Reviews

Potential not reached, If I Stopped Haunting You is plagued by shortcoming typical in a debut: hodgepodge of disconnected ideas, weak characterization, and absence of an involving pacing. There are nuggets of quality throughout, and the various representations are wholeheartedly welcome, but overall this supernatural, hate-to-love rom-com is a miss.

The story opens in the wrong foot immediately with the root of its 'hate' element; the heroine's unprovoked public shaming of the hero is so pointlessly hurtful and irresponsible (She's basically being Kayne West to Taylor Swift during 2009 VMA), there's really nothing the author can do to redeem the heroine afterward—the way the hero rationalizes this as a thoughtful wake-up call (when it's basically public defamation) further adds salt to injury.

Things does get more interesting when the supernatural element is introduced, unfortunately it turns out to be a 'non-story' as the buildup to its mystery leads to a very limp, anticlimactic conclusion—more of a scattering of creepy moments rather than a cohesive secondary plot line.

If I Stopped Haunting You is half-baked across the board: characters in their 30s read like horned-up juvenile teens, surface-level commentary regarding racism in the publishing industry, and a romance that's subtly problematic. Everyone has to start somewhere, and I hope Colby Wilkens' next novel will only improve from here.

**This ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Much appreciated!**

melissat's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

This book confused me. I want to be clear that if someone is a Gothic horror girlie (gender neutral), this may be way more up their alley than it was for me. But I found the descriptions of the castle and constant discussion of the ghosts really slowed the pace down for me. The romance was spicy but clashed in tone with the horror and I found it difficult to get into one way or another. The big reveal at the end also felt very anticlimactic to me, I don't know that a malevolent terrifying ghost would manifest from the events that happened. It could be someone's vibe during the Halloween spooky season, but I felt a bit disappointed by the ending.

Content Warnings

kaoticfabel's review against another edition

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slow-paced

2.5

siyuan_ab's review

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

1.0

sarahlassx's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

novelswithnene's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Loveable characters? No

2.5

jaechristy's review

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mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

There were components of this book I really liked: I enjoyed the dual perspectives, I thought the setting of Scotland and the castle were great, and the beginning of the horror aspect was creepy. I also thought that “the incident” was well written and that the author was great at making the scenes of the book come to life. There was a lot of spice which was great. The things I didn’t like: this is supposed to be enemies/rivals to lovers but we moved to lovers way too fast. The reader never really understood why they were enemies in the first place and once we got to the castle they were both pining for each other. I also wish that we could have gone a little deeper in their hate for each other. The resolution with the ghosts felt rushed and unfinished. Lastly, I felt like the addition of Daniela to the retreat group was odd. It felt like she was only a device to show that Pen is bisexual? Both minor characters were pretty one dimensional. All in all, I enjoyed myself reading this but there was definitely room for improvement. I will say it was great to get Native representation where the BIPOC gets to exist in the world and do something like horror in a foreign place like Scotland. It just really goes to show that you can have diverse characters doing anything, not just tied to the typical tropes or settings

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