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

dark medium-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

 ⋆⭒˚｡⋆ 1/5 stars.

I would feel bad for him if he didn’t get off on hurting women.

how ironic that you think that after raping and tormenting a woman in her own home!

This review has spoilers, though I don't think you should care because this book is undeniably terrible. I would not recommend this to anybody, and I don't know why tf booktok is so obsessed with Zade, but here I am, having read this disaster of a story.

───── ⑅ plot summary ⑅ ─────

Not much to say. Woman moves into "haunted house" where the haunted part becomes a backdrop to porn. She finds out her great grandma or whatever was being stalked, and woop dee doo! She's being stalked too! Woman tries to solve her great-grandma's murder. Woman very upset cause woman being stalked, but woman gets turned on by fear and so wants him to f*ck her. Woman crazy. What the f*ck. Man hates predators and rapists, but man calls woman he is obsessed with his "good little girl" and forces himself onto her. Man very good moral man because man saves children with his sexy super strength. EUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH.

───── ⑅ the protagonists ⑅ ─────

Adeline Reilly. She's a weirdo, to say the least. Adeline is an author who really really likes being scared, as we've so clearly seen by the amount of times she's gotten wet and hot after being forced by her stalker into oh ... just, you know ... being f*cked with a gun!!! She's well aware she's a victim, but 😲 oh my god 😲 she's kinda into it??? 😲😲😲 And catch this! When she's running for her life in a house of mirrors and he undresses her and asks her to get on her knees, she doesn't want him to ask her! She wants him to force her!😵😵😵 I understand kinky sex, but surely this isn't how it's written! She has absoluuuutely no self respect like ZERO self respect holy sh*t I can't I can'ttttttttttttttt.

Zade fucking Meadows. An actual f*ckfest of a character and super ultra mega skilled hacker, I cannot begin to even understand the way he justifies things in his mind. He's a 32-year-old man who hates rapists and abusers, while he himself is a rapist and abuser. He's extra special in the head, and gets hard every time he makes her run away and tremble in fear. I cannot begin to count the amount of times he assaults Adeline, leaves her crying, goes off like some stupid superhero to save trafficking victims, and then talk shit about their abusers and about how awesome he is because he's rescuing them. "F*ck them, I hate them, how could they ever abuse a woman?" While you're doing the same f*cking thing on a VERY similar scale lmfao wtf??? F*ck off what the hell is this character and why do people like him??? He also has the biggest god complex I've ever seen in a book character so far it is LAUGHABLE lmfao what the helllll mannn

───── ⑅ what I liked ⑅ ─────

Nothing. There is nothing to like. Absolutely nothing. I can't even be constructive and say oh! well, this was good but I didn't like this very much. No. I can't. Because there is nothing redeemable about this book.

───── ⑅ what I didn't like ⑅ ─────

Besides that god-awful plot? The dialogue. The writing. Let me shower you with quotes that show just how special this book is!

I stare at my phone like it’s a mousetrap with a big ass block of cheese in it.

“Here’s the thing about liars,” I cut in. “I really don’t fucking like them. They kinda make me twitchy actually. Do you want me getting twitchy when my finger is on a trigger?”

ladies, why is a 32-year-old man speaking like this? :)

I keep from gritting my teeth, though all I really want to do right now is grind them to dust. The main reason I don’t is because I would no longer be able to bite Addie’s clit.

My little mouse doesn’t do well in social situations, especially when she’s thrown in one unprepared.

He’s manipulating her, and that’s a big no-no. No one manipulates my girl but me.

“I can put a collar around this pretty neck of yours instead. Then you wouldn’t have the option to say no. You would just be my good little girl that does whatever your master says. Would you like that better, baby?"

The atmosphere has only worsened, and I can’t tell if it’s because I now know he’s some vigilante, saving children and women from evil people, or if it’s because he confessed that he’s only ever turned into a psycho for me. Still, both prospects have shifted the way I look at him.

“That’s like asking if I’m going to tell her about how one time, I let a guy fingerbang me in the middle of a concert.”

It feels like my eyeballs are physically cringing from all the pink. Did Barney come in here and shit everywhere? Jesus fucking Christ.

“Run,” he growls. My lungs constrict at the guttural command. “If I catch you, I fuck you.”

I don’t have small breasts by any means, I was blessed with good genes.

I am the fucking grim reaper.

“Sounds to me like you don’t understand a woman’s body well enough to know when it sings for you, even when her mouth tries to resist.”

siiiiighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.