Reviews with content warning for Gaslighting - Satan's Affair

Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Satan's Affair by H.D. Carlton

20 reviews

lolalastname's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

Strong character development? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

0.5

In both Haunting Adeline and Hunting Adeline, Sibby’s presence in the narrative felt odd and out of place. Though I didn’t have high expectations going into Satan’s Affair, I had the tiniest sliver of hope that this novella would make sense of her character. Boy, was I wrong.

To put it plainly, I don’t know why this novella exists. Many fans of the series urge newcomers to read Satan’s Affair before reading Haunting Adeline “to avoid spoiling the twist.” I disagree. The novella was published between the release of books 1 and 2- long after Haunting’s social media virality. The “twist” isn’t a twist at all, simply Sibby’s most identifiable trait (and the punchline of every scene she’s in). The upcoming 2 novels starring Sibby as the lead render Satans Affair little more than a rushed exposition dump.

The most damning strike against Satan’s Affair is its own prose. While Sibby’s point of view is a nice break from Adeline and Zade’s grating internal monologue, it comes with its own problems. I tried and failed not to notice the writer behind the curtain, but the authors overwhelming presence in the narration completely broke my immersion in the story. I didn’t read Sibby’s thoughts and feelings- the writer told them to me, and explained exactly how to feel about them. The constant shift between first person present and past tense at random intervals was also extremely distracting.

Even though Satan’s Affair is full to the brim with blood, guts, and gore , it lacks the tooth and grit needed to get me to buy what it’s selling.

Content Warnings

sdaley08's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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theartistreader's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

TROPES: Seri@l k!ller, travelling haunted house, unhinged and psychopathic heroine.

👏🏻We love us a good unhinged heroine with psychopathic tendancies.👏🏻

Content Warnings

anastashamarie's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

2.5

⚠️ Check TWs please. This is a reverse harem romantic-thriller novella it has a lot of sexually graphic scenes juxtaposed with gore (sometimes sequentially right next to each other). There were a few scenes that made me cringe and think "wtf did I just read?" <b>It also represents mental health in a way that I, as a professional counselor, have concerns with. I would suggest being very, very cautions with this if you experience psychosis, as this could potentially be damaging.</b>

🎪 So I finished this a few days ago, but I was holding off on my review because I just really wasn't a huge fan even though I really wanted to like it. I've been thinking "Is it me? Our dark romance queen can't be wrong. It has to be me." I have read 3 of HD's other books (the Cat & Mouse duet and Does It Hurt?) and gave them hugely glowing reviews, and I'm still very excited for TEOI when it comes out. But even after stewing on it and rereading a few parts, there are just a few things about this that really rubbed me the wrong way.

👹 Issue 1: Copy-Paste. Like I said above, I read Haunting Adeline first, which isn't how the author recommends reading these, but I didn't know this existed when I read Haunting so it is what it is. This novella overlaps with Haunting directly, to the degree that we get some Haunting scenes in the novella from Sibby's POV. On one hand this is great (we get to hang out with a character we LOVE, and he's so f*cking fun), but on the other, a large chunk of this novella is just a copy-paste of something I already read. I don't feel like I got any new insight into Sibby's character from revisiting those scenes from her POV. If anything, I'd go with the author's advice and treat this as almost a teaser to Haunting, but I didn't feel like I missed anything by skipping this before reading Cat & Mouse.

🎡 Issue 2: Tonality & Characterization. Honestly, this just was not as well-written as the others I've read by this author. The tone was odd; it oscillates between sounding like it's written by a stabby, overly-sexualized child and a femme philosopher. It doesn't have the flow and consistency of HD's other prose. I know this was technically published before Haunting (not sure if written at the same time), so that could play into it? Early in the book, there are odd repetitions of phases, not for emphasis, but kind of like the author forgot she wrote them just a page or two before. This is something The editor or beta readers should have caught so I don't blame the author for that at all. The writing does generally get better in this regard around Ch 4, but there's still the weird inconsistency in tone/characterization. I don't notice this as much with Sibby in later books that aren't from her POV so I also just wonder if this doesn't have something to do with the author not knowing her voice yet at the time of writing this? Either way, I suspect TEOI will be more polished.

This is also a novella so I don't think it's as big of a deal, but I do want to note that this felt less atmospheric than other HD books, which is also sad (the atmosphere she creates is one of my favorite parts of her books) I LOVE haunts, but I just don't feel like the environment was as gripping here. This is more a personal gripe, but why where there clowns and devils and the grim reaper in a world-class dollhouse haunt? But anyway, I think that's just more me being a haunted house fiend lol.

🧟‍♀️ Issue 3: Mental Health Representation. This is probably my biggest issue with this book. I'm not going to go too into it in because it's long but the summary is that this book severely misrepresents the experience of psychosis and adds to the stigma of psychotic disorders. This isn't just an issue isolated to HD; I think what's contained herein is just a "pop culture psychology" representation of what people think when they hear about these disorders. I like the sentiment that people with these disorders can be creative, and I also like the sentiment that there are so many things about the world that we don't understand and that mental wellness is a societally constrained state of being, when it really should be more individualized. But I think there's a line here that's very tricky to walk. I have 8 years of training in this field, and even for professionals, it's an incredibly nuanced issue that is tricky to handle correctly. Feel free to pop down to the "other information about the content of this book" section for more info.

🤡 Good Stuff: I do like the relative novelty of the narrator being morally grey, especially the FMC. Very often, I think the MC/narrator is framed as someone we should be empathic towards, especially if they're female, but I think it's hard to justify being a serial killer even for the "right" reasons. I know Sibby justifies it for herself, but I'm not sure that the author really justifies per say--more that the door is just left open to ponder the ambiguity. There's a scene in Ch 5 that does this really well; something bad happens to an objectively bad guy, but I can't help but also feel like it went too far, even though there's a sense of justice there. It just makes you think about your own mortality. This is just something that HD does well across the board; she doesn't try to make bad people/things "good" but rather presents all the messy parts of the situation for us to decide.

The spicy scenes are 🔥🥵 as always. I personally am not a fan of the juxtaposition of gore & smut (my empathy sensors don't like the whiplash, I'm more of a fear/excitement/anticipation gal because they're emotionally playing on the same processes). But even then, I still had to acknowledge that those scenes were fun and well-written. HD is the queen of dark romance for a reason.

Even though I still feel like there's a lot of mystery in Sibby's back story, the bits we got about her past have me VERY excited for TEOI. I think there are so many cool directions the story can go.

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Spoilers regarding my issues with mental health rep in this book below:

As a mental health counselor who teaches the diagnosis class to master's students and has experience working with all sorts of clients, I think Sibby's diagnosis of "paranoid schizophrenic with psychopathic tendencies" incorrect and should be "antisocial personality disorder with psychotic features." Folks with schizophrenia are not often violent or dangerous, and even those who are generally only become so in response to intense fear from their delusions and hallucinations. A personality disorder (PD) makes more sense given Sibby's significant history of trauma, which is often a major precepting factor in the development of a PD. Antisocial PD also makes sense because Sibby lacks empathy for others, lives outside of society's norms, and is a literal serial killer. I'm not going into the differential diagnosis here due to space constraints haha.

The reason this matters is because people who experience

schizophrenia

a) already face fear and stigma disproportionate to the symptoms of their mental illness and b) can have excellent treatment outcomes that substantially make their lives better TO THEM with medication and treatment. Any time there's a character who is presented as severely mentally ill, and that character is harming others, it adds to the stigma severely mentally ill people face from the general public. For the 'average" person, interacting with people with severe mental health concerns can already be scary because there's a sense of unpredictability due to a lack of understanding. But in most cases, there are minimal safety concerns once you understand what's going on in someone's mind. However, the "'experienced" data we have skews falsely towards a negative perception the more we see media incorrectly depicting a mental illness. At the end of the book, there's also a point made that Sibby shouldn't have to take her meds because

she would be losing "people" she cares about; generally schizophrenic people do not enjoy their hallucinations or delusions (it's actually part of the criteria that their symptoms cause some degree of distress) so this isn't a realistic depiction for most people experience of their hallucinations. Do think schizophrenia is largely misunderstood and that we should be more accepting of their different experience of reality? Definitely, and don't even necessarily think that anything "needs" to be done if people aren't bothered by their hallucinations or delusions (though if we're being honest, they usually do create negative effects that people don't like). The trouble here lies in the narrative that "oh, being schizophrenic makes you unique so you don't need your meds."

Which isn't only untrue (you are still unique and very much YOU on your meds), but it can be very harmful, as the symptoms already make it such that these folks struggle with med compliance. Being told by someone, even an unreliable narrator who is experiencing the disorder herself, that they don't need their meds because they should be appreciated the way that they are can really mess with a clients' perceptions and make them getting the help that they need even harder. This is such a nuanced issue that could write a whole thesis on it but stop here for now.

crinkledmochi's review against another edition

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this is so incredibly bad,,, makes me not want to read cat and mouse duet at all

Content Warnings

bookish_growler's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

zc2's review against another edition

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dark sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Very VERY spicy. I read the cat and mouse duet before this but I’m finally happy to see into Sibbys life and past. Cant wait to read what happens to her after the end of hunting Adeline

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amanda_reads13's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

2.5

This is the story of Sibby, one of the characters in the Cat and Mouse Duet. I found Sibby to be an interesting character. I did read this after Haunting and Hunting Adeline, so I knew

that the henchmen were a hallucination

. There is very graphic violence, torture, and sex scenes. As with the other 2 books in this series, many of these scenes (especially the sex scenes) seemed to be used for shock value. We did get some of Sibbys back story, but I wish there had been more. It is not necessary to read this before the Cat and Mouse Duet, but it does tie into part of Haunting Adeline.

Content Warnings

brookey8888's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

That’s my bestie and she did nothing wrong.
Anyways this was a good time, I only read it because it’s suggested you do before you read hunting Adeline, but I feel like you don’t? I don’t know I didn’t read it yet. I really enjoyed the ending of this. But this is dark so if you don’t like dark romance don’t read this(it’s not much of a romance though). I felt so bad for the main character and what she went through. I do wish we got to see more of her and her henchmen though.

Content Warnings

siggs__'s review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

****TW****

I strongly debated adding a review of this book at first, it just seemed like a super gory, plotless, confusing mess. HOWEVER, that ending... mostly the epilogue itself is just, idk. I read this book because I wanted to read Haunting Adeline and was recommended to read this novella first (I'm assuming because we're introduced to Zade here). I won't lie, from page one, the trigger warnings fly in. I felt anxious, confused, and mildly nauseous at points, but finding out what you do in the epilogue... I just am in awe atp. The representation of surviving abuse, experiencing psychological duress, and a journey of potential healing, I've never seen something written so well. Please, if you choose to read, do your research, check the trigger warnings FIRST, then go in with an open mind and search out the underpinnings of what the plot is trying to portray. Yes, there's smut, and I mean A LOT of it (that's the part that made me a little nauseous because of its context), so if that's your thing, it's definitely here, but tread carefully and enjoy :)

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