Reviews with content warning for Body horror - Haunting Adeline

Uffff just don't pick this up please, don't give it any more clout, it's racist, antisemitic and every rapist's fanasty. Urgh
Booktok made me pick up this novel, and boy, do I regret not reading up on this more before starting it.

The FMC is raped by her stalker, who conveniently hunts down rapists and human traffickers for a living, but then does the EXACT SAME THING to her???

This is so so so bad and I just want to factory reset my brain to never ever have touched upon this bullshit novel

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lokeylez's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

it’s really well written but also traumatized me

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emmadb766's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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charliieyann's review against another edition

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4.0

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booktheshelves's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

I was hesitant to read this because I’d heard it was DARK. And they were not wrong… However, I still loved it. I remember starting this book in late 2023, and putting it down because I was freaked out by the house Addie lives in 😆

So, I read this and Hunting back to back. So doing a review for the first book will require me to pick through my memory bank, which is legit terrible. I forget major things about books right after I read them. My star ratings are based on “vibes”, if you will. Very in the moment, mood reader I am (oh hello Master Yoda).

Anyway, Haunting was everything I was expecting and also… not. I don’t know why I thought it just *couldn't* be as hot as everyone was saying. I was wrong. It was. Now I understand the whole daddy Zade thing. He’s hot. And f*cked. Addie was hard to like at first, but I grew to really enjoy her character as her development progressed. I kinda thought her being an author was a little corny, but it actually worked.

This book was spooky, which I’m not super into. I know it’s a dark romance, blah blah, but like, I just don’t like ghosts. So there’s that.

The human trafficking themes literally ripped me up. It was so hard to read about. I know that it’s not exactly real life average human trafficking because usually it’s a family member doing the trafficking, not some elaborate government scheme, BUT, I think a lot of the elements here do really exist. It’s evil and horrid. Zade can justify killing child rapists any-day in my head.

Spiceeeee was spicin’. Lemme just say: gun, belt, rose, knife, more belt, cliff (and this is both books). Need I say more. No, I need not.

Anywayyy, 4.75 for the whole duet. Hunting is wayyyyy dark and crazy traumatizing. I don’t think my brain will ever be the same. But it added needed depth I think. Honestly coulda done without the side character Sibby. Hated Sydney. Rio was cool. Hated every trafficker’s guts and wanted them to die. Anyway, that’s all for now.

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raemc's review against another edition

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medium-paced

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

0.75

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