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.

“A man and his shadow live in the trees.
When they walk in time, both are pleased.
If one calls your name, or the other tempts you off the path,
You must ignore both, or face their wrath.”

Children have been going missing in the woods of Johnstown, PA for years. All of them Black. All of them girls.

Liz returns to her hometown for her best friends wedding. On the wedding day the bride’s daughter goes missing. Liz is determined to find her goddaughter, Caroline, and face her fears from a bonfire party years ago. She must confront her own weaknesses, the town’s rampant racial tensions, and a sinister force in the woods if she wants to save Caroline.

I was totally entranced by this book for about 90% of it. Pacing was fast, the tension was well tuned, and the ominous and dark character that was the woods was terrifying. I loved how deftly Adams wrote about racial tensions/racism in a book that was so ensconced in the thriller vibe. She also threw a ton of doubt around and kept me on my toes trying to guess the suspect!

I didn’t love the last 10%. It swayed more horror/supernatural and felt jarring to me when I was in a pure thriller mindset. The ending wasn’t bad but I just felt it wasn’t consistent.

Regardless of the ending, i still have absolutely earmarked this author for additional books! Loved her style.

Read this if you are looking for a genre bending and fast paced book to usher in the spooky season! 🎃

Pages: 336
Publication date: October 4, 2022

Thank you to @netgalley and @randomhouse / Ballantine for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

A young women is missing and out main protagonists Liz reluctantly returns to her home town and becomes embroiled with the police investigation when she notices a pattern of other missing.

A very intense thriller. Definitely add this novel to your list.

This book could have been so much better. Not that it’s bad by any means. It isn’t. It’s really good: scary, well-written, entertaining, interesting. It’s just missing a certain je ne sais quoi.

Thank you for this opportunity!

A propulsive, thought provoking and utterly frightening social horror by an exciting new voice in the genre. This story — revolving around missing Black girls in a rural town in Pennsylvania — takes an already terrifying “trope” and digs deeper, exposing the dark underbelly that too many don’t see when Black girls go missing. The author expertly explores themes of racism, adultification, sexism/misogyny, innocence and guilt. The writing pulled me in immediately and didn’t let go until the last page — not a single word was wasted and the fear and tension were palpable from the very beginning. I’ll be buying a physical copy for my shelf and look forward to reading more from this author in the future!

This is an ambitious, genre-defying novel that is very compelling for the majority of the narrative. It seems like there have been a lot of novels about missing and/or murdered girls, but this one is very unique within this sub-genre and tackles less common themes. I also live somewhat near Johnstown, where it was set, so I was particularly drawn to this setting and the history of the town that the novel provided both in the narrative, and in the author's note at the end. All these positives being said, I am going to say what some other reviewers have already said, which is that the ending somewhat lost me and changed my opinion of the book a bit. While the book was very ambitious how it combined themes and genres, the ending might have been a bit too ambitious, at least for me, and it didn't really think. Even so, I still think this is worth a read and is very impressive in many way, especially as a debut novel.

Rating: 4.5 / 5

Book Details:
-Genre: Horror
-Publication Date: October 4, 2022
-Setting: Johnstown, PA
-features creepy woods, a dark shadow, an eerie rhyme about the woods, and missing children

This horror novel contains many real world discussions, as many of the horrifying things that are happening are based in racism. It is an own voices author and I recommend looking to own voices reviews of the book as well.

It was a very creepy atmosphere. The author managed to blend more paranormal horror and real life horror. It was genuinely a very scary read.

Told through many time periods, we get an interesting multiple POV storyline and get to see the experiences of many characters. This was one of my favorite parts of the novel, especially as it is unclear who the narrator is in sections (at first).

Overall, if you are looking for something that is more horror (rather than thriller) and contains real world horrors, then this book would be a good fit for you.

AMAZING BOOK! A definitely recommended book.
The book was amazing from beginning to end and I wouldn't change a thing about it.
I loved how Liz developed as a character and how she seemed like a genuine real person with insecurities, struggles and living a life of her own.
I loved the suspense/thriller mixed with horror.
Some of the book was a little predictable, but it was more towards the end of the novel. I had an idea what/who it was and appreciated it was confirmed with something realistic.
4.2/5

I have mixed feelings about this book. I enjoyed the mystery and could not wait to find out who was involved. The supernatural element was wierd. The social commentary is very relevant to the times

Jackal was an amazing debut. Not only is this book a well written horror novel with real monsters, murder and mayhem, it is also a statement piece. It clearly without question pulls back the curtain on many social issues. First and foremost, it clearly shows the inequality of young black women and how easily they can disappear in our society without notice. When Liz Rocher starts looking for her friend's daughter, she is stunned to find out one young black girl has gone missing around the summer solstice every year since 1985. It's staggering. In addition, blended in with the overt racism is less obvious classism. The people in this small town are cliquey and snobby. They look at people who don't live "on the hill" as less than - - regardless of color. However, if you aren't white, it's clearly even worse.

As this story unfolds, our main character Liz is struggling with her own demons. She has been the victim of abuse in a previous relationship and is having a hard time moving forward. Her own mother feels that she isn't trying hard enough to make things work and expresses that to her. Instead of asking what's wrong, she makes assumptions. When Liz becomes consumed with trying to find her best friend, Mel's daughter, Caroline who goes missing on her watch, she has a difficult time separating her own fears and trauma from facts. She starts looking at all the white men of power in their town as possible perpetrators - - even her best friend's own father.

This story takes several twists and turns and at times you do wonder about each character's innocence or potential guilt. But through it all, you travel this painful path with Liz as she looks for these murderers and for Caroline.

The book goes back and forth between present day and the past to when some of the other girls disappeared. You get a feel for how they were abducted and the eeriness surrounding the events and the person and/or creature who is committing these heinous acts.

This is such a well-written book. It keeps you engaged and wanting to know how it will resolve itself, but you are also broken hearted for the young lives that were unnecessarily lost and the cruelty behind it. I will definitely be on the lookout for future books by this author.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. I voluntarily chose to read and review this book and the opinions contained within are my own.

Liz Rocher returns home for the wedding of her friend. As one of the few black girls in her class, she fled Johnstown as soon as she could and never looked back until now because something happened to her in the woods that she doesn’t want to think about, let alone revisit because there’s a legendary evil that all the residents know about and the children are taught-Do not look into the shadows. But when her friends mixed race daughter goes missing at the wedding, Liz begins her own investigation and discovers that young black girls have been going missing in the woods for a long time.
While the author did create a very vivid picture of the racism in the town, half way through the book the story took a totally different turn and then the ending went in a whole other other the top direction and it just didn’t work for me. Not that it won’t work for some others, it just didn’t really work for me.
Be warned, there’s quite a lot of graphic violence depicted

"...danger always lurked right around the corner. But they had moved to a town without corners. Danger didn't need a place to hide. It preferred to fester."

Even after devouring this book and sitting with it, I am still completely speechless. Erin E. Adams' way of writing is hypnotic, absolutely beautiful. Every little detail mattered, I was able to piece together theories of my own, able to look at the people surrounding Liz with a critical eye right beside her, the same as her. The way the tension of the scene slowly bled into something horrific, something that made me pause and take a moment and regret reading at night. This was a creepy, terrifying read.

Not only did Jackal tackle racism and classism, it also tackled abusive relationships, all through the lens of a character that was reeling from each and every one. To confront the abuses your hometown (something America preaches about having loyalty to) and simultaneously confront the abuses done to your own body is almost an impossible task, but we watch Liz Rocher try and do it all in one 48-hour period. Which ends up becoming much longer.

And staying in her hometown requires her to confront more than just makes her uncomfortable. Learning about the town with Liz, who grew up there, was a bizarre feeling but I think it just solidified the discomfort that was meant to be prevalent throughout the entire book. It's not easy to look at things that make you uncomfortable and our protagonist does that, learns to do that, this entire book.

The parts that wow'd me and made my skin crawl was when we'd switch to the girls that were taken. The predatory behavior, the terror, the fear, seeing how the young women's families were hung out to dry was a horrifying and awful build up in my chest. I searched for answers alongside Liz because I wanted justice for them just the same, I made my cases, I was ready to accuse. It added a different feeling to know what happened to them, then to switch back to Liz sometimes 35 years in the future and seeing the cases have gone cold.

To everyone confused about the supernatural elements, I'm confused about you. Did you read the same book as me? Not once does this book hide that this might have supernatural elements. Even in the book blurb it doesn't try to hide what it is. This is a wonderful blend of mystery, thriller, and horror.

I enjoyed every minute, read it every moment I could. This is a stunning debut.

There seems to be a trend in books recognizing that those people in marginalized communities are more apt to go missing without an investigation. This was one of them and I glad for anything that adds exposure to an actual problem that continues to exist in our country, whether through fiction or nonfiction. Young Black girls go missing on the summer equinox in this small town in rural Pennsylvania. And even with the obvious pattern, no one seems to really take notice until Liz returns home for a friend's wedding and the bride's young daughter goes missing. Racism, small town segregation, mystery, and a bit of the paranormal combine for a story that you are never really sure where it is going. It is a lot and sometimes the flow of the book was a little uneven. Though, in all honesty, I am not sure there would have ben a better way to layout the story. I also liked the connection to the local history. This made for a read solid read that I couldn't put down.

The writing? Incredible. Fantastic skill. Liked the story line until it went left. The execution was not my personal jam.

I thought this would be a good thriller suspense about the search for a missing mixed-race child in the woods of a super white town that doesn't really care about a missing mixed-race child because they haven't cared about the Black women that went missing before her— including our protagonist's friend from high school, and THAT'S why she don't like them woods.

And then it... took a sharp left, a SWERVE IF YOU WILL into supernatural horror shifting spirit.... weirdness that I... honestly am too logical and straightforward thinking to grasp. I don't understand it, the story and plot twists are non-sensical and convenient because *spirits*. The last 25% of the book may as well have been in ancient hieroglyphs. No idea what was happening. I feel dumb when reading it because my eyes glaze over and I don't understand.

I just wanted to know if they found the little girl.

This book started off strong for me. It was looking like a 4 star review but started losing me 3/4s of the way through. The main character Liz, a successful black woman living in NYC, returns to her hometown, a smallish Appalachian mountain town in Pennsylvania, to attend her high school friend's wedding. During the wedding reception, the friend's daughter disappears and the book takes place over the next several days while the town searches for her. The setting is eerie. The town is set in a valley surrounded by woods in which we find that several young black girls have also gone missing over the years and that the disappearances were not taken all that seriously. Liz starts her own investigation into the history of the missing girls believing it will help to find her friend's daughter. The conclusion was very bizarre and otherworldly, a la Stephen King. Not what I was expecting and not very satisfying.
Not so much a thriller but there was some suspense, a decades long mystery, a bit of wtf is going on, and an awful lot of gruesome and disturbing details so for those who require trigger warnings, you may want to avoid this altogether, because there are too many to name.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

I went into Jackal mostly blind, drawn to the cover and the premise, expecting something similar to some of the hard-hitting Black thriller/horror books that have come out in the wake of the success of films like Get Out. And in a way, that is what I got, but there’s plenty of surprises, especially in how the horror genre is used as a vehicle to explore racial issues.

I love the setting of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. In her author’s note, Erin E. Adams discusses her complicated personal relationship with the location, having grown up there, and it comes through in the narrative. She really taps into the small town sensibilities and racial tensions, establishing the danger of growing up as a Black person there, both in the present day and historically. It’s not uncommon for there to be a stereotype of small towns as having a pleasant exterior, but the underbelly is much darker and grimier, something which the powers that be refuse to address, but Adams really makes her depiction of Johnstown stand out amid the many depictions of small towns and the Rust Belt.

I love how the structure of the book captures how layered the plot is. The inciting incident is Liz coming back for a friend’s wedding, only to find that her friend’s daughter Caroline has gone missing. It soon becomes clear that Caroline is the latest of many Black girls who follow a similar pattern. And in both following the developments, while allowing each of these girls’ stories to be told, recounting what their lives were like prior to each of them disappearing into the woods.

I did feel like the structure in the “main” part of the book was a bit lopsided, with a lot of time spent leading up to the wedding. I would have preferred if the suspense had picked up a little quicker to devote more time to the investigation, however, once it gets there, it’s pretty consistently engaging. And while it can be argued that there’s enough human “horror” in the world, adding the supernatural feels superfluous, I feel Adams handled the balance of the two very well, and they complement each other.

I did like the characters though, and even in the slower bits, they made the story interesting. I really liked how there are multiple ways in which Liz is made to feel out of place, like her mother constantly nitpicking her about her looks, and then being under suspicion when Caroline disappears. It makes her pretty sympathetic throughout the book.

This is a pretty solid horror debut, and I look forward to what Erin E. Adams writes next. If you’re a fan of Black horror or thrillers, I recommend checking this out.