Reviews with content warning for Murder - Haunting Adeline

Just finished this on audio. It's a chaotic hot mess that's confusing, strange, disjointed and messily written, but somehow addicting enough to keep going. The cliffhanger at the end got me hooked, so here I am, diving into book two. Let's see if it gets better or if I'm just a sucker for punishment!

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brittmorgan's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

Read this book because a friend and tik tok. Had a hard time wanting to even pick up the book after starting it. Only stayed to find who killed grandma (Gigi). Also, really didn’t like the main characters but loved most of the side characters like Daya, Sibby, and Jay.

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mollsx482's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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sammers9774's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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floorsalad's review against another edition

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My opinion might be unpopular on this one and no offense to those who enjoyed it but I got bored.

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sydneycrowley's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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littlered22's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Dark as in there is triggering themes and scenes in regards to human trafficking and stalking. But overall a great book. Well written and I couldn't get enough of it even when it had me going wtf

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lattelibrarian's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

Well, this was something I read! To be honest, I read this due to people I know recommending this to me. I don't normally read this genre, or anything really adjacent to this genre, so I thought it'd be good for me to branch out.

The good: there were some parts of this book that I fully agreed with. YES, Adeline, what Zade is doing to you IS stalking and rape and abuse. And YES Zade, how ARE you going to reckon your actions against your morals of saving innocent boys and girls from pedophile rings?? The bad? So much cognitive dissonance.

The good: Parsons Manor. Oh my god YES we love a creepy old mansion. The bad? Unfortunately, not actually haunted. I genuinely thought that Zade was going to be a ghost; perhaps the same ghost (until I was otherwise proven wrong) that haunted Adeline's great-grandmother. I was like hell yeah, multi-generational ghost-fucking? Let's GO. Nope, just a really creepy dude. Also the bad? Why must this take place in Seattle :( (which also, there's a LOT of woods in the setting for a book that takes place in an extremely urban area...Seattle is green but it ain't THAT green haha)

The good: Daya. Great best friend energy, the conversations with her were SO FUNNY. And she was a great reality check for Adeline. The bad? Y'know, I don't think there is a bad. I REALLY liked Daya. Personally, I imagined her in my head as Vella Lovell.

Okay, now for some general 'bad's:

Zade--oh my goddd he is so cocky and in such a small dick energy kind of way. BUT I liked his coworkers, Jay and Ruby, whenever they were around.

Lots of telling and not showing. Also, some of the comparisons were so out of left field that I was truly wondering about the points of reference for these characters.

It was also so incredibly trope-y. As someone who loves a good trope, I can recognize that sometimes the plot exists just for the sex and the tropes. The chances of being in the same place as your stalker and someone from whom he's trying to protect you? Getting invited to a gala and NEEDING to wear a beautiful dress? Again, I love a good trope, but you do have to have some substance behind it to make it believable in a novel kind of way, and not a fanfiction kind of way.

Also, Sibby. While I enjoyed her plenty in the second book (review to come), this first book posits her and maniacal and deeply unsound. Which, to be fair, she is. But Zade (or the author) is very ableist when discussing her character. Sibby suffers from delusions--many of which I think are constructed to make her 'edgy'--and she kills everyone she thinks is a total creep. But Zade is willing to let her take the fall for him and consistently labels her as crazy.

So, all in all, this was an entertaining read. But was it a good one?

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