The Jackal: Black Dagger Brotherhood: Prison Camp Book 1
Narrated by Jim Frangione
The Jackal is the first title in yet another offshoot of J.R. Ward’s popular Black Dagger Brotherhood. And while one of the original brothers features somewhat in the main story, the focus is on a new pack of fearsome, fighting vampires forced to endure the horrors of a vampire prison camp. I’m going into this review assuming a familiarity with the world of the Black Dagger Brotherhood, and while this book could, in theory, be read without having read any of the others, I think a lot would be missed if you came into it cold.
A half a century ago, Nyx’s sister Janelle was accused of a crime Nyx is sure she didn’t commit and sentenced to live in an underground vampire prison camp, the location of which has been lost for many years. One night, a freak car accident puts Nyx on the trail of the prison’s location, and she determines to finally rescue Janelle. Armed with her grandfather’s weapons and a whole lot of spunk, she heads underground to do battle and bring her innocent sister home.
Accused of a heinous crime that he didn’t commit, The Jackal has lived in the prison camp for over a century. The prison is pure hell on Earth (or under the earth, to be exact), but he enjoys a certain amount of freedom and protection as the favorite pet of The Commander. When The Jackal discovers Nyx making her way through the labyrinth of hallways that makes up the camp, he thinks she’s crazy and at first tries to get her to leave. When she refuses and offers to pay him cash to help her locate her sister, he figures extorting her for sex is the way to go. What a hero!
With the help of some prison allies, Nyx and The Jackal evade guards and hatch plans to find Janelle and then get Nyx back out of the prison camp, all while The Jackal avoids any encounters with The Commander, whose perks come at a very dear price.
In between the action at the prison camp, we are treated to flashbacks of 1913 Caldwell, NY, when BDB brother Rhage first met The Jackal. We discover his ties to the warrior vampire group and the crime that he was accused of committing.
I started the original Black Dagger Brotherhood series as a true fan, loving the over-the-top Alpha males and unique world Ward had created. I consider Lover Awakened to be one of my top ten favorite romance books ever. However, by around Book 6, I had grown tired of Ward’s authorial tics (constant brand name dropping, shortening every word to some silly form of slang, creating verbs out of nouns ad nauseum, overly creative name spellings and capitalization…) and gave up on the series. I tried again a few years ago with the Black Dagger Brotherhood Legacy series and found it had the same problems. I’m not sure what inspired me to pick up The Jackal, but I was pleased to find that many of these tics were toned down to a palatable level. Throw in a couple of plot twists that I didn’t see coming and the story, overall, kept me riveted.
Many times Nyx’s bravery and determination threw her into too-stupid-to-live territory. Indeed, the entire premise made me question her sanity, but I gave in to suspension of disbelief for the sake of the story. For his part, The Jackal’s initial gruffness and damaged-psyche personae were short-lived. Despite his churlish suggestion that he’d help her for sex, he ended up risking much for someone he’d virtually just met.
The relationship between Nyx and Jack (her nickname for The Jackal) was most definitely of the insta-love variety. I felt as if I’d missed something because Nyx gave a very strong no-go to Jack’s proposal of assistance-for-sex, and yet all of the sudden she’s a very willing partner in their questionably-timed love-making. Too, for a hell-on-Earth prison setting, there were a lot of convenient comforts such as a secret hot spring that provided a lovely bath and plentiful food and clean clothing. I guess a true prison camp isn’t very conducive to romance and sex, even for vampires.
J.R. Ward didn’t disappoint completely with her strange writing choices, deciding for some reason that the language used in all flashbacks to 1913 Caldwell should be that of mid-eighteenth century Scotland. We get a bunch of highly outdated sentence structures such as “I require naught. Leave me thus.” mixed with some couldnaes and dinnaes for flavor I guess. It came off as supremely ridiculous and anachronistic.
Unlike the majority of JR Ward audiobook listeners, I’m not a huge fan of Jim Frangione’s narration. I often find his tone doesn’t match the meaning I get out of the words, and there is little variation in emotion levels or differentiation between characters, male or female. I find his reading to be serviceable at best, but at least it doesn’t distract me from the story.
All in all, I admit to being pleasantly surprised by this new series. So pleased, in fact, that I’ve already started The Savior and have very high hopes.
Jenna
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