Review: Haunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton
Category:
Rating:
Introduction:
Trigger warnings: Stalking, rape, sexual violence
The Manipulator
I can manipulate the emotions of anyone who lets me.
I will make you hurt, make you cry, make you laugh and sigh.
But my words don’t affect him. Especially not when I plead for him to leave.
He’s always there, watching and waiting.
And I can never look away.
Not when I want him to come closer.
The Shadow
I didn’t mean to fall in love.
But now that I have, I can’t stay away.
I’m mesmerized by her smile, by her eyes, and the way she moves.
The way she undresses…
I’ll keep watching and waiting. Until I can make her mine.
And once she is, I’ll never let her go.
Not even when she begs me to.
Review:
Reviewed by Dakota Watson
One thing for sure, this author and the 288,814 deluded women who voted this book 4 or 5 stars on Goodreads apparently have never been or known a stalking or a rape survivor. To romanticize stalking and rape and label them as dark romance. No, I am not gonna call what Zade did to Adeline ‘non-consensual sex’ because it was just rape. Jesus H. Christ!!!!!!! This book was un utter train wreck!!!!
Ladies, please don’t be like Adeline! There is nothing, absolutely nothing, romantic about a stalker, no matter how hot he is. In real life, if you even get a sniff of being stalked take all the necessary precautions to make sure you are safe. Of course if you want to act these fantasies out with a consensual partner, go for it, I’d say to each their own, no judgement at all, but NEVER with an actual stalker. That’s how you end up dead in a ditch somewhere.
The book started out good. Not that the writing was good or characters had any substance to them. I liked the suspense, the horror and the mystery when Adaline realized she was being stalked and the sub plot of her great grandmother’s mysterious death. Then it just started to get bad, really bad. I read up to 21st chapter hoping something will come out of this disaster of a book but gave up because I realized I was just setting myself up for disappointment.
And let’s talk about Zade, who apparently a lot of goodreads and booktok women want to rail. He was a god like self made millionaire hacker and mercenary who has dedicated his life to exposing the corrupted government and ending human trafficking. It’s just that in his pastime he likes to stalk innocent women who he loves and later rapes them repeatedly just to show them his darkside, hoping they will fall in love with him. What’s not to like yeah? I mean who cares if he’s a maniacal sadist as long as he’s drop dead gorgeous, right? A stalker is only repulsive if he’s old, heavyset and ugly yeah? Then EWWWWW!!! The hypocrisy and stupidity of yall!!!!!
I usually at least give two starts to a bad book because I wholeheartedly appreciate an author putting in time to create a story and putting it out there either to be praised or criticized. But this book deserves no stars. This idea should have remained a fantasy in author’s head or needed better execution when turned into words. To think a young naïve girl out there in real life encouraging an insane stalker all because she was influenced by a bad book which had the audacity to make stalking and rape romantic! *Shudders!