Snap!

I went into this story knowing nothing about JACKAL or its author. The story started a bit slow for me, but the pace intensified as the time ran out. In the end, I was hooked. This was Adams's debut novel. She filled her story with pain, frustration, fear, and rage—a flood of emotions. And they are all expected with a story about an abducted child—one of far too many. I also found the author’s voice to have an undeniable hope in the future. In better things. In a better life. “Nothing good comes from being hateful and hollow.” Words to live by in today’s divisive times.

Snap!

Amidst this pain and loss is a fierceness of determination to get to the truth. And the truth that her protagonist, Liz, is looking for should rip your heart out. The setting is the mostly-white, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, but this is an American story. It is one equal parts thriller and whodunit—splashed with horror. While some of that horror is of the paranormal/supernatural variety, be forewarned, much of it, sadly, is all too real. Violence. Racism. Child death. Body Horror. Domestic violence. Gore. Alcohol abuse. Eating disorder. Animal death. Kidnapping. Off-page rape. Off-page violence against children.

JACKAL, by Erin E. Adams
Published by Bantam | Oct 04, 2022
336 Pages | ISBN 978-0593499306

Thank you to #NetGalley, Bantam/Random House Publishing, and the author in exchange for my honest review. I am thrilled to have been able to get a sneak peek. I look forward to whatever is next from Erin E. Adams.

My Heart is a Chansaw

by Stephen Graham Jones
Release date: August 31, 2021

If you are into slashers, this latest novel by Stephen Graham Jones is a "must-read." I only gave the book three-and-a-half stars because I have lost my taste for the horror found in slashers. I find slashers to be in the same category as murder mysteries. For years, as an actor, I had fun with friends creating characters that were messed up. Damaged people who had no problem, taking what they wanted to benefit themselves. Sometimes I was the killer. Other times I got murdered. I have many wonderful and terrifying memories of those times that I gave up because of a news story. The interview was with a woman struggling with the loss of a family member who had been murdered. During the interview, she mentioned her own horror at the thought of all those who derived pleasure and entertainment from the murder of others. I had never thought of what I was doing in that light. Similarly, I used to love slashers—especially in the heyday of the 1980s and 90s. And while slashers (and the murderers in the Murder Mysteries that we put on) did ultimately get the justice they deserved, most of the stories were about the inventive way people could be killed. Maybe I am being way too politically correct here, but because of this, I found myself dragging through portions of this novel while in others—captivated by the characters—almost blundering through the pages like a final girl. Plowing through the words of ignored warnings and ultimately blood and guts to get more story.

The book is very well written and loaded with symbolism, but I found myself lost at times with regard to the references to the many slashers in the novel. As with so much of his past work (at least, those books that I have read,) Dr. Jones is incredibly vivid and imaginative in his storytelling. This reader could tell just how much the slasher meant to him. I think you would be hard-pressed to find a more hardcore eighties slasher fan than Stephen Graham Jones, except for protagonist and anti-hero Jade Daniels. 

The fact that this was an homage to the slasher and a sort of love affair with it was evident. While billed as a horror, this one is also a mystery and a crime story in all its pulpy goodness. 

I want to thank NetGalley and Saga Press, an imprint of Gallery Books and Simon & Schuster, for the opportunity of reading the digital ARC.