When I chose this book to read, it wasn't a blind read. With that being said, wasn't because I thought I'd enjoy it, or perhaps someone had recommended it. While I will talk about "Haunting Adeline" in this review, I moreso want to use its contents and nature to critique a genre in which is a poison increasingly tainting modern trending YA works.
The nature of this book is graphic compared to most of my other reviewed content. Please be advised that this book features themes of abuse, manipulation, and assault.
Someone that is no longer in my life once raved to me about our shared interests in books. I love fewer things more than having meaningful discussions with others about our shared passions, including works of media - specifically books. I do not need a shared list of preffered works for this to be true. I also do my best to recognize and respect the appeal of as many varying genres as I can, even when reading certain books, TV shows, and movies to filth. With that being said, I have developed a severe distaste for the genre dubbed "dark romance."
Before I continue, I would like to specify what a dark romance is supposed to be. For one, by definition, it includes "darker" themes. This includes, but is not limited to: morally grey characters, manipulation, violence, inbalances of power, and trauma. Trending Wattpad fanfictions that I might've sat reading on my kindle on the toilet when I was fourteen involving kidnappings, mafias, and stalking would be considered dark romance. They're more often than not falling under the umbrella of "smut," with heavily intense sexual themes. Think, "dominant" alpha man, strong willed but ultimate "submissive" woman.
An important feature of dark romances, however, is that romance is a key point.
I think dark romances can be very interesting and provocative. I personally find the idea of featuring characters multi-faceted, depicted in tumultuous situations and forcing readers to question their characterization, can be interesting. They are not normally what I'd prefer to read whenever I'm picking up a book to read, but I can respect their appeal. Given that the right audience finds these books, recognizing that these toxic situations are not to be fully romanticized, I imagine they can be a fun read. But that gets us into my critique: oftentimes, the lack of romance and blurred line of toxicity straight into abuse makes for some incredibly dark books being marketed incorrectly and subsequently harmfully.
The premise of this book is as follows: some vigilante stalker with a savior complex (murders sex traffickers because of their heinous deeds, only to assault the main character under the pretense of obsessive love) plays a "cat and mouse" game with Adeline, a very very stupid heroine. Like, she's actually pretty dumb. I'm not just saying that because of the ridiculously sub-par inner dialogue that essentially dumbs down the story and takes away from the tension in the book, but because she's just missing any basic survival instincts. The assault scenes are pretty brutal, too. They're consistent. One involves a gun. (Not in the way you'd probably think.) And, my favorite manipulation tactic that abusers use to negate the harm they're causing: convincing the victim that physical arousal and a biological reaction means consent, when it's not.
A book I've read before titled "The Devil's Kiss" by Gemma James was an interesting read for me, for example. Deeply troubling to read, I strangely enough found myself enjoying psychoanalyzing the characters. The main character was coerced by blackmail into a BDSM relationship with her boss, with her daughter's life at stake. She has the mental fortitude to recognize and address her situation as non-consensual throughout, but you see her wavering faith in resolve as her body betrays her mind. I feel as though this book could have been something really special if not calling itself a "romance," and perhaps a "psychological thriller." The same way that no one in their right minds would call "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov a romance, nor is it officially categorized as such. "The Devil's Kiss" could have been an examination of the complex effects of assault, specifically in situations involving enduring coercion. We could have been seeing a character's struggle for freedom from the legal shackles of her contract, as well as the shackles she faces once she is beaten into routine. Instead, the book is a "dark romance," which makes her strong attempts to keep dignity in the face of such daunting odds seem for nothing, as the expectation is an eventual happy ending. There is a set expectation that he either apologizes for the nature of their relationship that can never truly be rectified, or she simply gives into she shame she describes feeling when she "caves."
While reading, I came up with two alternative pathways for "Haunting Adeline" that could have remedied the MASSIVE flaws I found throughout. One is a way to make it a proper dark romance, and the other is to instead revamp the story as an erotic horror/thriller. In both versions, Zade (yes, that's the love interest's name) can stay as a stalker.
For the dark romance alternative, H.D Carlton remove literally every scene before Adeline verbally consents to Zade, and could change how they meet. He's her stalker, which in real life, is messed up. In the dark romance world? Not out of the realm of possibilities to fall in love. Instead of ultimately pouncing on Adeline in such a dangerous and violent way, she could come to find that in his own twisted way, he's looking out for her. In one particular scene, Adeline invites a guy over because she knows Zade is watching. This is the encounter that makes him snap and force himself onto her - but this can be changed. Instead, what if the guy she invites over has sinister plans? And Zade interferes and saves Adeline, and then leaves. It creates a sense of mystery and intrigue for Adeline, as she starts to decide she feels more comfortable around him. And then she seeks him out, which catapults their relationship from there.
The second idea, everything from the book could be kept (although I'd still change some of the cheesy inner dialogue, because c'mon). The focus would be on changing how it ends. This isn't a love story. This is about a woman's fight to survive... physically AND mentally. Throughout the book presently, she acknowledges that she knows what is happening is wrong, but she has a subconscious desire for danger, for things that she knows are bad for her. Play into her shame more. Have her escape him in the end, seeking safer means to live out some of her impulsive tendencies, and realize that she wants more for herself.
At the end of the day, involving any scenario where there is an equation of abuse with love is hard to stomach. And because of the chatter that these books often get, as they undoubtably get a lot of buzz for their jarring nature, the threat of the wrong audience picking them up is incorrigibly worse than your average smut. "Haunting Adeline" is rape. Especially when you go to places like Goodreads and witness the real things some of these young teenagers, incapable of critically realizing the implications of the claims for "romance" in this book, are saying.
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