Jackal

A Novel

By: Erin E. Adams

Narrated by: Sandra Okuboyejo, William DeMeritt

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.

©2022 Erin E. Adams (P)2022 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“A heady, page-turning, all-too-relevant reinvention of the return-to-home horror story—truly gut-wrenching and frightening.”—Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and The Pallbearers Club

“Real horror surrounds us in plain sight, nestled in the hearts of fiends who hide behind the barest of masks. Erin E. Adams takes you on a breathless ride with Jackal, revealing the courage it takes to stand up to monsters.”—Alma Katsu, author of The Fervor and The Hunger

“A thrilling blend of detective story, turn-all-the-lights-on-in-your-house-while-reading horror, and social commentary about how often women of color, especially Black women, go missing and get little attention . . . It’s an impressive and thoughtful debut.”—Megan Giddings, author of The Women Could Fly

Grimms has nothing on this Tale!

Good mix of folklore, mystery, and horror in doses I could take. Not a horror fan, but this story offers much more that blood and gore. Anyone who has ever checked under their bed or felt followed will recall it with the author’s clarity of words! I say even if your not a horror fan this book could still be for you.

Good Story!

I personally enjoyed listening to this title. The ending was a little surprising. Consider reading this title if you seek a mystery in a small town. The last few chapters are pretty exciting guessing who did what.

Story is crazy!

Such a great story. The lead up to the climax kept me on my toes. So many little twists. I was guessing the whole story! I loved it!

Great thriller.

This was a great mystery thriller. I enjoyed the multiple POVs because their viewpoints really added to the story. Additionally, I liked how the supernatural elements were added gradually.
The only reason this wasn’t 5 stars was that I felt like the pacing slowed down just before the climax. Otherwise, a great read for fans of mystery, thrillers, or supernatural stories!

Jackal

This book was awesome!!! The storyline was very thought provoking, it kept you guessing who the culprit was...it unfolded very nicely. The characters were believable and likable it was easy to visualize and made me desire to see it on the big screen. Oprah needs to add this to her book list!!! Great Job Ms. Erin Adams. You sure this your first? I am looking forward to the next one!!!

Started off strong…but did not enjoy the ending

I thought the story started off great but then got weird. I was invested and finished the book within 2 days, only to be disappointed on the ending.

a little bit of everything

Excellent narrator and excellent book, but don't go in expecting one thing, because you will get another. This is a mystery, horror, supernatural, fantasy thriller with reality-based racism and classism mixed it. Don't expect a logical ending when monsters, both human and inhuman, are involved. I don't read books expecting everything to be based in reality, and this book is a great example of that.

Eye roll

A reductionist allegory for racism / Trumpism. The end just fell apart for me. The narrators were good I guess.

Wow mystery, paranormal and racism

A young 9 year old black girl Caroline goes missing in the woods outside her Johnstown Pennsylvania town. To Liz Rocher’s shock and dismay, Mel her best friend tells her that the wedding she has come home for after 15 years will be held outside, in the woods. Near to where the body of Keisha Woodson, a girl they went to H.S. with years ago was found. It is also a place where Liz has gotten a deep scar on her wrist, and she can't fully recall precisely what happened.

Liz is still apprehensive about the woods but she's only in Johnstown for 48 hours, (I know where that is) get through the wedding, see her mother and get back home to New York.

The wedding celebration is ongoing when Liz is watching Caroline but gets distracted by Chris a guy she had a crush on in H.S.), who is working as the bartender. When Liz excuses herself and goes back outside; when she looks for Caroline, she frantically asks everyone, until she gets the courage to look where Caroline was last. (Playing near the woods.) It takes all of her strength to step foot into those woods, but for Caroline, she would do anything. When Liz goes in, at first, she sees nothing until she steps further in, and that's when she sees Caroline's torn dress with blood on it.

Immediately the wedding is no longer a wedding but now a mother frantic looking for her child.

Liz is taken to the station, where she is swabbed for DNA and fingerprinted since she was the one who found Caroline's torn dress. While there, she befriends one of the officers named Doug.

But there are dreams of a sharp tooth animal, a dog and the woods. Each day that Caroline continues to be missing the more Liz is implicated in her friend’s daughter’s disappearance. Even her friend Mel starts acting funny as she blames Liz for not keeping an eye on Caroline and drags her out to the woods and leaves her.

Liz begins to suspect the town of killing black female children because she's not the first. Keisha, Morgan, Kayla, Brittany and now Caroline for the past 30 years every summer but the police always say it is an accident and/or animals feeding on their corpses post mortem.

The mother of their classmate Keisha, Denise, tells her that her daughter didn't die of an accident like they say she did.
That if Liz really wants to know what happened, she needs to meet the others. Denise tells her to meet her at the Church in the morning.

Doug, who she befriended at the police station, has news that Keisha didn't die from an accident, that whoever did this cut her in a certain way and removed her heart.

Liz goes to the meeting at the church and is met with 5 women each with a different story to tell.
However, they all share the same time frame, June, and the first day of the summer solstice.

The end is mind boggling as the aspects of a generation of evil white folks coupled with the century of paranormal shadow demon/jackal in the woods and Liz’s history.

- [x] Liz has Mother issues
- [x] Racism within the police
- [x] Paranormal aspect to the woods and dog
- [x] Love the cover
- [x] Is the shadow gone?
- [x] Favorite character is Caroline
- [x] Give this first book by the author 4.5

Amazing read!

Kept me on my toes the entire time and filled with so many life lessons !