A review by loga81427
Haunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton

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

0.0

 If I could give this negative 5 stars, I would. 22 years of reading and this might actually be the worst one. There is SO MUCH I want to say about this book. I'm gonna do it in bullet points so I don't forget anything. Buckle up.

  • Firstly, I can't stress enough how BAD the writing is on this book. It's such a pain to read. Not only the actual grammar is wrong, but also, the metaphors and descriptions are terrible and it makes me think the author has never seen any kind of real world item or person. Like, "reverse-picking a lock" (not a real thing) or "muscles cracking" (again, not supposed to happen). These are only a couple of examples, but the book is filled with these kind of stupid phrases.

  • The characters are basic and unlikeable, but the real problem lies beneath that. I get that it's a """dark romance""" book (tho it's not true, it's an EROTICA book with a rape fantasy), but there is no need to romanticise rape and violence and abuse. The characters are CONTINUOUSLY excused for the wildest things, like "he rapes and stalks BUT it's okay because he also kills bad people and actually cares for victims of others!!!". Give me a break. It's such a lazy writing tactic and it's repeated all over the book. More examples:
    "he rapes her but it's okay because she gets off on it", "she is wet so he is not taking a no for an answer because her body actually wants it"
    . This last one is SUCH a problematic take that I'm actually surprised the author couldn't be bothered to fit it in her page-long trigger warning, which, btw, was just a pathetic text where she said she's "being real with this kind of issues" and "wanting to see her character's penis as much as possible". I can't make this shit up.

  • The sex scenes, which are supposed to be one of the highlights of this book according to other readers, are some of the worst I've ever read. I know that its fans will say that the dark contents of the book are "not for everyone" and that's why bad reviews are happening, but that was definitely not my problem. The sex feels as if a 13 year old was writing the most unhinged scenes ever with no actual experience and no idea of what a dick looks like. Also, honor mention to the actual dialogues during the sex scenes. I've never cringed so hard in my whole entire life. If someone said half of those things in real life to me (including the not-dark-and-supposed-to-be-romantic ones) I'd probably go drier than the Sahara desert.

  • The "murder mystery" plot is so predictable it's not even worth being called a mystery. And it does end in a cliffhanger but
    I really hope they both died and disappear from the face of the Earth
    and I'll be reading the sequel when hell freezes entirely. If this was the Haunting I definitely don't want to be reading about the Hunting (again, giving you another example of how lazy the writing is; I'm convinced more than half the content of this book is some derivation of the word fuck)

Overall, reading this book felt like a very long and painful labor. The ONLY reason I did not DNF it (and I haven't DNF'd a book in like 15 years) is because I was doing a buddy read. As constructing criticism, I would say next time the author could write her rape fantasies on wattpad (because I would not say this is ao3 quality) and save us all the emotional burden of having to see this crap on paper. Also, stop marketing your book as "romance & young adult" just because erotica sells less. It's a badly written glorified rape fantasy. Seven beta readers and two editors and this is the result??? BAFFLING.
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