Hello readers! It’s been a while since I did a discussion post. This one came up recently because I heard Haunting Adeline is getting a movie, and I have a lot of thoughts.
Before getting into BookTok in 2023, I didn’t know what dark romance was. When I started watching and making videos on there, I kept seeing people talking about the genre. I made my way through quite a few different popular books on the app during that year, including Haunting Adeline.
I honestly never read any sort of smut except this vampire romance series called Night Huntress. And I discovered a lot of different things on BookTok that year.
Haunting Adeline is a dark romance book following Adeline, who inherits a home from her great-grandmother. She then gets stalked by a man named Zade, who breaks into her home, and she finds some family secrets inside her home during the story as well.
I wrote about my experience here in my August 2023 wrap-up and on my Goodreads review of Haunting Adeline. I didn’t read the entire book because I literally couldn’t.
I knew going in that this book romanticized stalking. However, I was not prepared for the difference between what people were saying about it and what was happening in the book.
This book follows a woman who is stalked and graphically raped by a man, and then people call it a romance. She eventually falls for him. When I tried to express my feelings about it on TikTok, people were not happy.
It’s been a long-time issue on BookTok where you aren’t allowed to dislike popular books.
I was told I shouldn’t read books with rape in them if I get triggered by it, and that the book is CNC. If you don’t know, CNC is consensual non-consent. This book is not that, no matter what people who love it say. It is a book that romanticizes rape. Then, we are told it’s okay because Zade has a passion for sex trafficking and the victims to the point that he kills them graphically throughout the book.
I’ve read books with CNC in them. Rebecca F. Kenney’s Wicked Darlings series has CNC in it, and so does the Wicked Villain’s series by Katee Robert. I had no problem with it in those books. The boundaries are discussed beforehand, and no one crosses any lines.
Adeline repeatedly explains to us, the reader, that she wouldn’t be doing it if it were her choice. She also verbally says no to Zade many times, and he continues anyway.
I was also shocked by the comments I got about reading books that depict rape. I’ve read books that do, but none before that romanticized it. I absolutely could’ve made it through the entire book if it hadn’t been labeled as a romance.
This genre has been described on BookTok as being above criticism. And if you criticize it, you are shaming those who read and like it. I could write an entire post about the side of dark romance BookTok who are very problematic and like it for weird reasons, but I don’t want to generalize everyone.
Now, I’m seeing that Haunting Adeline is being made into a movie. I’ve also heard of other dark romance books, including Lights Out and Butcher and Blackbird are also in talks for their own movies, but I haven’t read those.
I fear a world where these books exist in a space where red-pill men can see them on screen. Most men don’t read romance, and those who do read anything at all commonly put the genre down.
Looking back, we’ve also had a similar thing happen with 50 Shades of Grey, which I also haven’t read.
I’m just looking back and thinking about so many movies that incel men do not understand. A really popular one from 2026 is Obsession. I loved this movie. I thought the message of it was very cut and dry, but there are men online saying Bear is the victim of the story. I saw this movie with my boyfriend, and he did NOT get that from it at all.
I fear the consequences that a Haunting Adeline movie can have for women. The red pill men are going to use this movie as a weapon against us. Many dark romance books like this follow men who are sexist and rapists. I don’t think it should spread across visual media.
Let me know if you’ve read this one or any dark romance books. I’ve read 3 or 4 now and only liked one, which did not romanticize rape at all. I’ve sort of written off the genre because it is too much for me. Do you think this book or dark romance books in general should be live-action?
Happy blogging and bookish adventures! 📚🦒✨
This post was created by Allison Wolfe for www.allithebookgiraffe.com and is not permitted to be posted anywhere else.
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