Johnstown, PA, I appreciated learning about the eye-opening history of the setting and I liked how it made the perfect backdrop for this story.

If you enjoy crime fiction mixed with a little bit of horror and supernatural, Jackal will be right up your alley.🐺🌲

Definitely ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️’s for me, and I think I found a new genre to enjoy. 🖤

A big thank you to @netgalley and @randomhouse for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!❤️