3.5
Jackal
ByPublisher Description
RECOMMENDED BY GILLIAN FLYNN ON THE TODAY SHOW • A young Black girl goes missing in the woods outside her white rust belt town. But she's not the first—and she may not be the last. . . .
“I read this thriller that is Get Out meets The Vanishing Half in one night.”—BuzzFeed
“Extraordinary . . . A terrifying tale of fears and hatreds generated by racism and class inequality.”—Associated Press
EDGAR® AWARD FINALIST • BRAM STOKER® AWARD FINALIST • SHIRLEY JACKSON AWARD NOMINEE • PHENOMENAL BOOK CLUB PICK
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Esquire, Vulture, PopSugar, Paste, Publishers Weekly • ONE OF COSMOPOLITAN’S BEST HORROR NOVELS OF ALL TIME
It’s watching.
Liz Rocher is coming home . . . reluctantly. As a Black woman, Liz doesn’t exactly have fond memories of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a predominantly white town. But her best friend is getting married, so she braces herself for a weekend of awkward, passive-aggressive reunions. Liz has grown, though; she can handle whatever awaits her. But on the night of the wedding, somewhere between dancing and dessert, the newlyweds’ daughter, Caroline, disappears—and the only thing left behind is a piece of white fabric covered in blood.
It’s taking.
As a frantic search begins, with the police combing the trees for Caroline, Liz is the only one who notices a pattern: A summer night. A missing girl. A party in the woods. She’s seen this before. Keisha Woodson, the only other Black girl in Liz’s high school, walked into the woods with a mysterious man and was later found with her chest cavity ripped open and her heart removed. Liz shudders at the thought that it could have been her, and now, with Caroline missing, it can’t be a coincidence. As Liz starts to dig through the town’s history, she uncovers a horrifying secret about the place she once called home. Children have been going missing in these woods for years. All of them Black. All of them girls.
It’s your turn.
With the evil in the forest creeping closer, Liz knows what she must do: find Caroline, or be entirely consumed by the darkness.
“I read this thriller that is Get Out meets The Vanishing Half in one night.”—BuzzFeed
“Extraordinary . . . A terrifying tale of fears and hatreds generated by racism and class inequality.”—Associated Press
EDGAR® AWARD FINALIST • BRAM STOKER® AWARD FINALIST • SHIRLEY JACKSON AWARD NOMINEE • PHENOMENAL BOOK CLUB PICK
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Esquire, Vulture, PopSugar, Paste, Publishers Weekly • ONE OF COSMOPOLITAN’S BEST HORROR NOVELS OF ALL TIME
It’s watching.
Liz Rocher is coming home . . . reluctantly. As a Black woman, Liz doesn’t exactly have fond memories of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a predominantly white town. But her best friend is getting married, so she braces herself for a weekend of awkward, passive-aggressive reunions. Liz has grown, though; she can handle whatever awaits her. But on the night of the wedding, somewhere between dancing and dessert, the newlyweds’ daughter, Caroline, disappears—and the only thing left behind is a piece of white fabric covered in blood.
It’s taking.
As a frantic search begins, with the police combing the trees for Caroline, Liz is the only one who notices a pattern: A summer night. A missing girl. A party in the woods. She’s seen this before. Keisha Woodson, the only other Black girl in Liz’s high school, walked into the woods with a mysterious man and was later found with her chest cavity ripped open and her heart removed. Liz shudders at the thought that it could have been her, and now, with Caroline missing, it can’t be a coincidence. As Liz starts to dig through the town’s history, she uncovers a horrifying secret about the place she once called home. Children have been going missing in these woods for years. All of them Black. All of them girls.
It’s your turn.
With the evil in the forest creeping closer, Liz knows what she must do: find Caroline, or be entirely consumed by the darkness.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesJackal Reviews
3.5
“Jackal starts off as a gripping mystery with an intriguing premise. Liz returns to her predominantly white hometown in Pennsylvania for a friend's wedding, only to become entangled in the disappearance of a young black girl. It is a case that eerily mirrors the unsolved murder of another black child years earlier. Liz begins piecing together the truth on her own.
Erin E. Adams does an excellent job making Liz feel like a real person. She's complicated, haunted by her past, and not always easy to like, but she's written with enough depth that you can't help but root for her. The mystery itself is suspenseful and engaging, with the plot moving at a steady pace as Liz follows clues, uncovers secrets, and navigates a town filled with buried prejudices and hidden agendas. It has the feel of a crime thriller where an ordinary person, rather than law enforcement, is determined to solve the case, and the red herrings and twists kept me invested throughout.
Unfortunately, the ending is where the book lost me. Everything that had been built up as a tense, grounded mystery suddenly veers into cosmic supernatural territory. While I'm not opposed to supernatural horror, this twist didn't feel like it belonged to this story.. There wasn't enough groundwork laid for such a dramatic shift, so it felt jarring. The resolution also seemed rushed, wrapping everything up far too quickly after spending so much time carefully building the mystery.
Despite a beautifully written narrative, strong themes, and an engaging protagonist, the ending ultimately undermined what had been a compelling story. Jackal had all the pieces of an excellent mystery, but its abrupt supernatural finale and rushed execution fell flat.”
“I really enjoyed the meshing of horror and today’s real world racial issues in this book.
“Everyone in this town, this country, is afraid of the other, whoever the other is today.
If there’s one thing fear can do, it’s make a beast out of a shadow.
It turns us all into monsters.
The enemy of the shadow isn’t light, it’s sight.”
Powerful.”
About Erin E. Adams
Erin E. Adams is a first-generation Haitian American writer and theatre artist. She received her BA with honors in literary arts from Brown University, her MFA in acting from The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program, and her MFA in dramatic writing from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. An award-winning playwright and actor, Adams has called New York City home for the last decade. Jackal is her first novel.
Other books by Erin E. Adams
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