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The Little Interview with Erin E. Adams - Jackal
- The Little Bookshop
- Jul 2
- 5 min read
ABOUT THIS INTERVIEW
We have another "The Little Interview" created by our readers! Erin has answered the questions we've gathered during the book club about Jackal. So grateful she took her time to answer our interview (and also, she visited our shop on the 26th of June, how lucky are we?!). We really appreciate you taking your time for our readers in Rennes, so thank you so much for this!
OUR INTERVIEW
About the writing
Jackal is a supernatural thriller/horror and we are wondering which part you started to write first: the supernatural or the thriller part?
I’ve been a fan of mysteries my entire life, so the thriller aspect came first. I was really focused on the narrative obsession around missing girls and which girls get the media attention both in reality and fiction. After establishing the mystery, the supernatural elements followed. When communities deal with unnamable real horrors, like missing and murdered girls, they often create stories to cope. After letting that mull around for a bit, the more horror based aspects of JACKAL began to come to light.
That brings us to our next question: why did you put a supernatural part in the story? (we did have some theories such as perhaps create a distance between the story and real life/otherwise too close to real life/you just like supernatural books)
The supernatural elements were two fold for me. First, the creation and use of urban legend or story telling by communities to cope with real horrors. Second, as a way of getting close to the bone without alienating myself or readers. Urban legends can often be traced to actual events or communal fears, like “stranger danger”. Or how rumors about killer clowns always appear during times of great turmoil. When it come to alienation, I am always my first reader. I track for myself how close I can get to the horror before tapping out. Genre helps me stay in the uncomfortable parts. For me, only by staying in the discomfort, can I allow the story to unfold in a way that is unflinching and honest, without feeling offputting.
There are some tough subjects in the book (racism, classism, sexism), what was the most difficult part to write about?
Honestly, a lot of it was easy to write because I’d been stewing on these subjects for so long, they wanted to get out. I often found writing, especially in the first draft, to be purgative. The horrors from the page only linger when there’s more to explore. Thus, I try to get everything out in the first few drafts so I’m not haunted. I don’t know if that makes it easy or hard, but I know there gets to be a point in writing about heavy topics where it’s harder to keep them in, than to let them out.
The word racism is almost never said yet we feel it through the entire book. You did the “show don’t tell” really well. Was this a deliberate choice to not have named the subjects or was it something that happened while writing?
Yes. Because, in my experience, racism rarely yells, it whispers. When someone or something is overtly racist, it can be named and dealt with as hate. The subtle stuff is what lingers. That is what I wanted to explore because it’s the stuff that keeps me up at night.
There are different POVs in the book, which one did you prefer to write Liz or the killer?
I like both equally. They both taught me different things and grew in ways that surprised me.
About your inspiration
During our discussion, one of our readers pointed out that there are men disguising themselves as werewolves and killing girls/young women. Was Jackal inspired by these real stories/real cases? Or just something you came up with?
I did research series of missing and murdered Black children, specifically the Atlanta Child Murders and the Freeway Phantom. When it came to the details of JACKAL,I made all that up because I didn’t want to feel like I was taking someone else’s story.
The story and your writing are intriguing and when we read Jackal, everything is vivid. You feel like you're in the woods with the characters (you also feel all their emotions)... Hence our next question: are you in any way influenced by the theater world/playwright experience for these vivid images in our heads?
Yes! I credit a lot of my writing style and craft to my background in theatre. I’m used to inhabiting characters as an actor and setting scenes as a director/playwright. I also love theatre’s ability to be theatrical. It’s so frowned upon in other mediums, but theatre thrives on the fact that you can see the strings. Allowing the strings to show, I find myself better able to build characters and imagery. And when I take the strings away, a lot of it stays.
Because of our last question, we'd also like to know if you already visualized everything in your head before putting words on paper?
I am a very visual creative. So things play out in my head like a movie often. And I’ll watch and rewatch scenes from different angles so I get different nuances. That is a difference between prose and dramatic writing. All you have are words, so everything needs to be baked in to a single passage. You are able to get incredible inferiority and nuance in a way that would be too minute on film, or in a theatre.
Which authors inspire you?
Toni Morrison, Octavia Butler, Ananda Lima, Victor LaValle, Helen Oyeyemi.
About your next book
In April One Of You is getting out, could you tell us a bit more about this one?
ONE OF YOU is planned for April of 2027. It follows two Haitian-American sisters. Both the Beauclaire sisters live in New York City and embody opposing visions of the American Dream. When their mother unexpectedly passes away, and their father succumbs to an unknown illness, the sisters are forced to work together. In the chaos that follows a mysterious outsider named Libete emerges. She knows everything about the Beauclaires, but no one knows anything about her… She holds the answers to the questions the sisters seek, but are they willing to pay her price?
And are you already writing book #3?
Yes! That is being kept super secret for now.
Thank you so much Erin for answering our questions and for coming to our shop in June 2026! Loved reading the answers and loved the event. We can't wait for your next book!
You also want to read Erin's debut? You can reserve a copy at the shop or order it via our click and collect form!
Author: Erin E. Adams
Book: Jackal
Publishing date: 10.10.2024
