Haunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton: Book Review

One of Booktok’s favourite dark romances and my biggest book disappointment to date

jazel l. faith
6 min readMar 26, 2023

There are many points regarding the profundity of my disappointment after completing Haunting Adeline, especially because it’s been relentlessly recommended to me by friends and strangers in my comment sections on the internet.

I can write an entirely separate essay on the male main character, Zade Meadows, one of the tremendously worshipped fictional men on Booktok.

However, this review will focus mainly on the book itself. Spoiler alert — I’m going to be disgustingly honest.

Have I mentioned that I am immensely, irrevocably, and exceptionally disappointed?

It deeply irks me how unrealistic everything in Haunting Adeline is. I understand this is fiction, but this book is much too illogical. It’s like there was no brainstorming, no prior mild consideration of the plot’s direction. I was expecting dark romance — wild, cruel, unmistakable twisted passion. Instead, I received sappy and drawn-out jabbering about saving the world.

I don’t care!

To hell with making a fictional world a better place.

Alright, let’s get into it.

Photo by Jazel. L. Faith

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