Yeah, because in here, we don't experience the shaming for our sexuality that's the norm in real life... Sexualization is nothing bad in itself, because human beings are a sexual species and we sexualize others all the time, otherwise, how are we supposed to feel sexually attracted to them? That said, one thing is to sexualize people, and another one to express that directly to minors... That's not sexualization, it's sexual harassment.
The idea of a pedophile hunter who fights against evil abusers being an abuser himself is actually a great idea for a book. Like he’s so creepily obsessed with a woman that he does everything he’s fighting against is an interesting idea. If this book didn’t try and make it a ROMANCE and kept the narrative exactly what it is, it would be a whole lot better.
Oh God, this is giving me flashbacks to when Killing Stalking was super popular and that was written AS a psychological thriller but insane fangirls romanticized it to the point of no return
@@sallyahmed-o2y cry even better if you beg is literally hell spawn, the art is so pretty but the story is some of the most depraved shit I’ve ever heard of. Hate that this stuff still gets romanticised and people excuse it because it’s ‘just fiction’ and it ‘obviously doesn’t translate to real life’
i agree the story looks like one of those 70s or 80s stories , and its so backward i mean there are alot of misoginistic undertones too in it@@junnakashima4552
@@sallyahmed-o2y wait isn't it that WEBTOON (manhwa) ig the FL's name is Layla if I'm not wrong? I read the spoiler of the novel in a yt shorts & I'm beyond disgusted with the fact what vile shit goes on author's mind🤮. There's also an similiar webtoon like this ig the name is 'LOVE DOESN'T MATTER'. It's the same shit ML will SA' FL. But somehow they'll end up together & have a baby in the end coz they're hero & heroine of the story :')
Same here homie, I just wanna chat about great sci-fi worldbuilding in a book or something, but all they want is “”spicy” romances” and that happens to be the one thing I can’t and won’t ever read! ☹️
Same, like let's talk about good, impactful literature, not corn. If you like reading that, fine, but like, why are you so PROUD of it (to the point where you starting romanticizing legit killers)
It's not like they understood Hungergames to begin with. Of course people who imagine love where there is none, romanticise rape and find trauma quirky would inevitably turn to abusive literature
The man who assaulted me parades himself as a radical leftist and feminist in order to lull the women in his social circle into a false sense of security. He's also barely 5 ft tall and scrawny as all hell and has very feminine features and doesn't act traditionally masculine in any way. He's like the definition of non-threatening little brother kind of person. At least on the outside. On the inside, he's a depraved fucking monster. 😢
Now? Did you not get to the section about a mainstream soap opera from the 80s doing that? Tbh I much prefer a random dark romance book having. Dark topics. Instead of that
right 😭 and when you say you like a book that isn’t just pure smut and abuse (like hunger games, which i love) they just bash you for not reading something ‘spicy’
Yes yes yes...this💯💯💯💯💯 god I get into so many fights with people for taking SA lightly... SA ruins ones life, mind, sometimes soul.. there should NOT be any romantic notion on non consensual SA. period..
And people will attack you if you say you think this type fiction is unacceptable and the "is fiction" it is not an excuse because psychological it does harm and normalise sa and abuse.
Except that Lolita is a book by Nabokov and is profoundly well written and important piece of literature, reducing Lolita to just a book men recommend to women shows how warped people have become by the idea of “grooming” .. like not everything is “grooming” for crissakees…as if the novel Lolita just functions as a way to get girls to want to sleep with older men. You have read Lolita yes? And you still think that the book is about normalizing oeadopjolia? Do you actually read?
@@AMultipolarWorldIsEmerging hey man, do you not understand the difference between an author's intention and how it is received? how ideas can be coopted by terrible people? how u missed op's point entirely?
While i agree with these sentiments it would be really creepy and gross for an adult male to recommend it to a child. A young girl would most likely not understand that it's portrayed in a negative light and is a form of grooming. @AMultipolarWorldIsEmerging
@@crazyyfrogyeah and that can be seen in the adaptations of Lolita itself. From what I hear (I should probably read it so I’m sure I’m not talking out of my ass, I’m just an avid fan of video essays and Lolita pops up a lot ) the book is pretty explicit in painting Humbert as a predator as well as being unreliable with his motive for his narrative to defend his crime (ie he has an incentive to shift blame or gain sympathy for his actions; also I’m not sure if it was just the murder or also the kidnapping and child abuse). The people who adapt these books into film, however, view humbert as some sort of victim to “Lolita’s” (Dolores) “obvious” attempts to tempt him (we could talk about how the act of attraction towards women [and young girls] is pushed on women [and young girls] as a deliberate act [think “she knows what she’s doing” or “what was she wearing” as defenses against assault or factors of everyday speech] but then I’d get on a whole other topic of conversation; but not really I’m seeing remnants of it in the haunting of book) adaptors attempt to hypersexualize Dolores’ actions to excuse themselves like Humbert was attempting to do often having to age up Dolores because she is literally 12 years old in the book.
@@crazyyfrogso sorry for that being so long I just got real focused and didn’t know when to shut up tl;dr you’re on the money and Lolita and it’s adaptations support that
That's the problem with dark romance readers. They're so focused on the love interest being "redeemed" or on the romance "not feeling creepy" despite the fact that dark romance is inherently creepy and unredeemable. What destroyed my faith in that community was a video of a woman saying that a book wasn't grooming despite the fact that the mc was 6 and the love interest was 28 when they met, and she grew up with him. If that isn't grooming, then why is it called a DARK romance. IT WOULD JUST BE A ROMANCE. DON'T DENY WHAT IT IS TO FEEL BETTER ABOUT IT. And that's what these women do. They want the love interest to be redeemed or "sweet" so they can feel better about jacking off to rape porn.
its almost like him saving people is used to justify his actions towards adeleine. “he saves women and children so he cant be the same as those predators!!!” I hate this book so much
Its grossly overlooked how women are super creepy to minors, I'm glad people are pointing it out here but I don't think its addressed enough, especially when its in person. Watch out for groomers/creepy people, minor boys and girls as well as any parents of young people.
@@yessica5231 ikr? Litterally saw a clip from a stand up comedy thing and the guy was talking about how a woman said "save him for me when he's 18" to his nephew and the guy pointed it out, however everyone was just laughing since he was saying serious problems in a comedic way. Really rubbed me the wrong way.
@@Truly_a_Plum_moment huh? im not calling you a bot. i’m saying the person you responded to was a bot, because you said “i wanna say bot”, unless that was a typo?
@@huhhhhhhhhhhhhhh it's currently at 12k words. 30 something pages (i was writing it long ago but this reminds me of why it's important to keep writing it)
How Archibald says he treats women is obviously bad so it seems understandable that Zade would dislike him. However… only one of these characters SAs Adeline… and it’s not Archibald
I swear the writer had to have done this shit on purpose how in the fuck does someone have negative self awareness like the words are literally written down boo read them.
i have a theory that they're being pushed on that idea by their editors/ they see the attention it gets so they write the worst thing ever that has smut so people will buy it. and since its a book im thinking that even if theres sa scenes they are able to gloss over and be able to get turned on cause its 20 f*cking pages wtf, or else you're still disgusted which sounds more likely with the way its written@@TalesOfSurvival
I LOVE HATING ON BOOKTOK ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤ also, the misinformation in this book omg!! many women's bodies react as if they were aroused to r/pe because your brain is trying to ease it for u!! also many women c/m but that doesn't mean they like it, its literally your body, it does that from stimulation! ugh now i really hate this book
NO LITERALLY!! It could just be from the physical stimulation happening, they internally could be hating it. Which is why verbal consent is so important
Exactly! This book uses the same logic that makes people believe men can't be raped. Human bodies react to stimulation no matter what the person's brain is thinking, it has nothing to do with enjoyment
@@ranchustars3050I feel like that is the main justification people use to invalidate male rape. Because they may finish but that doesn’t mean they consented or enjoyed it.
Booktok girls are insane when it comes to sexualising men on tiktok. We just had drama like this year ago with hockey players. Not cool, sexulisation and harrassment goes both ways.
I'm not one that thinks men are on equal footing in oppression or are anywhere near it, even in harassment and sexualization, but yes. I keep seeing men getting harassed by women, and its weird asf. Yall gotta know it's wrong either way. All of us are humans and if you can't respect someone because ur horny then spay/neuter yourself
I’m a minor and my 13 year old friend sent me a picture of the book telling me it’s hot and at that time I had no idea that the book is like that.. I feel absolutely disgusted
I understand the both of you are young, so your friend still has a lot to learn. But trust me: if they're trying to be cool, or edgy this isn't the way to go about that. Hopefully, they'll learn. Sending warm wishes your way.
same im 13 and my friend (soon ex friend) read this book and would show me the r@pe scenes DURING CLASS and it was disgusting. she has such a bad obsession with romantacized SA
I was published at 17 and had a grown man follow me around a Target. He said he recognized me from a local broadcast show I'd had an interview on and he wanted my autograph. So naturally, he followed me for an hour and said *"Well, you're old enough."* when I asked what he was doing flirting with me. BIG ICK. The booktok situation and Haunting Adeline are mega 🚩🚩🚩🚩for me.
Oh dear GOD NO 😭 A guy followed me in the Times Square train station a few weeks ago because I rejected him and i asked some strangers to pretend to be my friends until I got to the theater I was supposed to be at. (Also, where can i find this book? Im interested!)
Had a drunk, shirtless guy flirt with me 4 years ago when I was working at an ice cream shop. I was 15. He asked when my shift was over, saying he had a bottle of vodka and he needed a drinking buddy. It was so creepy.
I feel like a lot of people excuse the book by saying they are into cnc, but the whole issue is that Adeline isn't doing a scene with a partner! She's being assaulted! There are ways to engage in that kink that doesn't involve supporting a book that romatises rape culture. Thats my two cents anyway
ik im into cnc and this shit sounds extremely triggering and gross. i dont mind it being a fantasy for people, but idkkk theres a line. my only worry is exactly what nikki said about the body's physical response being used as an excuse to say the victim wanted ut
Look, I've enjoyed the most unbearably toxic media because it had themes associated with my kinks. If these people are enjoying it just for that reason, I can't blame them. It may not be progressive but kinks are specifically designed to be outrageous- they are triggered by things we know are taboo or bad. So these people are embracing the book for it's intended purpose. Mindless, thoughtless, horniness. HOWEVER, to the people who actually see it as relationship goals? Or aspire to meet a man like him? They need so much help
i think the author starts out with saying its cnc but thats literally just a lie LMAO, a lot of what happened is just rape, the protagonist never consents to a lot of shit that happens.
Right!? Like the whole point of cnc is that it's *consentual* and *pre-discussed* . Both the person playing the dominant role AND the submissive know (at least roughly) what is going to happen. There *is* a way to stop the scene with a safe word and the dominant person *will* stop if it's used! Not only that but aftercare is super important! It's explicitly said in this book that she feels numb & is blaming herself. That is NOT how ANYONE should leave a cnc or any kink scene. Yeah it happens sometimes that things go too far and a scene goes bad, but that's the *exception* and everyone involved should want to *prevent* that happening. Not like this douchebag Main Guy who revels in it. I'm so sick of ppl who know nothing about healthy kink writing books about EXTREME kinks, doing it all wrong, then defending it like that's what ppl are into. No!!! Stop it!!!
I had a coworker who bought this book. It was recommended to her because she loves romance books with a little smut here and there. She got more than she asked for lol. She stopped reading after the gun scene. She took it to work and we all took turns reading that page and laughing at how horrific, unromantic, and cringe the whole thing was. She didn't want to take it back home but also didn't want our boss to find it so she literally threw it in the trash. Funnest part is she tried to contact Amazon to see if she could return it, and they basically said 'don't worry about it we'll just refund you'.
Totally valid reaction. I was recommended the book by my friend who's on booktok and she said it's a really good book and it had dark themes. Since I like reading horror books (ones written by Stephen King especially) I thought I could handle a little bit of romance along with the "dark themes". Also, I was 17 when she recommended that book to me. I had been weirded out by Adeline not doing anything about her stalker for a long time but when the gun scene appeared, that was my last straw. I quickly dropped the book and deleted it from my storage (I got an online version of it).
The fact that people were making fun of this CHILD for reading YA books is just so weird. Not just because it's appropriate for his age but also because The Hunger Games and Maze Runner are honestly better than whatever the fuck is circulating on booktok right now 💀
Ikr?! They were saying that the Hunger Games isn't really book tok but like, it's so much better than the stuff that is. And they can't even argue that book tok is for indie writers bc they keep pushing Colleen Hoover.
Haven't read the book but from this commentary I felt like Zade could be akin to Joe Goldberg, actually a well written delusional psycho... except this isn't a horror and we're supposed to root for this guy smh
As someone whos currently dealing with a stalker its weird that people are romanticizing stalker situations like no its not some sweet stuff its creepy as hell like pleasee stop romanticizing it in books😭
Sorry you’re going through that,However people like different things, people have fantasies about being kinapped,stalked,ect. A lot of it is from trauma, but I love the stalking trope, I also like the show “ you” and so many others do too over Joe stalking who he wants, because they fantasize about that happening to them. I mean I don’t blame them Joe is attractive and obsessed lol YOU don’t think it’s romantic and that’s absolutely fine, I do and so do many others (ofc depends on the person lol) but in general if I like someone in that way, and If I found out they were stalking me I’d probably fall in love lmfao
@@Moonlight-řæven i understand your view point but i still dont view it as some romantic thing. Getting stalked generally will cause anxiety since its normally not a "omg hes obsessed with me so cute" most of the time youll just worry about what that person might to if the obsession gets even more unhealthy
@@Moonlight-řæven i think you're spending WAY too much time on the internet. I get it find it "cute/hot" in fiction; in many medias, stalkers are portraited are hopeless romantics that just love so much and want to protect their lovers at any cost. But fantasizing about being stalked in real life it's concerning. I also like YOU and find Joe funny, but never in a million years i would like to be with a guy like him. He's not romantic, he's a murderer. When his "lovers" don't act in the way he wants them to act, he's ready to kill them. Even Joe is subconsciously disgusted by his own actions, not matter how many times he tries to excuse himself and justify It. Why do you think he stops loving Love in the moment she reveals to him that she's just like him?
the part where he says she wanted it because she's wet pisses me off, I've heard like 50% of SA victims "get wet" as a biological defense mechanism that eases the pain and a lot end up either not reporting it out of embarrassment or because they dont recognize it as what it is because the thought processes is "getting wet means i liked it and others will say the same", this stupid fucking book adds on to that, imagine someone thinking this happened to them because they actually liked it then reading this book, they would 100% dig themselves deeper into the this logic
+ the author acknowledged it after by saying she felt disgusted by it? so why? like i understand imagining it in your head but the "i felt numb after" isn't part of the fun??? the trauma isn't fun, when plp fantasize of it they do it in a romantized way that wouldn't happen irl so idk why she included it, it seems more like a "yep it's definitely a thriller and not smut". it's a common fantasy but i've never heard someone say they like the violent aspect of it (not talking about domination in roleplay situations more like psychological damages etc) + a lot of domestic abuse victims don't report cause they're laughed at by the cops/ authorative figures and it probably can be applied for sa victims.
This just reminds me of those people that say that the guys who are assaulted "liked" it cause they got hard. Like, these are biological responses created by our body.
I've argued w a lot of haunting adeline enjoyers and defenders and they always say she liked it bcz her body reacted to the pleasure... are they even girls atp?? She has no control over her body's reaction to pleasure whether it was consensual or not. I'ts honestly annoying how they defend Zade's actions like that using such... typical of irl grapist excuses.
The fact that he fights against pedophiles and other sexual abusers seems like a thing added in post, just to make his character seem like a saint, when none NONE of his actual actions speak like it. That point is just there keep us from hating him, even though he behaves and does absolutely nothing like that
I’m 16, and what scares me the most about this book is the fact that most of the girls in my class have read-or are currently reading-this book and telling me how good it is and how they’ve fallen in love with Zade and wish they were in Adeline’s shoes. It’s horrific.
"This isn't morally grey, this is morally GONE." - sounds like a perfect one sentence sum of this entire book. "Hades's is bench pressing this thing... the bar is in literal hell 🤣"
I officially remove myself from booktok No more terrible book recs No more using books an as aesthetic No more feeling pressured to read books and then like them ✊😔
Some Booktok people are truly insane. I remember a while back some hockey players wife (or the hockey player himself. I don't remember.) asked them to stop saying sexual things about him bc it made him uncomfortable, and they got mad about that😭
Almost all fan bases and formed groups that call themselves shit like "booktok" always end up showing just how mentally unhinged they truly are. It's like people that join cults.
@Slayy05acompletely agree. i’ve never been SAed but just HEARING the things he was saying & how this is written actually made me feel disgusted & i wanted to crawl out of my own skin & find a new body that has never heard of this. it’s just so disturbing & disgusting that how can you romanticize it, not just in your own mind, but actively romanticize it to OTHER people?? especially when it starts with STALKING & then goes into the main character being raped MULTIPLE TIMES???? it’s such an uncomfortable thing to hear about & even more disturbing that somebody WROTE that & portrayed it as a ROMANCE. how would that kind of language make victims feel if they stumbled upon this book & saw “oh well her body reacted so she liked it”??? & how can other people agree with this & say it’s a romance novel when NOTHING about this is ROMANTIC?!?!?! how can somebody write this & not want to rip their own flesh off??? i’m literally so uncomfortable, i can’t imagine how a victim of SA would feel seeing that kind of language & justification being written as romance. i’m convinced nobody on booktok has a brain anymore
i found it online and it was so hard to read because of how horrible and detailed it was. and on top of that, he literally could have shot her? that part is so baffling to me.
The idea of zade being a vigilante and fighting what he calls bad guys while also perpetrating abuse, and being what he hates the most would be SO interesting if not worked with so poorly..
If you hated the first book wait to read the second book one, I can't describe how much I hate it. I expect the messy plot but I didn't expect how much lazy and racist the author is, the only Latino character was full of stereotypes (the author mixed Puerto Rican and Mexican culture) and the Spanish words were full of grammatical errors. (He says idioto and stúpido) 💀
@@ohlove0because it doesn’t really matter lol. I don’t like the book but it’s not racist nor a big deal the author wasn’t spot on writing a fictional character’s culture. If you’re that upset over something so trival then i encourage you to seek therapy and see what’s the root Cause. I apologize if you’re a child, because at that time it’s explanatory why you’re so upset over small things that don’t matter. The reviews never mentioned it either because most of the readers were adults who have a more developed brain
@@Moonlight-řæven I’m sorry if this is coming off mean. But you and alot of the readers who enjoyed Haunting of Adeline are at a 4th grade reading and writing skill. In your skill level it’s easy to overlook themes,spelling errors, grammatical errors, plot and advanced character development. If wattpad or A03 was the only thing you read consistently, plus YA fiction books. You have stayed and carried your 4th grade reading comprehension as an adult.
@@Moonlight-řæven the issue is more so how little effort they put into the character. If you're going to have spanish speaking characters it's reaallllyy easy to look things up about it. Like if they're speaking in Spanish google translate that shit at the very least. Y soy un hispanohablante, yo sé cuando sus palabras son incorrectos 🙄
It actually doesn't surprise me in the slightest that too many people from booktok have boundary issues... Too many authors use shock value as filler rather than using it where it'll have the most effect, along with fetishising, trivializing, and glorifying Tropes, traumas and extremely sensitive subject. Those combined make for a perfect storm of people not wanting the "fantasy" to stay on the pages... That's when things get weird
they’re so chronically online they don’t understand like faux pas or basic boundaries. the fact that they completely disregard ppl’s triggers says so much about them
They have ZERO critical thinking skills. That's why, full offense, they read hot trash that's ONLY smut. I argued with this one person on Goodreads bc she said a book "didn't have romance" but it had PLOT (and it did have romance).
Absolutely well written response! That's why I've seen BookTok go all out with Bikers, certain cosplays, etc...they'll go feral when they see these. To some extent, I get it. But there is a fine line between fantasy, and reality. And it needs to stay that way.
I feel like the 'book reading community' has been completely corrupted if not hyjacked by people that are only interested in rom novels and "spicy" fan fic, basically it's all just a kink outlet to them rather than a genuine enjoyment of reading and proper story telling. These people would never even get into it otherwise, too vapid..
ADDING the trope you're thinking of is called "r*pe as love" on TV Tropes. It was also incredibly common in the oldest of old school romances the so-called bodice ripper novels. Occasionally called "r*pemances." It has some complicated history involving women not allowed to "feel" their own desires so being forced made it acceptable in the narrative. It really is a long and interesting history. Misogyny through the ages. It really is worth the deep dive if you ever have interest.
As a "mature for my age" kid, I had little oversight on what I was reading, cuz if I was reading, at least I wasn't getting into trouble. And I definitely read quite a few adult smut books that I probably shouldn't have, but this one stands out to me that took place in like the...late 1800s/early 1900s where a dude sees this woman on the street, essentially kidnaps her, she's given an "aphrodisiac" that makes her SO READY she's literally in PAIN(iirc the main dude DIDN'T want those given to her so he's like mad at his servant who did it? still tho) and he has to help her out with it so she isn't in agony of course! Googled it, it's called Secret Fire, and it was bad and only gets worse.
I guess it's a little bit like that "baby it's cold outside" song. to us it seems super creepy but at the time listeners would assume that the girl does actually want to stay the night (and, you know...whatever else) and is only hesitant because of societal expectations, like "what would people think?" kind of stuff (some of the lyrics allude to this) but while those expectations obviously still exist nowadays they aren't strong enough for this to be a no-brainer yk
@@hannarivers5872 yes it is, a lot of readers think the contents of this book is normal. You think it's acceptable to write about rape and romanticise it? Do tell
@@sadgirl2.0 if people read that and think it's okay than that is on THEM, doesn't make the book bad thats the whole point of dark romance and honestly ANYTHING in fiction goes
@@hannarivers5872 honestly, that's how you feel. Once again,do you think it's okay to frame RAPE as romantic and okay? Do you know how heinous rape is? I agree, it's dark fiction, I'd throw up in the quarter. Clearly you don't understand abuse and assault
i will not lie to you, i was a big fan of this book when i was 17, i loved the whole bad boy who would do anything to protect you stories. but watching this and realizing that all the things you’re pointing out that i never really thought twice about outside of the story are completely valid. so on behalf of my newfound realization of how horrible this book is, thank you. especially since you can have bad boy characters who would protect you throughout anything without including the rword. especially the 🔫 when i first read it i quite literally had to stop reading cause i just couldn’t understand why they’d write about that as if it was romantic.
@@lxvelyminx4253 Not most books. Certain books. Most books are not toxic. They may include these things but in a way that treats as it should be treated or at least as a clear evil that’s supposed to disgust you and not… turn you on? Glad you’re having an awakening and please keep reading (better books… 😅)
I've absolutely been there. And i've read works where 🔫s were used, but it was empty with the safety on, clean and mutually agreed upon beforehand and during. Like, it's possible to include the kinks without making it horrifying and dangerous wtf. tropes and kinks don't have to be innately harmful and yet, books like this are being published
@@Beelzebubsb I think the author intended for it to be horrifying and dangerous. Nothing about that was supposed to be romantic… hopefully. The psychological aspect comes into play and for decently adjusted individuals it’s disconcerting. Dark romances usually are. That’s the genre. “Romance” is a light term that maybe shouldn’t even be included most times because it’s misleading.
I was in a relationship with someone that didn’t tell me he had a non con kink. I was sa’d several times while in the relationship, and was also bruised and such. Because of books like this and hearing how people thought it was hot, I thought something was wrong with me and just let it happen. I’m glad there are people who call these books out
It is a super common defense of men who SA someone that it's not their fault they fell in love or got tempted by the victim. PEOPLE DIE BECAUSE OF THIS. People get traumatized for life because someone once found them desirable.
this is an excuse my abuser used and i'm so glad you brought this up. she was a convicted stalker and drove many people to suicide, there is no excuse for what i consider murder.
Its crazy to me that this book’s love interest says the same things/ justifies his actions almost the EXACT same way as the child predator/ groomer from the book My Dark Vanessa- its sickening (BTW, My Dark Vanessa is a fantastic book I recommend if you are in a healthy mental state to read t)
AHH That's awesome!! Fantastic video as always btw- thank you for tackling these topics with such dignity and respect while also being the funniest person on this platform@@nikkicarreon
I saw a girl on tiktok, that i agreed with. Booktok partake in dark toxic media, but arent able to admit that they enjoy dark stories just because, and so they try to make it out to be a good thing, compared to other fandoms. They read stuff like adeline and swoon, and excuse all of the bad stuff, rather than admit the bad stuff and say “well i just like it”
yesss as someone who posts booktok content, i totally agree. Most of booktok doesn't engage with the people like that (they're more classified as smuttok rather than booktok) but i wish we'd call it out more often
As someone who likes similar content (I don't like how the reprehensible behavior is framed in HA or the writing), this has always been my approach. I just like it. I do roll my eyes at the people who pretend they have some deep, complex reason for liking it. But I will say, fessing up to just liking it opens you up to all sorts of other attacks. You're sick. You need therapy. You're a danger to society or a victim waiting to happen or whatever. Why can't you just like something else? So I get why people try to make excuses.
@@Salukiprincessidk, typically people who like this kind of content because it’s more of a thriller/exploration of horrific themes tend to be better received than people who make excuses for it and view it as a romance, so that doesn’t really make sense to me. the former sounds like they have a healthy understanding of reality whereas the latter can clearly overlap with people having boundary issues and romanticizing/normalizing abuse and sexual harassment
Oh, by "make excuses," that's what I meant. They make excuses about liking it because it's exploring dark themes and they're just there for the horror/thriller aspect. So yeah, we're basically saying the same thing: it's seen as more acceptable to make that excuse than to say you just like the dark eroticism (AKA you have rape fantasies) or the fucked up romance. Making excuses for what the "heroes" do in these books and trying to argue that it's legit a beautiful romance is just plain dumb and actually concerning. @@ErikaCartet
I didnt know this book was this bad 😭. I work at a library and this is a very popular book. I had a grandma come in and ask to check to see how long her grand daughters book would take (teenager), so i looked it up. This teenager was something like 960 in line to check it out, so i told fhe grandma "uh, its not coming any time soon." Mf this girls grandma has no clue. Ive had a few teenagers ask about the book. Like very very young teenagers, like 15. I always tell them the wait list is really long because im kinda secretly like "i dont want you to read this" Sometimes i think there should be an age rating (R, pg, etc) on books if not for the fact that books are already overly censored. Rather, i think if books contain content like this whether in this context or something like nonfiction/true crime, or horror, people should have a hint of what happens with trigger warnings or at least an honest summary.
I’m pretty sure they’ve added some warnings for certain stuff, like a sensitive content advisory of Takopi’s Original Sin I saw in a store in where I live (huge props to them btw).
I’m absolutely blown away by how this book is just recommended to people with no context or trigger warnings whatsoever. I’ve seen multiple compilations of booktokers saying things like “If you liked ACOTAR read Haunting Adeline next.” as if they’re comparable.
Right, no matter if you think these kinds of books are even ethical or not, at the VERY least they need content warnings!! That's how fanfic writers do it! If the front of the book said something like "This book contains XYZ. It is purely meant as a fantasy. XYZ behavior is not acceptable/romantic in real life, and if you find yourself in a situation like this, consider reaching out to XYZ" (this got a little long but you get the gist), I'd be like, you know what, fair enough. People enjoy dark shit for reasons, doesn't mean they think it's cool irl. The problem is when people (including the author) can't seperate their "fantasy" from real life.
Ye I agree stuff like this is so bad and at least shouldn't be recommended without tws but Tbh both books are bad in romantacising sa and toxic relationships (eg feysand - rhys sa'd feyre and took away her choice to choose whether to abort or keep her baby by not telling her it would kill her to give birth to) 😭 overall booktok just has a really bad problem with romantacising disgusting stuff 😬
To think Twitter and Tiktok would look at books like these books and have the nerve to say "At least people are reading" Not only is that an entirely different problem, I would rather be illiterate than be subjected to Nightbane and Colleen Hoover ever again And sidenote, has no one realized the "pain and pleasure" monologue make him sound like a Cenobite? Like you remember Pinhead from Hellraiser? Thats him, and no one thought that was weird as shit
I hate it when stalking or any despicable behaviour is romantisized. I love psycological romances BUT ONLY IF THE PERPATRATOR IS HELD ACCOUNTABLE AND PUNISHED.
It's fantasy, meaning anything can happen... So it really says something about the authors who don't have accountability for people who have done wrong in their books
What kind of phsycological romance has the main LI be horrible only to be punished at the end? Isn’t the whole point of a romance to root for the main pair to be together?
I don't even need them to be punished ( even tho it's always good) I just want the fuking narrative to actually frame it how it is instead of justifying that type of shit.
Like I get the dark romance stories but people fetishizing and romanticizing it in real life is really unnerving bc I have been stalked multiple times by randos and exes and it is the scariest shit because you can't do anything about it unless they "break a law".
@@ranchustars3050 yes! Thankfully I have a great support system and am safe, as far as I know the stalkers aren't interested in me anymore. And I think one is still in jail for getting physical with someone else and they pressed charges.
I just don’t get it, and then people be like “no but in real life i wouldn’t……..” when they literally be saying things like “Zade Meadows is the best” and romanticizing what he does, like, nuh uh
this book seems like the american (i’m assuming ?) equivalent of horrible BL manhwas 😭 deranged killer, SA, SA, SA, SA, deranged killer actually has a sad past so please just ignore his crimes and feel bad for him, victim suddenly forgets/forgives/ignores all the SA and trauma, oop they’re dating and in love now! wow so cool! the end! 🙎 stories like this make me so mad
also this troupe is dead ass in 90% of BL manhwas/mangas and it’s fucking disgusting. so if u end up exploring this topic more pls consider looking into it 😭
exactly! Theres definitely some weird propoganda thing for romanticization, sexualization, and fetishizisation of sexual assault in media cartered towards young adolescents AND SPECIALLY teenage women! The amount of parallels there is makes me think there's something else going on!
@@sharkloving_aquarist I mean, you can blame both. Society for conditioning them into it and them for being adult women who replicate and enforce that conditioning onto children and teenagers. As an Adult, you should be able to realize that non-consent is rape, you should be able to realize what boundaries are, etc. People still have a responsibility towards themselves and others to be mindful of that, despite how society brought them up. Similar to how you can still blame a man for sexually harassing someone even though Society teaches men that a lot of non-consensual acts are okay.
@@strawberryfox8819 I'd be a little more concerned about women widely and openly enjoying rape fantasies or villain fantasies or whatever if there was any evidence that it led to real-world harm. Not saying it doesn't, but it's hard to really go after these women or tell them to repress their fantasies when there's just no evidence that doing so will prevent actual abuse or assault. Kind of like violent video games. I would say that it's fair to not overly normalize these kinds of books, though, to the point where fans are recommending them like they'd recommend The Hunger Games to unsuspecting people. Also, I've never encountered an adult dark romance fan who didn't understand that non-consent was rape or that what they were reading in these books wasn't okay IRL. As they'll tell you, themselves, they can tell the difference between fantasy and reality. These books are dark escapism, not actual templates for #lifegoals. I'm genuinely surprised when people outside of their sphere think millions of grown-ass women read a book with sexualized non-consent and are now down to be stalked and raped in real life as long as the dude is hawt.
@@sharkloving_aquarist don't victimise them. Some girls like this stuff for no reason. It's totally on them. An its disgusting how thru fantasize rape. Not eveything is society's fault. Sometimes it's the person themselvee
@@strawberryfox8819why? What have these women done wrong? They're just reading trashy books, they're not hurting anyone lol The comment above and below yours make a much stronger point than yours, which, by the way, reads as though it could've been written by a evangelical youth pastor.
Before reading the description or summary for Haunting Adaline I was so excited for the cover and title because I thought it was gonna be a supernatural horror or gothic horror, and well- it was defiantly horror... 😭
Trigger warnings and Spoiler Warnings for Law and Order SVU: SA There was a law and order svu episode where a girl’s boyfriend was part of a gang and one of the members (i think with him watching it) SA’d her and one conflict with her and her boyfriend, previously, that she could not orgasm with her, but during the SA, she felt it. She hated it, but was surprised that her body orgasmed and it made her feel like she cheated even though she didn’t. She felt she destroyed the boyfriend’s ego, which is really sad. Another episode was about a man who was a sex worker and the three women that ganged up on him and SA’d him and he was shocked that he climaxed during this because he hated every bit of this act. In both episodes, Olivia, the main character who is a detective explained that our bodies sometimes get confused because what we feel may feel the same to our bodies. Our mind and body in cases like this can’t agree with each other, but the important part of her speech was, “this does not mean you wanted it and it is not your fault.” This experience should not be fantasized about.
I saw Haunting Adeline on a '30 Viral Books that are Actually Trash' list and came straight to Nikki to see if she'd covered it, to find that not only had she covered it, but I'd already watched and liked the video? Straight up repressed it. Re-watching the video, everything sounds both familiar and unfamiliar and distinctly liminal.
Booktok made me feel like I was left out or stupid for not finding this book and the experiences cool or attractive. When ppl described Zade there; he was sexy, dark, wild ...looked into the book till I got to the other side to find he SA'd the MC multiple times and I was so confused how this was marketed as romance...even it being dark😭???
I like some dark romance and this was the first dark romance book I read, but I'm sometimes led to feel guilty for not finding Zade anything but abusive and hypocritical
@@toriflaherty185 I like dark romance too but I just read it on fanfic sites. Sometimes the quality is really good and you have the author comments going "this is not sane, safe or consensual", "[character] is going to hell" and "It's been a while but I have to be in a certain mood to write this flaming trash and a different one to post it"
Why can’t we collectively rename ‘dark romance’ as ‘romantic/sexual horror,’ it wouldn’t be that hard and would at least let young people who don’t know better not get sucked into romanticizing SA. Like I fully am fine with toxic stuff existing in fiction, some of my fav movies and books are absolutely fucked up and would never be okay irl... because they’re horror and horror adjacent. I even really enjoy some ‘dark romances’ in similar mindsets as when reading horror. The least we can do is treat stuff like SA the same way as things like murder, torture, etc.
Cause not all dark romances are shitty, like mindfuck series have better chemistry between romantic interest than normal new adult books. Again darkverse,(the first 4 books) were not toxic at all
@@unknownpersethats why the person suggested a different name for it: romantic horror. dark romance is easy to overlook as a name but romantic horror makes it more obvious
Books like this don't belong in the dark romance genre- they should be called horror erotica. There's nothing romantic about abuse, and nothing morally grey about a stalker and rapist. It's horror and smut and should be labelled as such!!
I am a woman in my early twenties and even though I personally cannot fathom genuinely liking this type of literature, it does not surprise me that there are some women that are buying into this. CNC is a kink that I am sure many women are into (not saying it is portrayed in the novel since there is no consent in the scenes mentioned. I am talking about how the readers can self insert into the MC’s shoes and since the reader consented to reading such content, they get off of it) so it does not surprise me that there is media for this. Me being a 100% against it would be hypocritical of me since I have liked (ironically and not ironically) not fully morally right media (it is an otome franchise, if you know you know). I would not have a big problem with this type of media AS LONG AS IT WAS ONLY AVAILABLE TO ADULTS…the problem that makes me uncomfy with this media comes to me when I remember that there must be teenage girls reading this. ZADE SHOULD NOT BE AN IDEAL MAN! Evil/bad boys are much more interest in fiction, trust me…this type of stuff irl can get boring, repetitive and tortuous. Love does not need to be pain, it is not pain.
Not to mention that a lot of people seem to forget that their own partners are able to SA them as well. Just because you’re in a relationship together doesn’t automatically mean that you/your partner consent to anything at anytime.
35:57 just wanted to add or just mention that the "rape leading to a love story" also appears in so many BLs these days (mostly mangas or manhwas and not movies) and it is so terrifying to see women glorifying and sometimes even fetishizing gay men and thinking rape between 2 men is okay and normal?? Like Jinx, one of the most popular BL manhwas rn is just about a boxer having sex with a poor broke guy whenever he wants without any consent?? And Jinx isn't the only toxic one, toxic BLs r the only popular mangas\manhwas these days and me as also a gay man find this absolutely horrifying. Note: This doesn't only apply to only gay men!!! A lot of straight or lesbian books and all of it is horrible. There's no such thing as a rape story that isn't as bad as any other. Rape and sexual assault is a terrifying thing to go through and I'm sending the victims so much love and strength
I'm glad someone pointed it out. I stopped reading manhwas and so on for this exact reason. People fail to realize that r4pe ISN'T love, when they romanticize shi like this, they are basically saying that the victim should be glad it happened to them. They don't even think bout the mentally and physically pain the victim went through and when said victim wants to break up or distance themself from r4pist, everybody gets mad and calls him a snowflake or cruel, cuz how dare he leave an abusive r4pist with a 'tRaUmAtIc cHiLdHoOd', or whateva bs excuse they gon use. I hate it with all my guts. And ofc the author mostly is a straight unsatisfied woman (which makes it even worse cuz especially a woman should know how fcked up a lot of men are)
Is there any non problematic BL manga you would recommend? I’d be very interested in hearing your suggestions because you’re completely correct in your observation of the genre at large.
@@TBX2 I don't read many mangas but I can try to recommend a few! - The Summer Hikaru Died (it's also a horror genre so 2n1) - Shitto wa ai wo kumoraseru - Fukutsu No Zono - Sleeping on Paper Boats - Midnight Rain - Go for it Nakamura! - Haru Kakete Not all of these have actual printed versions and you can read all of these for free online, a lot of them also have suggestive themes so don't be shocked if you find few 😓.
@@TBX2 Lurking in the comments and found this 6 months later (lol) and I do want to mention that, while there are a lot of red/black flag mangas, there are an equal amount of green flags, even on the angstier side. Some of the popular completed ones are Cherry Blossoms After Winter (super wholesome between the main couple), You get Me Going (smutty and comedic with real adults), and then there is Hello Green Days by Sakumoto Ayu and Sugar Dog Life by Yoriko. I've got like probably 100 more I could name, all with green flags and consent!
my friend was reading this book and telling me and our other friends about it and we were joking about it and calling it gross and she was getting genuinlely offended and defending the guy in the book and I am concerned like shes 16 and she gets her expectations from these books and fanfiction and shit😭
Fiction normalizing this sick stuff is problematic. The author herself defended her son for doing the exact same thing to a girl like in the book. I think this book is made to justify the son's actions.
ngl this made me feel sick... thanks for talking about it and bringing awareness to it though! as a woman i get extremely angry whenever i see other women writing sh*t like this. like WHY as a woman yourself?? i noticed how a lot of books that are written for teens (mostly teen girls) are problematic. i re-read some of my older teen books and got disgusted how the female authors would constantly romanticize things like relationships between students and teachers, age gaps, stalking etc... can we as women not help those other freaks to uphold this gross and hurtful system and society for women??
Yes but I feel like we are still blaming victims more than perpetrators. We expect women to be better than men despite woman being the oppressed when it comes to things like SA. We should be more mad at the men who are in control and who havent been conditioned to like this stuff than the women who were conditioned to like it. You can't blame people who were raised to think they were inferior more than those who are in a powerful position, people who are in the offensive position
Again, not saying you're wrong, but I do think were getting to a point where we hold women more accountable for oppressing themselves than man oppressing women because we normalize misogyny and violence from men
@@weeblebeeble3016 the women would never have these ideas if not for the patriarchy. yes, the women are at fault, but they're only at fault because of centuries of men conditioning them to believe that these SHOULD be normalised, either by women trying to cope with their own trauma or men actually condoning it
I think that you’re not realizing that it is EXTREMELY common for survivors of rape and SA to have rape fantasies. As a survivor I have found doing CNC scenes very healing to me. In addition reading a fictionalized version is a safe way to engage with a kink that was brought on from my SA
One of the biggest difficulties being an SA survivor is how dubious it can be. It's easy to become aroused and easy to make a body react to pleasure, that doesn't mean you're enjoying it. The fact that she is so viciously fighting him while he is ABUSING her, people think thats hot? We seriously need to start kinkshaming people.
I feel bad for the motorcycle guy. I hope he gets off tiktok though. Or atleast just get a break from it. Booktok people are something else. Thank you for burning the book. :D
It blows me away that not only was this "book" written by an actual ADULT but by an adult woman... It does a complete disservice to how both men and women are perceived, and the fact that this horribly written personal fantasy (disguised as a romance novel) is getting popular with young people is terrifying. It's like being exposed to extreme p0rn without having the maturity to determine the difference between fantasy and reality. It's gonna do damage to maybe not EVERYONE but for sure a lot of people...
Yeah, that's the part that makes me nervous. I think any adult with a decent understanding of consent and abuse can puzzle out that what's happening in HA and books like it is not okay IRL. But minors really shouldn't be reading it, and some fans are out there recommending it left and right as casually as they'd rec The Hunger Games.
I actually cant watch this because of the stalking mentioned in the video but i did want to leave a comment. Stalking and obsessive behavior from a man ruined my life and future. Its not attractive or sexy or sweet, its traumatizing and is terrifying. Its so incredibly hurtful to see people find it sexy. Why did it have to happen to me? Why couldn't it have happened to them if they like it so much?
Hey man (SA victim here), I'm pretty sure they just meant they don't understand why they, a completely innocent person who never had a single thought of the 'fantasy' had to experience something incredibly raw and horrific that other people dream and get off about. They're not wishing bad things to happen to people, unless I'm mistaken. It just seems like they genuinely don't understand how their experience can be desired by others and they're trying to voice their hurt and trauma from it- which admittedly could be done in a healthier way and not posted publicly. Don't spread hate, guys. Hoping you all get some much needed help, rest, and peace. 🙏 ❤️
@@Itzy-Bitzy-Spiders Word of advice. I don't think encouraging a stranger who reacted incredibly negatively to the video content to begin with (not their fault at all, they have a right to) to share their traumatic experiences online is called for, (although it's entirely their choice to do so and I'm not saying they can't respond.) Be more considerate about asking something super personal about somebody you don't know, especially so publically and without knowing how it can affect them, or you, behind the screen. It should never be your business to begin with.
@@Itzy-Bitzy-Spiders Stalking ruins people's life by making them worry for their own safety. We don't know the intentions of other people, especially those that could commit atrocities to the body mentally, emotionally, and physically. Fear, uncertainty for days on end perpetuates anxiety that could cause someone to not be able to work, live, and do what they need to. Just look up the statistics online about the consequences for the victims of stalking. Even in this book, Adeline experiences severe traumatic and emotional distress. And yet, despite this, Zade continues to pursue her despite the fact that she doesn't explicitly tell him she likes him or wants him like that. Which shows he isn't considerate at all of her emotions, and promotes an unhealthy foundation for a relationship.
Booktook is really confirming time and time again what I always thought from the beginning with dark romance, it’s really just an excuse of a label to glorify, romanticize and normalize abuse towards women
I think it's actually an excuse to indulge in taboo sexual fantasies, lol. Highly doubt the women who read this are secret pro-abuse/rape anti-feminists or something. Slap "romance" on it and you get to indulge in your forbidden sexual fantasy without having to admit that's what you're doing like you would if it was erotica.
no literally. thankfully there are a lot of good booktok accounts that recommend many different type of books that i love! but somehow these problematic books become the forefront of the booktok community which is just so upsetting. things like haunting adelaide, credence, and many more are way too normalized.
I think the problem is that a ton of people just genuinely don't understand what sexual harassment/sexual assault is. like even the anecdote to start the vid is people sexually harassing a stranger! it really all boils down to whether we respect other people's boundaries and bodily autonomy and a lot of people just... don't. thank you for talking about this troubling book with the gravity this content deserves and bringing up the actual data re sexual violence. also if anyone reads this I highly highly recommend Pop Culture Detective's two videos on media portrayals of male victims of sexual assault. PCD makes some of the best video essays I've seen on here and he deserves a lot more attention for all the research he does!
So glad you’re talking about the statistics. It isn’t romantic to be stalked. It is absolutely terrifying and makes you question if the people you surround yourself with are giving them your information to help them stalk you further.
As a minor this book absolutely disgusted me to no end and i would never get how could people EVER sexualize SA. It's such a disturbing and messed up thinking and this Book haunting Adeline is the most disgusting and i would never get the hype about it. One more thing Dark romance is not middle-aged women write their disturbing and messed up so called "romance" which is just SA
My main problem with “dark romance” is that the stories tend to normalize toxic relationships. I actually enjoy reading dark fictional stories, its a guilty pleasure. But i dont expect the story to make excuses for the horrible behaviours or try to say “this is normal, kids.” I guess what in trying to say is people can write dark stories but normalizing and excusing the behaviours is the actual problem.
Thing is the dark romance section is or at least used to be just that romance with dark elements or psychological horror but written as a romance book. However this garbage is the dumbest shit I’ve ever read. My short stories in middle school had more developed characters
real. i love dark shit but not when the dark shit is seen as good. my jaw dropped when watching and hearing this video. i really want to look at their mind, what they've gone through to write this because they are definitely not mentally sane lmao
Exactly. My problem with so many of these books that that romanticize, abuse and rape, and then label it “dark romance” is that they aren’t honest about what they are depicting and excuse it. Like is haunting Adeline is a book for people with r*pe kinks (like its defenders claim) why does the book never acknowledge what happened was rape?? The like is crossed when the fucked up shit happening in the book is brushed off as “morally grey” and romantic just like it is in real life.
I love fucked up shit but I’ve never been into the dark romances books because: 1. It’s never two fucked up individuals being weird, the man is a badass biker/mobster/rich, the girl is always a virgin baby and they’re cool people? Let them be weirdos in peace (Also when I say be weird I don’t mean be MISOGYNISTIC OR WEIRD ABOUT RACE I mean “friendless awkward losers finding their match” kinda weird) 2. They always try to find a way to justify it ??? Like girl it’s FICTION can we leave behind the need to be perfectly moral and unproblematic? It’s a STALKER romance, just ride the fantasy and stop with the annoying morality superiority and the “he helps so many women so it’s actually ok that he’s hurting just ONE 🥺” because that’s ACTUALLY problematic and weird 3. The couple always has that “dude walking his gf on a leash in public while everyone is uncomfortable” vibe but the author never acknowledges it. Again LET THEM BE WEIRDOS, own their weirdness. Be fun but please stop trying to make them cool bc it’s just never gonna happen 😭 It’s just giving 2014 tumblr and wattpad. The writing in the dark romance community is filled with trash I’m not willing to sort
jokes aside, i agree HARD with your first point. like for dark romance to work out properly all while not glorifying harmful ideas and tropes is to have both of the individuals to be messed up in some way or another
i agree with you!! and has to be goodly writen bc if wanna read BAD (written) weird shit i will obviously choose my wattpad/ao3/spirit/tumblr anime boys fanfics
Okay this book is effed up on so many levels but THANK YOU for reading Zade's lines as if he was a South Park character because it fits tremendously well
This inspired me to make a book in the perspective of a man Written by a man but I’m a woman and it’s a parody, it might be called bloody her or if someone recommends a corner name I might go with that and it will possibly involve the following: female side protagonist with blonde hair darker than her skin, male protagonist that’s 7’10 (he describes her in the average male writer way but exaggerated), illegal ostriches and a half assed apology from the male protagonist
HELL I've read dead dove fanfics that have a better basis than whatever this dumpster fire excuse of a "romance" this was 😭 majority of booktok is just recycled fanfiction
the fact that a 19 yr old mcdonalds worker and uni student can write dark subject matter(with smut) more eloquently and breathtakingly while handling the trigger subjects and suffer from minimum wage, while a middle aged woman can write absolutely atrocious characters and stories and handle dark subject matter even worse while being paid is ridiculous. inequality at its peak
@@killme5630 And you have comments like "I am going to hell for writing this, you're going to hell for reading this" and "this example should not be followed"
This makes me feel so much better as a writer I'm not joking. Its awful that this book is so well received with what it contains but it makes me feel like anything I write will be better, especially the romance which I'm not even that good at writing.
As another writer, I second this. It isn’t just the nonexistent plot that’s bad, but the way it’s executed. Every single thing is on-the-nose, there is no subtlety, no “show don’t tell”, nothing. The reader is assumed to be either 5 years old, or lack the skills to put two and two together. This “book” overall makes my unedited drafts look like literary masterpieces and they’re ROUGH.
Honestly, it's a total moral booster in a twisted sort of way. I really think if I wanted to I could write a better romance book without knowing anything about romance myself lol
I’m so sorry for my little eff up at 14:50 :/ but in my defense I’m dyslexic and and
i am also and, don"t worry nikki
Dw queen great video we don’t mind
IlIlIlIl, I had an urge I'm sorry
and and
Like the statistics on reported stalking.
The internet has gotten wayyyy too comfortable sexualizing people 😭‼️
Yeah it's very concerning how 'normal' it's gotten
Andddd being open pedophiles. Shit is insane.
Yeah like they have no boundaries whatsoever
@@oppoloppowhy u stealing @ville_ •comment🥲
Yeah, because in here, we don't experience the shaming for our sexuality that's the norm in real life... Sexualization is nothing bad in itself, because human beings are a sexual species and we sexualize others all the time, otherwise, how are we supposed to feel sexually attracted to them? That said, one thing is to sexualize people, and another one to express that directly to minors... That's not sexualization, it's sexual harassment.
The idea of a pedophile hunter who fights against evil abusers being an abuser himself is actually a great idea for a book. Like he’s so creepily obsessed with a woman that he does everything he’s fighting against is an interesting idea. If this book didn’t try and make it a ROMANCE and kept the narrative exactly what it is, it would be a whole lot better.
such an interesting concept wasted :/ why’d it have to be romance
*Gladly steals the concept but doesnt make it romantic because any non-delutional person would agree that its gross to make smt like that romantic*
I can get behind you on this one! Like a Dexter mixed with You!
I hate when they make these plots romance :(
@@Meebo1 fr.. And then they defend it by saying "Its fictional" 🙏😭
Zade has lowered the bar so much that I have to go apologize to my friend for making fun of her for shipping Christine with the Phantom of the Opera
😭😭😭
This book literally just feels like bad fanfiction of phantom of the opera honestly 😭
@@robinsheridan3760I was thinking this! Is anything original lmao
Damn :o
Show her Love Never Dies, she’d get a kick out of that entire mess
as an SA survivor, i physically cannot imagine what brain rot these other women have to think that any of this is ok
@ville__ sorry sweetheart but how is that relevant to whatever the comment above said? please pick a better comment to promote your content next time
Same. It makes me want to puke.
And on top of that thinking it’s hot
Only women who read booktok
It really is about a lot of trauma-copying and taking Power back, at least for most of them. This book though? I'm not really sure
Oh God, this is giving me flashbacks to when Killing Stalking was super popular and that was written AS a psychological thriller but insane fangirls romanticized it to the point of no return
I remember reading that because of the romanticization of it and imagine my horror when it was in no way a romance
there is a new one right now that fans romanticise cry even better if you beg and its even worse because apparently the ml is hot
@@sallyahmed-o2y cry even better if you beg is literally hell spawn, the art is so pretty but the story is some of the most depraved shit I’ve ever heard of. Hate that this stuff still gets romanticised and people excuse it because it’s ‘just fiction’ and it ‘obviously doesn’t translate to real life’
i agree the story looks like one of those 70s or 80s stories , and its so backward i mean there are alot of misoginistic undertones too in it@@junnakashima4552
@@sallyahmed-o2y wait isn't it that WEBTOON (manhwa) ig the FL's name is Layla if I'm not wrong? I read the spoiler of the novel in a yt shorts & I'm beyond disgusted with the fact what vile shit goes on author's mind🤮.
There's also an similiar webtoon like this ig the name is 'LOVE DOESN'T MATTER'. It's the same shit ML will SA' FL. But somehow they'll end up together & have a baby in the end coz they're hero & heroine of the story :')
i really hated the way booktok transformed from hunger games into spicy books
Same here homie, I just wanna chat about great sci-fi worldbuilding in a book or something, but all they want is “”spicy” romances” and that happens to be the one thing I can’t and won’t ever read! ☹️
Same, like let's talk about good, impactful literature, not corn. If you like reading that, fine, but like, why are you so PROUD of it (to the point where you starting romanticizing legit killers)
It's not like they understood Hungergames to begin with. Of course people who imagine love where there is none, romanticise rape and find trauma quirky would inevitably turn to abusive literature
"does it have spice" and it's a dostoyevsky book
THEY DID?????? HOW DARE THEY RUIN MY FAV BOOKS
the creepy abusive predetor suddenly starting to act like hes a feminist is giving me onision flashbacks
Ewww you're 100% right
Fr it’s honestly the most plausible part of the book, the totally unaware behavior of a man.
yeah, the creepy way these writes are trying to normalize stalking and rape
Rhysand flashbacks
The man who assaulted me parades himself as a radical leftist and feminist in order to lull the women in his social circle into a false sense of security. He's also barely 5 ft tall and scrawny as all hell and has very feminine features and doesn't act traditionally masculine in any way. He's like the definition of non-threatening little brother kind of person. At least on the outside. On the inside, he's a depraved fucking monster. 😢
I hate what the internet (mainly tiktok) has done to book culture. And also the fact that a lot of people now romanticize SA. Makes me sick
YESSSS SA is in every romance book now and everyone just takes it as dominant
Now? Did you not get to the section about a mainstream soap opera from the 80s doing that? Tbh I much prefer a random dark romance book having. Dark topics. Instead of that
@@carolinewheeler77 I’m good
right 😭 and when you say you like a book that isn’t just pure smut and abuse (like hunger games, which i love) they just bash you for not reading something ‘spicy’
@@carolinewheeler77Oh that’s not..the point…
As a SA victim, SA should NEVER be romanticized. There’s no exception. These types off books/shows are disgusting.
Yes yes yes...this💯💯💯💯💯 god I get into so many fights with people for taking SA lightly... SA ruins ones life, mind, sometimes soul.. there should NOT be any romantic notion on non consensual SA. period..
I’m a little late but I’m so sorry with what you are and have been going through I’m so sorry and no one should be going through that
Hope that person rots in hell for what they did to you..
im sorry u had 2 go though that dewd, 100% agree, stuff like that is sickening and it’s even equally as disgusting seeing it be romanticized.
hearing a grown woman uwu made my body collapse in on itself and create a black hole. thanks nikki!
I sometimes say uwu ironically with my friends but to do that with strangers is just 💀
@@-dark-paradise And unironically as well
@@-dark-paradisei say it ironically to my sister as well cause i know it pissed her off 😭😭
Me too but luckily she made another vid talking about how it was her fiance and that original vid was a joke
I literally covered my screen, not being able to look
Too many people are using “dark romance” as an excuse to write reprehensible shit.
And the fact women themselves are usually the ones writing all these horrible about their women characters I genuinely cannot fathom how
Nah for real. The one about step siblings and her uncle. It's just so odd this this stuff is getting popular and promoted.
And people will attack you if you say you think this type fiction is unacceptable and the "is fiction" it is not an excuse because psychological it does harm and normalise sa and abuse.
and they'll say "don't like it, don't read it" sorry i hate your rape fantasy ??
@@anna.owo.exactly its so annoying like i think people can get reasonably upset at this stuff because its horrible things
watching this as someone who writes as a hobby is like a what not to do tutorial
Same...same.
Same ..I'm taking notes in my head of what and not to do
when im writing my book and i get writer's block, i just start watching nikki's book videos for advice on what not to do too 😭
yep same, i watch these kind of critism videos to get an idea about what i should avoid so i won't end up creating aliteral trash 😭
Recommending this book to a kid is the same thing adult males do when they recommended Lolita to young girls. It's grooming.
Except that Lolita is a book by Nabokov and is profoundly well written and important piece of literature, reducing Lolita to just a book men recommend to women shows how warped people have become by the idea of “grooming” .. like not everything is “grooming” for crissakees…as if the novel Lolita just functions as a way to get girls to want to sleep with older men. You have read Lolita yes? And you still think that the book is about normalizing oeadopjolia? Do you actually read?
@@AMultipolarWorldIsEmerging hey man, do you not understand the difference between an author's intention and how it is received? how ideas can be coopted by terrible people? how u missed op's point entirely?
While i agree with these sentiments it would be really creepy and gross for an adult male to recommend it to a child. A young girl would most likely not understand that it's portrayed in a negative light and is a form of grooming. @AMultipolarWorldIsEmerging
@@crazyyfrogyeah and that can be seen in the adaptations of Lolita itself. From what I hear (I should probably read it so I’m sure I’m not talking out of my ass, I’m just an avid fan of video essays and Lolita pops up a lot ) the book is pretty explicit in painting Humbert as a predator as well as being unreliable with his motive for his narrative to defend his crime (ie he has an incentive to shift blame or gain sympathy for his actions; also I’m not sure if it was just the murder or also the kidnapping and child abuse). The people who adapt these books into film, however, view humbert as some sort of victim to “Lolita’s” (Dolores) “obvious” attempts to tempt him (we could talk about how the act of attraction towards women [and young girls] is pushed on women [and young girls] as a deliberate act [think “she knows what she’s doing” or “what was she wearing” as defenses against assault or factors of everyday speech] but then I’d get on a whole other topic of conversation; but not really I’m seeing remnants of it in the haunting of book) adaptors attempt to hypersexualize Dolores’ actions to excuse themselves like Humbert was attempting to do often having to age up Dolores because she is literally 12 years old in the book.
@@crazyyfrogso sorry for that being so long I just got real focused and didn’t know when to shut up
tl;dr you’re on the money and Lolita and it’s adaptations support that
my biggest issue was adeleine never addressing how zade was a hyprocit. Like yay he saves kids and women but HES ALSO DOING THE SAME TO HER?
That's the problem with dark romance readers. They're so focused on the love interest being "redeemed" or on the romance "not feeling creepy" despite the fact that dark romance is inherently creepy and unredeemable. What destroyed my faith in that community was a video of a woman saying that a book wasn't grooming despite the fact that the mc was 6 and the love interest was 28 when they met, and she grew up with him. If that isn't grooming, then why is it called a DARK romance. IT WOULD JUST BE A ROMANCE. DON'T DENY WHAT IT IS TO FEEL BETTER ABOUT IT. And that's what these women do. They want the love interest to be redeemed or "sweet" so they can feel better about jacking off to rape porn.
@ville__get a job, bot
What the hell is all this
its almost like him saving people is used to justify his actions towards adeleine. “he saves women and children so he cant be the same as those predators!!!” I hate this book so much
I’m so glad you brought this up, it was mad embarrassing 😂
If a grown woman followed me around in a store saying uwu while filming me I’d start crying
In all fairness that was already her partner and the video was a joke, but yea lol
I'd be panicky laughing and maybe will say something awkward that I'll think about till the end of my days
💀💀
@@Anindeterminateamountofbees oh the relief I felt reading this- 😭
This is so real 💀
i’m dyslexic
so coquette of you!! 💕/j
I'm sorry for your loss.../j
@@KittyTrackz ik very corvette 🎀
@@ketchup_hater so cockette 🦢
How preppy
Its grossly overlooked how women are super creepy to minors, I'm glad people are pointing it out here but I don't think its addressed enough, especially when its in person. Watch out for groomers/creepy people, minor boys and girls as well as any parents of young people.
Ugh this!!!! It's such a double standard.
@@yessica5231 ikr? Litterally saw a clip from a stand up comedy thing and the guy was talking about how a woman said "save him for me when he's 18" to his nephew and the guy pointed it out, however everyone was just laughing since he was saying serious problems in a comedic way. Really rubbed me the wrong way.
@ville__ I wanna say bot but I can see ur previous comments on this vid... And their something...
@@Truly_a_Plum_moment it is a bot. i’ve seen him in the comments of pretty much every single video i’ve watched for the past 6 months.
@@Truly_a_Plum_moment huh? im not calling you a bot. i’m saying the person you responded to was a bot, because you said “i wanna say bot”, unless that was a typo?
Watching your videos has motivated me to write my book where there's a female protagonist that actually uses common sense.
😂 please 😂😂
@@huhhhhhhhhhhhhhh it's currently at 12k words. 30 something pages (i was writing it long ago but this reminds me of why it's important to keep writing it)
Can't wait to read it once it comes out!
Are you posting the chapters online somewhere? I'd love to read it.
@@Daughter_ofStars not yet but one day i hope to publish
How Archibald says he treats women is obviously bad so it seems understandable that Zade would dislike him. However… only one of these characters SAs Adeline… and it’s not Archibald
Literalllly
I swear the writer had to have done this shit on purpose how in the fuck does someone have negative self awareness like the words are literally written down boo read them.
@@nikkicarreonhow the hell is this published 😭
@@Nonesovile96 huh
i have a theory that they're being pushed on that idea by their editors/ they see the attention it gets so they write the worst thing ever that has smut so people will buy it.
and since its a book im thinking that even if theres sa scenes they are able to gloss over and be able to get turned on cause its 20 f*cking pages wtf, or else you're still disgusted which sounds more likely with the way its written@@TalesOfSurvival
I LOVE HATING ON BOOKTOK ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤ also, the misinformation in this book omg!! many women's bodies react as if they were aroused to r/pe because your brain is trying to ease it for u!! also many women c/m but that doesn't mean they like it, its literally your body, it does that from stimulation! ugh now i really hate this book
NO LITERALLY!! It could just be from the physical stimulation happening, they internally could be hating it. Which is why verbal consent is so important
it happens to men too, it should never be an excuse used by anyone to assault anybody.
@@ranchustars3050 agreed!!
Exactly! This book uses the same logic that makes people believe men can't be raped. Human bodies react to stimulation no matter what the person's brain is thinking, it has nothing to do with enjoyment
@@ranchustars3050I feel like that is the main justification people use to invalidate male rape. Because they may finish but that doesn’t mean they consented or enjoyed it.
Any man calling a woman his "little mouse" automatically get -100000/100 in sexyness in my book. If a guy calls me that there's not coming back
I mean i think it's hot. I would allow it to him like it's a normal pet name. 😂
@@karalis5224 u would seriously be aroused if someone called u a rodent?
That's just yucky
Not ppl getting off on being called a literal rodent
@@rk_vemeff1up nahh being called an infant (baby) is way worse. And it's still the most popular one.
Booktok girls are insane when it comes to sexualising men on tiktok. We just had drama like this year ago with hockey players. Not cool, sexulisation and harrassment goes both ways.
I'm not one that thinks men are on equal footing in oppression or are anywhere near it, even in harassment and sexualization, but yes. I keep seeing men getting harassed by women, and its weird asf. Yall gotta know it's wrong either way. All of us are humans and if you can't respect someone because ur horny then spay/neuter yourself
They moved to bikertok
I’m sorry we don’t claim them
Is this fr???
@@K3WLK1D Yup. I heard specifically about Kierra Lewis and her fanbase - they literally wrote sexual stuff under family photos of hockey players.
Taking a guy named Archibald back to the crib is crazy
naw what would you even say in bed with that kinda name :C
thats literally the most un-moanable name
@@silly734tried to moan it confirmed completely uncomfortable
@rahnicoulter3816 archie maybe?
He’s pulling up with the 3d barbie movie villain name JSJFJGMG
I’m a minor and my 13 year old friend sent me a picture of the book telling me it’s hot and at that time I had no idea that the book is like that.. I feel absolutely disgusted
GIRL DON'T READ IT 😭😭🙅🙅
Don't read it, it will messed you up
I hope your friend stop liking kind of books like this. It's dangerous especially y'all just a teen
I understand the both of you are young, so your friend still has a lot to learn. But trust me: if they're trying to be cool, or edgy this isn't the way to go about that. Hopefully, they'll learn. Sending warm wishes your way.
same im 13 and my friend (soon ex friend) read this book and would show me the r@pe scenes DURING CLASS and it was disgusting. she has such a bad obsession with romantacized SA
I was published at 17 and had a grown man follow me around a Target. He said he recognized me from a local broadcast show I'd had an interview on and he wanted my autograph. So naturally, he followed me for an hour and said *"Well, you're old enough."* when I asked what he was doing flirting with me. BIG ICK. The booktok situation and Haunting Adeline are mega 🚩🚩🚩🚩for me.
Oh dear GOD NO 😭 A guy followed me in the Times Square train station a few weeks ago because I rejected him and i asked some strangers to pretend to be my friends until I got to the theater I was supposed to be at.
(Also, where can i find this book? Im interested!)
That's horrifying but congrats on getting published 😅
that’s so awful. i would love to know the name of the book though 💀
@@socksbenjelloun5196 Scarlet Memories: The Hallowed Lost. It got screwed up by my publisher, big time, but hopefully you still enjoy it.
Had a drunk, shirtless guy flirt with me 4 years ago when I was working at an ice cream shop. I was 15. He asked when my shift was over, saying he had a bottle of vodka and he needed a drinking buddy. It was so creepy.
I feel like a lot of people excuse the book by saying they are into cnc, but the whole issue is that Adeline isn't doing a scene with a partner! She's being assaulted! There are ways to engage in that kink that doesn't involve supporting a book that romatises rape culture. Thats my two cents anyway
ik im into cnc and this shit sounds extremely triggering and gross. i dont mind it being a fantasy for people, but idkkk theres a line. my only worry is exactly what nikki said about the body's physical response being used as an excuse to say the victim wanted ut
@@soloheroinaexactly!
Look, I've enjoyed the most unbearably toxic media because it had themes associated with my kinks. If these people are enjoying it just for that reason, I can't blame them. It may not be progressive but kinks are specifically designed to be outrageous- they are triggered by things we know are taboo or bad. So these people are embracing the book for it's intended purpose. Mindless, thoughtless, horniness.
HOWEVER, to the people who actually see it as relationship goals? Or aspire to meet a man like him? They need so much help
i think the author starts out with saying its cnc but thats literally just a lie LMAO, a lot of what happened is just rape, the protagonist never consents to a lot of shit that happens.
Right!? Like the whole point of cnc is that it's *consentual* and *pre-discussed* . Both the person playing the dominant role AND the submissive know (at least roughly) what is going to happen. There *is* a way to stop the scene with a safe word and the dominant person *will* stop if it's used! Not only that but aftercare is super important! It's explicitly said in this book that she feels numb & is blaming herself. That is NOT how ANYONE should leave a cnc or any kink scene. Yeah it happens sometimes that things go too far and a scene goes bad, but that's the *exception* and everyone involved should want to *prevent* that happening. Not like this douchebag Main Guy who revels in it. I'm so sick of ppl who know nothing about healthy kink writing books about EXTREME kinks, doing it all wrong, then defending it like that's what ppl are into. No!!! Stop it!!!
I had a coworker who bought this book. It was recommended to her because she loves romance books with a little smut here and there. She got more than she asked for lol. She stopped reading after the gun scene. She took it to work and we all took turns reading that page and laughing at how horrific, unromantic, and cringe the whole thing was. She didn't want to take it back home but also didn't want our boss to find it so she literally threw it in the trash. Funnest part is she tried to contact Amazon to see if she could return it, and they basically said 'don't worry about it we'll just refund you'.
Totally valid reaction. I was recommended the book by my friend who's on booktok and she said it's a really good book and it had dark themes. Since I like reading horror books (ones written by Stephen King especially) I thought I could handle a little bit of romance along with the "dark themes". Also, I was 17 when she recommended that book to me. I had been weirded out by Adeline not doing anything about her stalker for a long time but when the gun scene appeared, that was my last straw. I quickly dropped the book and deleted it from my storage (I got an online version of it).
Rare Amazon W
W Amazon
@@KolxyaHey, I really like your pfp! Is that a rui card or just fanart ?
@@crow1247 It's a card !
The fact that people were making fun of this CHILD for reading YA books is just so weird. Not just because it's appropriate for his age but also because The Hunger Games and Maze Runner are honestly better than whatever the fuck is circulating on booktok right now 💀
Ikr?! They were saying that the Hunger Games isn't really book tok but like, it's so much better than the stuff that is. And they can't even argue that book tok is for indie writers bc they keep pushing Colleen Hoover.
It just gives me a whole 'nother reason not to get TikTok.
Hunger games and maze runner has my heart ❤
@@Elven_Gamer As an user of TikTok who saw the shitshow that some parts of BookTok are, yes, don't install the app.
Absolutely. Hunger Games is amazing and teaches about the dangers of an all powerful State. Hunting Adeline is just abusive brain rot.
This author makes Colleen Hoover look like Jane Austen.
Reading this burned my eyes 😂
But smh people will never see it and it pisses me off when they're quick to hate on Colleen hoover and not her
@@aenarana7517 Ok but this doesn't make Hoover any better, she definitely deserves the hate too
@asahi6487 yeah
I don't read a lot, but I'm glad I'm literate enough to understand this analogy
Zade Sa’d her and still said he was a feminist 💀
those two aren't mutually exclusive, if you pay attention to how male feminists truly behave.
Reminds me of a Dweller’s Empty Path meme.
Haven't read the book but from this commentary I felt like Zade could be akin to Joe Goldberg, actually a well written delusional psycho... except this isn't a horror and we're supposed to root for this guy smh
@@Frutticattygirlnone of them are genuine
Would’ve been a good book if it was criticizing him and DR in general. Kind of a waste
As someone whos currently dealing with a stalker its weird that people are romanticizing stalker situations like no its not some sweet stuff its creepy as hell like pleasee stop romanticizing it in books😭
Mhm! Its just so weird people think its romantic like no its traumatizing😭
Sorry you’re going through that,However people like different things, people have fantasies about being kinapped,stalked,ect. A lot of it is from trauma, but I love the stalking trope, I also like the show “ you” and so many others do too over Joe stalking who he wants, because they fantasize about that happening to them. I mean I don’t blame them Joe is attractive and obsessed lol YOU don’t think it’s romantic and that’s absolutely fine, I do and so do many others (ofc depends on the person lol) but in general if I like someone in that way, and If I found out they were stalking me I’d probably fall in love lmfao
@@Moonlight-řæven i understand your view point but i still dont view it as some romantic thing. Getting stalked generally will cause anxiety since its normally not a "omg hes obsessed with me so cute" most of the time youll just worry about what that person might to if the obsession gets even more unhealthy
i'm so sorry dude please please tell people you trust about the situation. this is heart breaking and horrific.
@@Moonlight-řæven i think you're spending WAY too much time on the internet. I get it find it "cute/hot" in fiction; in many medias, stalkers are portraited are hopeless romantics that just love so much and want to protect their lovers at any cost. But fantasizing about being stalked in real life it's concerning. I also like YOU and find Joe funny, but never in a million years i would like to be with a guy like him. He's not romantic, he's a murderer. When his "lovers" don't act in the way he wants them to act, he's ready to kill them. Even Joe is subconsciously disgusted by his own actions, not matter how many times he tries to excuse himself and justify It. Why do you think he stops loving Love in the moment she reveals to him that she's just like him?
the part where he says she wanted it because she's wet pisses me off, I've heard like 50% of SA victims "get wet" as a biological defense mechanism that eases the pain and a lot end up either not reporting it out of embarrassment or because they dont recognize it as what it is because the thought processes is "getting wet means i liked it and others will say the same", this stupid fucking book adds on to that, imagine someone thinking this happened to them because they actually liked it then reading this book, they would 100% dig themselves deeper into the this logic
Sameee I’m disgusted by who likes stuff like this
+ the author acknowledged it after by saying she felt disgusted by it?
so why?
like i understand imagining it in your head but the "i felt numb after" isn't part of the fun??? the trauma isn't fun, when plp fantasize of it they do it in a romantized way that wouldn't happen irl so idk why she included it, it seems more like a "yep it's definitely a thriller and not smut".
it's a common fantasy but i've never heard someone say they like the violent aspect of it (not talking about domination in roleplay situations more like psychological damages etc)
+ a lot of domestic abuse victims don't report cause they're laughed at by the cops/ authorative figures and it probably can be applied for sa victims.
Fr. It’s absolutely horrifying and disgusting.
This just reminds me of those people that say that the guys who are assaulted "liked" it cause they got hard. Like, these are biological responses created by our body.
I've argued w a lot of haunting adeline enjoyers and defenders and they always say she liked it bcz her body reacted to the pleasure... are they even girls atp?? She has no control over her body's reaction to pleasure whether it was consensual or not. I'ts honestly annoying how they defend Zade's actions like that using such... typical of irl grapist excuses.
The fact that he fights against pedophiles and other sexual abusers seems like a thing added in post, just to make his character seem like a saint, when none NONE of his actual actions speak like it. That point is just there keep us from hating him, even though he behaves and does absolutely nothing like that
its called *le moral scapegoat*
I’m 16, and what scares me the most about this book is the fact that most of the girls in my class have read-or are currently reading-this book and telling me how good it is and how they’ve fallen in love with Zade and wish they were in Adeline’s shoes. It’s horrific.
Definitely not books for teens and younger to be reading.
Yeah, but those same people were the ones that read "50 Shades of Gray" and thought it was the best thing ever 😂
Wait more on that thought, does that mean this book series is going to be in every thrift book shop after the craze goes away 🤢
@@vanovasmith9586 I hate 50 shades. I like haunting Adeline
@@vanovasmith9586nah 50 shades was pure middle age wine mums
"This isn't morally grey, this is morally GONE." - sounds like a perfect one sentence sum of this entire book.
"Hades's is bench pressing this thing... the bar is in literal hell 🤣"
I officially remove myself from booktok
No more terrible book recs
No more using books an as aesthetic
No more feeling pressured to read books and then like them
✊😔
Yaayy me too! (Tiktok is banned in our country)
Amen!
The ONLY good booktok recommendation I EVER received was the Cruel Prince series
Some Booktok people are truly insane. I remember a while back some hockey players wife (or the hockey player himself. I don't remember.) asked them to stop saying sexual things about him bc it made him uncomfortable, and they got mad about that😭
I remember that people have no morals
Almost all fan bases and formed groups that call themselves shit like "booktok" always end up showing just how mentally unhinged they truly are. It's like people that join cults.
ur pfp goes hard unrelated
I have that booktoker blocked. She’s not only annoying but regularly platforms and praises problematic authors
@@dylan5896i like ur pfp
Oh. My. God. Who romanticizes a TWENTY ONE page long SA?!?!?! I hate that
that’s so true. who could even WRITE that and call i’m romance in the first place. i cried watching this video because of that.
exactly. its disgusting.
Some very unhinged people unfortunately
@Slayy05acompletely agree. i’ve never been SAed but just HEARING the things he was saying & how this is written actually made me feel disgusted & i wanted to crawl out of my own skin & find a new body that has never heard of this. it’s just so disturbing & disgusting that how can you romanticize it, not just in your own mind, but actively romanticize it to OTHER people?? especially when it starts with STALKING & then goes into the main character being raped MULTIPLE TIMES???? it’s such an uncomfortable thing to hear about & even more disturbing that somebody WROTE that & portrayed it as a ROMANCE. how would that kind of language make victims feel if they stumbled upon this book & saw “oh well her body reacted so she liked it”??? & how can other people agree with this & say it’s a romance novel when NOTHING about this is ROMANTIC?!?!?! how can somebody write this & not want to rip their own flesh off??? i’m literally so uncomfortable, i can’t imagine how a victim of SA would feel seeing that kind of language & justification being written as romance. i’m convinced nobody on booktok has a brain anymore
i found it online and it was so hard to read because of how horrible and detailed it was. and on top of that, he literally could have shot her? that part is so baffling to me.
The idea of zade being a vigilante and fighting what he calls bad guys while also perpetrating abuse, and being what he hates the most would be SO interesting if not worked with so poorly..
He's essentially a shit Punisher
If you hated the first book wait to read the second book one, I can't describe how much I hate it. I expect the messy plot but I didn't expect how much lazy and racist the author is, the only Latino character was full of stereotypes (the author mixed Puerto Rican and Mexican culture) and the Spanish words were full of grammatical errors. (He says idioto and stúpido) 💀
OH SO I WAS RIGHT? 😭 I knew this shit was racist coded
@@nikkicarreon I even read the reviews on Goodreads and nobody were talking about that
@@ohlove0because it doesn’t really matter lol. I don’t like the book but it’s not racist nor a big deal the author wasn’t spot on writing a fictional character’s culture. If you’re that upset over something so trival then i encourage you to seek therapy and see what’s the root Cause. I apologize if you’re a child, because at that time it’s explanatory why you’re so upset over small things that don’t matter. The reviews never mentioned it either because most of the readers were adults who have a more developed brain
@@Moonlight-řæven I’m sorry if this is coming off mean. But you and alot of the readers who enjoyed Haunting of Adeline are at a 4th grade reading and writing skill.
In your skill level it’s easy to overlook themes,spelling errors, grammatical errors, plot and advanced character development.
If wattpad or A03 was the only thing you read consistently, plus YA fiction books. You have stayed and carried your 4th grade reading comprehension as an adult.
@@Moonlight-řæven the issue is more so how little effort they put into the character. If you're going to have spanish speaking characters it's reaallllyy easy to look things up about it. Like if they're speaking in Spanish google translate that shit at the very least. Y soy un hispanohablante, yo sé cuando sus palabras son incorrectos 🙄
It actually doesn't surprise me in the slightest that too many people from booktok have boundary issues... Too many authors use shock value as filler rather than using it where it'll have the most effect, along with fetishising, trivializing, and glorifying Tropes, traumas and extremely sensitive subject. Those combined make for a perfect storm of people not wanting the "fantasy" to stay on the pages... That's when things get weird
they’re so chronically online they don’t understand like faux pas or basic boundaries. the fact that they completely disregard ppl’s triggers says so much about them
They have ZERO critical thinking skills. That's why, full offense, they read hot trash that's ONLY smut. I argued with this one person on Goodreads bc she said a book "didn't have romance" but it had PLOT (and it did have romance).
Absolutely well written response! That's why I've seen BookTok go all out with Bikers, certain cosplays, etc...they'll go feral when they see these. To some extent, I get it. But there is a fine line between fantasy, and reality. And it needs to stay that way.
I feel like the 'book reading community' has been completely corrupted if not hyjacked by people that are only interested in rom novels and "spicy" fan fic, basically it's all just a kink outlet to them rather than a genuine enjoyment of reading and proper story telling. These people would never even get into it otherwise, too vapid..
ADDING the trope you're thinking of is called "r*pe as love" on TV Tropes. It was also incredibly common in the oldest of old school romances the so-called bodice ripper novels. Occasionally called "r*pemances." It has some complicated history involving women not allowed to "feel" their own desires so being forced made it acceptable in the narrative. It really is a long and interesting history. Misogyny through the ages. It really is worth the deep dive if you ever have interest.
As a "mature for my age" kid, I had little oversight on what I was reading, cuz if I was reading, at least I wasn't getting into trouble. And I definitely read quite a few adult smut books that I probably shouldn't have, but this one stands out to me that took place in like the...late 1800s/early 1900s where a dude sees this woman on the street, essentially kidnaps her, she's given an "aphrodisiac" that makes her SO READY she's literally in PAIN(iirc the main dude DIDN'T want those given to her so he's like mad at his servant who did it? still tho) and he has to help her out with it so she isn't in agony of course! Googled it, it's called Secret Fire, and it was bad and only gets worse.
I guess it's a little bit like that "baby it's cold outside" song. to us it seems super creepy but at the time listeners would assume that the girl does actually want to stay the night (and, you know...whatever else) and is only hesitant because of societal expectations, like "what would people think?" kind of stuff (some of the lyrics allude to this) but while those expectations obviously still exist nowadays they aren't strong enough for this to be a no-brainer yk
This is strait up a book about rape. And if people can't see it that's really concerning. Thank you for being a truthful voice 🙏
I went on Goodreads now,it has over 300,000 ratings ,only 5% is 1 star 🤢
We need help
I mean it's just a book it's not hurting anyone
@@hannarivers5872 yes it is, a lot of readers think the contents of this book is normal.
You think it's acceptable to write about rape and romanticise it?
Do tell
@@sadgirl2.0 if people read that and think it's okay than that is on THEM, doesn't make the book bad thats the whole point of dark romance and honestly ANYTHING in fiction goes
@@hannarivers5872 honestly, that's how you feel.
Once again,do you think it's okay to frame RAPE as romantic and okay?
Do you know how heinous rape is?
I agree, it's dark fiction, I'd throw up in the quarter. Clearly you don't understand abuse and assault
i will not lie to you, i was a big fan of this book when i was 17, i loved the whole bad boy who would do anything to protect you stories. but watching this and realizing that all the things you’re pointing out that i never really thought twice about outside of the story are completely valid. so on behalf of my newfound realization of how horrible this book is, thank you. especially since you can have bad boy characters who would protect you throughout anything without including the rword. especially the 🔫 when i first read it i quite literally had to stop reading cause i just couldn’t understand why they’d write about that as if it was romantic.
Glad to have you here :)
@@lxvelyminx4253 Not most books. Certain books. Most books are not toxic. They may include these things but in a way that treats as it should be treated or at least as a clear evil that’s supposed to disgust you and not… turn you on? Glad you’re having an awakening and please keep reading (better books… 😅)
I've absolutely been there. And i've read works where 🔫s were used, but it was empty with the safety on, clean and mutually agreed upon beforehand and during. Like, it's possible to include the kinks without making it horrifying and dangerous wtf. tropes and kinks don't have to be innately harmful and yet, books like this are being published
@@Beelzebubsb exactly! non consensual interactions are NOT necessary to develop and interesting and enjoyable plot! but not many are aware of that!
@@Beelzebubsb I think the author intended for it to be horrifying and dangerous. Nothing about that was supposed to be romantic… hopefully. The psychological aspect comes into play and for decently adjusted individuals it’s disconcerting. Dark romances usually are. That’s the genre. “Romance” is a light term that maybe shouldn’t even be included most times because it’s misleading.
I was in a relationship with someone that didn’t tell me he had a non con kink. I was sa’d several times while in the relationship, and was also bruised and such. Because of books like this and hearing how people thought it was hot, I thought something was wrong with me and just let it happen. I’m glad there are people who call these books out
Oh god.. i'm so sorry this happened to you, I hope you are fine now! 😣😣😣
It is a super common defense of men who SA someone that it's not their fault they fell in love or got tempted by the victim. PEOPLE DIE BECAUSE OF THIS. People get traumatized for life because someone once found them desirable.
and a common defense for women who SA men too vice versa
Exactly that’s why I feel like a line needs to be drawn
this is an excuse my abuser used and i'm so glad you brought this up. she was a convicted stalker and drove many people to suicide, there is no excuse for what i consider murder.
Its crazy to me that this book’s love interest says the same things/ justifies his actions almost the EXACT same way as the child predator/ groomer from the book My Dark Vanessa- its sickening
(BTW, My Dark Vanessa is a fantastic book I recommend if you are in a healthy mental state to read t)
I have read MDV! And it actually plays a integral role in my next video :) thanks for watching
AHH That's awesome!! Fantastic video as always btw- thank you for tackling these topics with such dignity and respect while also being the funniest person on this platform@@nikkicarreon
I am officially reading Lolita then My Dark Vanessa then Haunting Adeline and Call me by your name... I think Nikki covered those.
Them: The hunger games and maze runner isn't Booktok!!! 🥺🥺🥺
Me: we gatekeeping genres now?
Like for real y'all?? Dystopian is goated 😭
@@cosmyctaylorsversion Frr, it's my favourite genre
divergent too
I saw a girl on tiktok, that i agreed with.
Booktok partake in dark toxic media, but arent able to admit that they enjoy dark stories just because, and so they try to make it out to be a good thing, compared to other fandoms.
They read stuff like adeline and swoon, and excuse all of the bad stuff, rather than admit the bad stuff and say “well i just like it”
This!!! Literally like. you can like dark fiction! But don't say this is romantic?? That's the problem!
yesss as someone who posts booktok content, i totally agree. Most of booktok doesn't engage with the people like that (they're more classified as smuttok rather than booktok) but i wish we'd call it out more often
As someone who likes similar content (I don't like how the reprehensible behavior is framed in HA or the writing), this has always been my approach. I just like it. I do roll my eyes at the people who pretend they have some deep, complex reason for liking it. But I will say, fessing up to just liking it opens you up to all sorts of other attacks. You're sick. You need therapy. You're a danger to society or a victim waiting to happen or whatever. Why can't you just like something else? So I get why people try to make excuses.
@@Salukiprincessidk, typically people who like this kind of content because it’s more of a thriller/exploration of horrific themes tend to be better received than people who make excuses for it and view it as a romance, so that doesn’t really make sense to me. the former sounds like they have a healthy understanding of reality whereas the latter can clearly overlap with people having boundary issues and romanticizing/normalizing abuse and sexual harassment
Oh, by "make excuses," that's what I meant. They make excuses about liking it because it's exploring dark themes and they're just there for the horror/thriller aspect. So yeah, we're basically saying the same thing: it's seen as more acceptable to make that excuse than to say you just like the dark eroticism (AKA you have rape fantasies) or the fucked up romance. Making excuses for what the "heroes" do in these books and trying to argue that it's legit a beautiful romance is just plain dumb and actually concerning. @@ErikaCartet
30:37 “the bar is in literal hell. Hades is bench pressing that thing.” This is a 10/10 iconic line that you just randomly spewed up.
omg just came to write this, was fully concentrated watching, and then that sentence alone threw me off so bad I started rolling on the floor laughing
I didnt know this book was this bad 😭. I work at a library and this is a very popular book. I had a grandma come in and ask to check to see how long her grand daughters book would take (teenager), so i looked it up. This teenager was something like 960 in line to check it out, so i told fhe grandma "uh, its not coming any time soon." Mf this girls grandma has no clue.
Ive had a few teenagers ask about the book. Like very very young teenagers, like 15. I always tell them the wait list is really long because im kinda secretly like "i dont want you to read this"
Sometimes i think there should be an age rating (R, pg, etc) on books if not for the fact that books are already overly censored. Rather, i think if books contain content like this whether in this context or something like nonfiction/true crime, or horror, people should have a hint of what happens with trigger warnings or at least an honest summary.
A takes me back to twilight. Its all twilights fault....
@@WildArtistslThe domino effect, eh?
I’m pretty sure they’ve added some warnings for certain stuff, like a sensitive content advisory of Takopi’s Original Sin I saw in a store in where I live (huge props to them btw).
I’m absolutely blown away by how this book is just recommended to people with no context or trigger warnings whatsoever. I’ve seen multiple compilations of booktokers saying things like “If you liked ACOTAR read Haunting Adeline next.” as if they’re comparable.
Right, no matter if you think these kinds of books are even ethical or not, at the VERY least they need content warnings!! That's how fanfic writers do it! If the front of the book said something like "This book contains XYZ. It is purely meant as a fantasy. XYZ behavior is not acceptable/romantic in real life, and if you find yourself in a situation like this, consider reaching out to XYZ" (this got a little long but you get the gist), I'd be like, you know what, fair enough. People enjoy dark shit for reasons, doesn't mean they think it's cool irl. The problem is when people (including the author) can't seperate their "fantasy" from real life.
Ye I agree stuff like this is so bad and at least shouldn't be recommended without tws but Tbh both books are bad in romantacising sa and toxic relationships (eg feysand - rhys sa'd feyre and took away her choice to choose whether to abort or keep her baby by not telling her it would kill her to give birth to) 😭 overall booktok just has a really bad problem with romantacising disgusting stuff 😬
I loved acotar and I am disgusted by this book
All dark romance books, including Haunting Adeline, have a list of trigger warnings at the beginning of the book.
on Spotify it's classified as romance, can you imagine
To think Twitter and Tiktok would look at books like these books and have the nerve to say "At least people are reading"
Not only is that an entirely different problem, I would rather be illiterate than be subjected to Nightbane and Colleen Hoover ever again
And sidenote, has no one realized the "pain and pleasure" monologue make him sound like a Cenobite? Like you remember Pinhead from Hellraiser? Thats him, and no one thought that was weird as shit
I truly think that if you willingly read colleen and LIKE IT you need to reevaluate all of your values
@ville__ we got a botter here folks🧍♂️
I’ve also seen people on tik tok say it’s not rape because she liked it, and that Zane is romantic and they want someone like him.
Nooooo nightbane is a booktok book? I didn't know that until this comment. I haven't read it yet but I got it for the holidays. 😢
@@lavender4951Fr also her books read A.I generated
all this info plus the fact that the book is called “HUNTING adeline” …😳 just why
Haunting Adeline and Hunting Adeline are different but in the same sequel.
I hate it when stalking or any despicable behaviour is romantisized. I love psycological romances BUT ONLY IF THE PERPATRATOR IS HELD ACCOUNTABLE AND PUNISHED.
It's fantasy, meaning anything can happen... So it really says something about the authors who don't have accountability for people who have done wrong in their books
@Ashtree29 it isn't fantasy tho. It's marketed as dark romance but not fantasy.
@@Stonedandbookishwho tf cares, shit still normalizing abuse
What kind of phsycological romance has the main LI be horrible only to be punished at the end? Isn’t the whole point of a romance to root for the main pair to be together?
I don't even need them to be punished ( even tho it's always good) I just want the fuking narrative to actually frame it how it is instead of justifying that type of shit.
Like I get the dark romance stories but people fetishizing and romanticizing it in real life is really unnerving bc I have been stalked multiple times by randos and exes and it is the scariest shit because you can't do anything about it unless they "break a law".
really sorry that has happened to you, i hope you are safe now!
@@ranchustars3050 yes! Thankfully I have a great support system and am safe, as far as I know the stalkers aren't interested in me anymore. And I think one is still in jail for getting physical with someone else and they pressed charges.
I just don’t get it, and then people be like “no but in real life i wouldn’t……..” when they literally be saying things like “Zade Meadows is the best” and romanticizing what he does, like, nuh uh
@@Whos_4n4bruh same..
Difference between youtube comments and Instagram comments here are so honest and satisfying.
this book seems like the american (i’m assuming ?) equivalent of horrible BL manhwas 😭 deranged killer, SA, SA, SA, SA, deranged killer actually has a sad past so please just ignore his crimes and feel bad for him, victim suddenly forgets/forgives/ignores all the SA and trauma, oop they’re dating and in love now! wow so cool! the end! 🙎 stories like this make me so mad
also this troupe is dead ass in 90% of BL manhwas/mangas and it’s fucking disgusting. so if u end up exploring this topic more pls consider looking into it 😭
Istg Killing Stalking got twisted to hell and back and now we're here. What the hell happened dog??? 💀
@@arkkon2740 FR 😭
exactly! Theres definitely some weird propoganda thing for romanticization, sexualization, and fetishizisation of sexual assault in media cartered towards young adolescents AND SPECIALLY teenage women! The amount of parallels there is makes me think there's something else going on!
FR there's so many women are into bl manhwa (including me) that's ok but GURL THE MOST POPULAR ONES ARE ALWAYS RED/BLACK FLAGS, IT'S SO TOXIC 😭
Somebody needs to help these girls, I’m genuinely concerned that this is so widely and openly enjoyed
It's sad because I think a lot of people blame the women who enjoy this more than the society that conditioned them to like it
@@sharkloving_aquarist I mean, you can blame both. Society for conditioning them into it and them for being adult women who replicate and enforce that conditioning onto children and teenagers. As an Adult, you should be able to realize that non-consent is rape, you should be able to realize what boundaries are, etc. People still have a responsibility towards themselves and others to be mindful of that, despite how society brought them up.
Similar to how you can still blame a man for sexually harassing someone even though Society teaches men that a lot of non-consensual acts are okay.
@@strawberryfox8819 I'd be a little more concerned about women widely and openly enjoying rape fantasies or villain fantasies or whatever if there was any evidence that it led to real-world harm. Not saying it doesn't, but it's hard to really go after these women or tell them to repress their fantasies when there's just no evidence that doing so will prevent actual abuse or assault. Kind of like violent video games.
I would say that it's fair to not overly normalize these kinds of books, though, to the point where fans are recommending them like they'd recommend The Hunger Games to unsuspecting people.
Also, I've never encountered an adult dark romance fan who didn't understand that non-consent was rape or that what they were reading in these books wasn't okay IRL. As they'll tell you, themselves, they can tell the difference between fantasy and reality.
These books are dark escapism, not actual templates for #lifegoals. I'm genuinely surprised when people outside of their sphere think millions of grown-ass women read a book with sexualized non-consent and are now down to be stalked and raped in real life as long as the dude is hawt.
@@sharkloving_aquarist don't victimise them.
Some girls like this stuff for no reason. It's totally on them. An its disgusting how thru fantasize rape. Not eveything is society's fault. Sometimes it's the person themselvee
@@strawberryfox8819why? What have these women done wrong? They're just reading trashy books, they're not hurting anyone lol
The comment above and below yours make a much stronger point than yours, which, by the way, reads as though it could've been written by a evangelical youth pastor.
Before reading the description or summary for Haunting Adaline I was so excited for the cover and title because I thought it was gonna be a supernatural horror or gothic horror, and well- it was defiantly horror... 😭
23:55 is so important, "somebody's body reacting does not count as consent" thanks.
Trigger warnings and Spoiler Warnings for Law and Order SVU:
SA
There was a law and order svu episode where a girl’s boyfriend was part of a gang and one of the members (i think with him watching it) SA’d her and one conflict with her and her boyfriend, previously, that she could not orgasm with her, but during the SA, she felt it. She hated it, but was surprised that her body orgasmed and it made her feel like she cheated even though she didn’t. She felt she destroyed the boyfriend’s ego, which is really sad.
Another episode was about a man who was a sex worker and the three women that ganged up on him and SA’d him and he was shocked that he climaxed during this because he hated every bit of this act.
In both episodes, Olivia, the main character who is a detective explained that our bodies sometimes get confused because what we feel may feel the same to our bodies. Our mind and body in cases like this can’t agree with each other, but the important part of her speech was, “this does not mean you wanted it and it is not your fault.”
This experience should not be fantasized about.
im happy though that they acknowledged male sa is a thing
I saw Haunting Adeline on a '30 Viral Books that are Actually Trash' list and came straight to Nikki to see if she'd covered it, to find that not only had she covered it, but I'd already watched and liked the video? Straight up repressed it. Re-watching the video, everything sounds both familiar and unfamiliar and distinctly liminal.
Booktok made me feel like I was left out or stupid for not finding this book and the experiences cool or attractive. When ppl described Zade there; he was sexy, dark, wild ...looked into the book till I got to the other side to find he SA'd the MC multiple times and I was so confused how this was marketed as romance...even it being dark😭???
I like some dark romance and this was the first dark romance book I read, but I'm sometimes led to feel guilty for not finding Zade anything but abusive and hypocritical
@@toriflaherty185 I like dark romance too but I just read it on fanfic sites. Sometimes the quality is really good and you have the author comments going "this is not sane, safe or consensual", "[character] is going to hell" and "It's been a while but I have to be in a certain mood to write this flaming trash and a different one to post it"
I hate "pregnant" pauses 😂😂😂 maybe once it was creative, but now it's really really really annoying to read 😂😂😂
RIGHT!!!!! IT COMPLETELY TAKES ME OUT OF WHATEVER SCENE IS HAPPENING
The pause must be 9 months long
Ba dum tsh
You made me subscribe with like 5 minutes of the video 😭😭😭 we adore a rational and conscious queen
Why can’t we collectively rename ‘dark romance’ as ‘romantic/sexual horror,’ it wouldn’t be that hard and would at least let young people who don’t know better not get sucked into romanticizing SA.
Like I fully am fine with toxic stuff existing in fiction, some of my fav movies and books are absolutely fucked up and would never be okay irl... because they’re horror and horror adjacent. I even really enjoy some ‘dark romances’ in similar mindsets as when reading horror. The least we can do is treat stuff like SA the same way as things like murder, torture, etc.
you put what i’ve been thinking into words. i strongly feel like the genre should be renamed
Cause not all dark romances are shitty, like mindfuck series have better chemistry between romantic interest than normal new adult books.
Again darkverse,(the first 4 books) were not toxic at all
@@unknownpersethats why the person suggested a different name for it: romantic horror. dark romance is easy to overlook as a name but romantic horror makes it more obvious
Books like this don't belong in the dark romance genre- they should be called horror erotica. There's nothing romantic about abuse, and nothing morally grey about a stalker and rapist. It's horror and smut and should be labelled as such!!
“Can’t fantasize criminals to be… ᵐᵃʸᵇᵉ ⁿᵒᵗ ᵐᵉˣⁱᶜᵃⁿ”
When I read this book I envied the blind, the dyslexic, and the illiterate.
"eventually gets consensual" fucking sent me what the literal hell 😭
I am a woman in my early twenties and even though I personally cannot fathom genuinely liking this type of literature, it does not surprise me that there are some women that are buying into this. CNC is a kink that I am sure many women are into (not saying it is portrayed in the novel since there is no consent in the scenes mentioned. I am talking about how the readers can self insert into the MC’s shoes and since the reader consented to reading such content, they get off of it) so it does not surprise me that there is media for this. Me being a 100% against it would be hypocritical of me since I have liked (ironically and not ironically) not fully morally right media (it is an otome franchise, if you know you know). I would not have a big problem with this type of media AS LONG AS IT WAS ONLY AVAILABLE TO ADULTS…the problem that makes me uncomfy with this media comes to me when I remember that there must be teenage girls reading this. ZADE SHOULD NOT BE AN IDEAL MAN! Evil/bad boys are much more interest in fiction, trust me…this type of stuff irl can get boring, repetitive and tortuous. Love does not need to be pain, it is not pain.
Not to mention that a lot of people seem to forget that their own partners are able to SA them as well. Just because you’re in a relationship together doesn’t automatically mean that you/your partner consent to anything at anytime.
Is morally gray in the room with us??? Zade does not have an ounce of morals
I've red it, because i had it as a present. Now i want new set of eyeballs and a new brain.
Ok im into masked men(mostly fictional to), but this poor 16 year old doesnt need booktok women all over him.
I feel so bad for him.
35:57 just wanted to add or just mention that the "rape leading to a love story" also appears in so many BLs these days (mostly mangas or manhwas and not movies) and it is so terrifying to see women glorifying and sometimes even fetishizing gay men and thinking rape between 2 men is okay and normal?? Like Jinx, one of the most popular BL manhwas rn is just about a boxer having sex with a poor broke guy whenever he wants without any consent?? And Jinx isn't the only toxic one, toxic BLs r the only popular mangas\manhwas these days and me as also a gay man find this absolutely horrifying.
Note: This doesn't only apply to only gay men!!! A lot of straight or lesbian books and all of it is horrible. There's no such thing as a rape story that isn't as bad as any other. Rape and sexual assault is a terrifying thing to go through and I'm sending the victims so much love and strength
I'm glad someone pointed it out.
I stopped reading manhwas and so on for this exact reason.
People fail to realize that r4pe ISN'T love, when they romanticize shi like this, they are basically saying that the victim should be glad it happened to them.
They don't even think bout the mentally and physically pain the victim went through and when said victim wants to break up or distance themself from r4pist, everybody gets mad and calls him a snowflake or cruel, cuz how dare he leave an abusive r4pist with a 'tRaUmAtIc cHiLdHoOd', or whateva bs excuse they gon use.
I hate it with all my guts.
And ofc the author mostly is a straight unsatisfied woman (which makes it even worse cuz especially a woman should know how fcked up a lot of men are)
painter of the night,my biggest enemy
Is there any non problematic BL manga you would recommend? I’d be very interested in hearing your suggestions because you’re completely correct in your observation of the genre at large.
@@TBX2 I don't read many mangas but I can try to recommend a few!
- The Summer Hikaru Died (it's also a horror genre so 2n1)
- Shitto wa ai wo kumoraseru
- Fukutsu No Zono
- Sleeping on Paper Boats
- Midnight Rain
- Go for it Nakamura!
- Haru Kakete
Not all of these have actual printed versions and you can read all of these for free online, a lot of them also have suggestive themes so don't be shocked if you find few 😓.
@@TBX2 Lurking in the comments and found this 6 months later (lol) and I do want to mention that, while there are a lot of red/black flag mangas, there are an equal amount of green flags, even on the angstier side. Some of the popular completed ones are Cherry Blossoms After Winter (super wholesome between the main couple), You get Me Going (smutty and comedic with real adults), and then there is Hello Green Days by Sakumoto Ayu and Sugar Dog Life by Yoriko. I've got like probably 100 more I could name, all with green flags and consent!
the burning of the book freed my soul
my friend was reading this book and telling me and our other friends about it and we were joking about it and calling it gross and she was getting genuinlely offended and defending the guy in the book and I am concerned like shes 16 and she gets her expectations from these books and fanfiction and shit😭
Oh my gosh, HELP HER GET BACK TO REALITY 😭
Tell her to watch this video
Fiction normalizing this sick stuff is problematic. The author herself defended her son for doing the exact same thing to a girl like in the book. I think this book is made to justify the son's actions.
@@greyskymy you're talking about Colleen Hoover not HD Carlton
"This is a stalker romance-" *dips*
my sister just finished reading this book and i am WORRIED FOR HER
Don’t let her read the second book 💀 it’s much much worse
@@aidoneus509 literally
ngl this made me feel sick... thanks for talking about it and bringing awareness to it though! as a woman i get extremely angry whenever i see other women writing sh*t like this. like WHY as a woman yourself?? i noticed how a lot of books that are written for teens (mostly teen girls) are problematic. i re-read some of my older teen books and got disgusted how the female authors would constantly romanticize things like relationships between students and teachers, age gaps, stalking etc... can we as women not help those other freaks to uphold this gross and hurtful system and society for women??
Yes but I feel like we are still blaming victims more than perpetrators. We expect women to be better than men despite woman being the oppressed when it comes to things like SA. We should be more mad at the men who are in control and who havent been conditioned to like this stuff than the women who were conditioned to like it. You can't blame people who were raised to think they were inferior more than those who are in a powerful position, people who are in the offensive position
Again, not saying you're wrong, but I do think were getting to a point where we hold women more accountable for oppressing themselves than man oppressing women because we normalize misogyny and violence from men
@@weeblebeeble3016 the women would never have these ideas if not for the patriarchy. yes, the women are at fault, but they're only at fault because of centuries of men conditioning them to believe that these SHOULD be normalised, either by women trying to cope with their own trauma or men actually condoning it
I think that you’re not realizing that it is EXTREMELY common for survivors of rape and SA to have rape fantasies. As a survivor I have found doing CNC scenes very healing to me. In addition reading a fictionalized version is a safe way to engage with a kink that was brought on from my SA
One of the biggest difficulties being an SA survivor is how dubious it can be. It's easy to become aroused and easy to make a body react to pleasure, that doesn't mean you're enjoying it. The fact that she is so viciously fighting him while he is ABUSING her, people think thats hot? We seriously need to start kinkshaming people.
I feel bad for the motorcycle guy. I hope he gets off tiktok though. Or atleast just get a break from it. Booktok people are something else. Thank you for burning the book. :D
It blows me away that not only was this "book" written by an actual ADULT but by an adult woman... It does a complete disservice to how both men and women are perceived, and the fact that this horribly written personal fantasy (disguised as a romance novel) is getting popular with young people is terrifying. It's like being exposed to extreme p0rn without having the maturity to determine the difference between fantasy and reality. It's gonna do damage to maybe not EVERYONE but for sure a lot of people...
Yeah, that's the part that makes me nervous. I think any adult with a decent understanding of consent and abuse can puzzle out that what's happening in HA and books like it is not okay IRL. But minors really shouldn't be reading it, and some fans are out there recommending it left and right as casually as they'd rec The Hunger Games.
@@Salukiprincessyou’re right. Adults should def be more careful when recommending this book
I actually cant watch this because of the stalking mentioned in the video but i did want to leave a comment.
Stalking and obsessive behavior from a man ruined my life and future. Its not attractive or sexy or sweet, its traumatizing and is terrifying.
Its so incredibly hurtful to see people find it sexy. Why did it have to happen to me? Why couldn't it have happened to them if they like it so much?
You saying why it didn't happen with them is so gross just cause someone reads about SA doesn't mean they deserve to be SA'd in real life.
Hey man (SA victim here), I'm pretty sure they just meant they don't understand why they, a completely innocent person who never had a single thought of the 'fantasy' had to experience something incredibly raw and horrific that other people dream and get off about.
They're not wishing bad things to happen to people, unless I'm mistaken. It just seems like they genuinely don't understand how their experience can be desired by others and they're trying to voice their hurt and trauma from it- which admittedly could be done in a healthier way and not posted publicly.
Don't spread hate, guys. Hoping you all get some much needed help, rest, and peace. 🙏 ❤️
@@squishy1875 exactly, i don't wish this to actually happen to anyone, its life ruining.
@@Itzy-Bitzy-Spiders Word of advice. I don't think encouraging a stranger who reacted incredibly negatively to the video content to begin with (not their fault at all, they have a right to) to share their traumatic experiences online is called for, (although it's entirely their choice to do so and I'm not saying they can't respond.) Be more considerate about asking something super personal about somebody you don't know, especially so publically and without knowing how it can affect them, or you, behind the screen. It should never be your business to begin with.
@@Itzy-Bitzy-Spiders Stalking ruins people's life by making them worry for their own safety. We don't know the intentions of other people, especially those that could commit atrocities to the body mentally, emotionally, and physically. Fear, uncertainty for days on end perpetuates anxiety that could cause someone to not be able to work, live, and do what they need to. Just look up the statistics online about the consequences for the victims of stalking. Even in this book, Adeline experiences severe traumatic and emotional distress. And yet, despite this, Zade continues to pursue her despite the fact that she doesn't explicitly tell him she likes him or wants him like that. Which shows he isn't considerate at all of her emotions, and promotes an unhealthy foundation for a relationship.
Booktook is really confirming time and time again what I always thought from the beginning with dark romance, it’s really just an excuse of a label to glorify, romanticize and normalize abuse towards women
I think it's actually an excuse to indulge in taboo sexual fantasies, lol. Highly doubt the women who read this are secret pro-abuse/rape anti-feminists or something. Slap "romance" on it and you get to indulge in your forbidden sexual fantasy without having to admit that's what you're doing like you would if it was erotica.
no literally. thankfully there are a lot of good booktok accounts that recommend many different type of books that i love! but somehow these problematic books become the forefront of the booktok community which is just so upsetting. things like haunting adelaide, credence, and many more are way too normalized.
I hate dark romance.
Its just disgusting
I think the problem is that a ton of people just genuinely don't understand what sexual harassment/sexual assault is. like even the anecdote to start the vid is people sexually harassing a stranger! it really all boils down to whether we respect other people's boundaries and bodily autonomy and a lot of people just... don't. thank you for talking about this troubling book with the gravity this content deserves and bringing up the actual data re sexual violence.
also if anyone reads this I highly highly recommend Pop Culture Detective's two videos on media portrayals of male victims of sexual assault. PCD makes some of the best video essays I've seen on here and he deserves a lot more attention for all the research he does!
i’ve always avoided this book- or books like these in general bc of how triggering they are for me, and watching this video now, i’m so glad i did 😭
I feel bad for the bikers 😭😭
The casual ones at least 😭 can’t even go into their local Barnes & Noble without being tailed by the booktok girlies
So glad you’re talking about the statistics. It isn’t romantic to be stalked. It is absolutely terrifying and makes you question if the people you surround yourself with are giving them your information to help them stalk you further.
As a minor this book absolutely disgusted me to no end and i would never get how could people EVER sexualize SA. It's such a disturbing and messed up thinking and this Book haunting Adeline is the most disgusting and i would never get the hype about it. One more thing Dark romance is not middle-aged women write their disturbing and messed up so called "romance" which is just SA
My main problem with “dark romance” is that the stories tend to normalize toxic relationships. I actually enjoy reading dark fictional stories, its a guilty pleasure. But i dont expect the story to make excuses for the horrible behaviours or try to say “this is normal, kids.” I guess what in trying to say is people can write dark stories but normalizing and excusing the behaviours is the actual problem.
Thing is the dark romance section is or at least used to be just that romance with dark elements or psychological horror but written as a romance book. However this garbage is the dumbest shit I’ve ever read. My short stories in middle school had more developed characters
real. i love dark shit but not when the dark shit is seen as good. my jaw dropped when watching and hearing this video. i really want to look at their mind, what they've gone through to write this because they are definitely not mentally sane lmao
Exactly. My problem with so many of these books that that romanticize, abuse and rape, and then label it “dark romance” is that they aren’t honest about what they are depicting and excuse it. Like is haunting Adeline is a book for people with r*pe kinks (like its defenders claim) why does the book never acknowledge what happened was rape?? The like is crossed when the fucked up shit happening in the book is brushed off as “morally grey” and romantic just like it is in real life.
I love fucked up shit but I’ve never been into the dark romances books because:
1. It’s never two fucked up individuals being weird, the man is a badass biker/mobster/rich, the girl is always a virgin baby and they’re cool people? Let them be weirdos in peace (Also when I say be weird I don’t mean be MISOGYNISTIC OR WEIRD ABOUT RACE I mean “friendless awkward losers finding their match” kinda weird)
2. They always try to find a way to justify it ??? Like girl it’s FICTION can we leave behind the need to be perfectly moral and unproblematic? It’s a STALKER romance, just ride the fantasy and stop with the annoying morality superiority and the “he helps so many women so it’s actually ok that he’s hurting just ONE 🥺” because that’s ACTUALLY problematic and weird
3. The couple always has that “dude walking his gf on a leash in public while everyone is uncomfortable” vibe but the author never acknowledges it. Again LET THEM BE WEIRDOS, own their weirdness. Be fun but please stop trying to make them cool bc it’s just never gonna happen 😭
It’s just giving 2014 tumblr and wattpad. The writing in the dark romance community is filled with trash I’m not willing to sort
i totally agree with you.... let's kiss (/j)
jokes aside, i agree HARD with your first point. like for dark romance to work out properly all while not glorifying harmful ideas and tropes is to have both of the individuals to be messed up in some way or another
i agree with you!! and has to be goodly writen bc if wanna read BAD (written) weird shit i will obviously choose my wattpad/ao3/spirit/tumblr anime boys fanfics
The awkward and Losers together reminded me of Asa and Denji from Chainsaw man
Okay this book is effed up on so many levels but THANK YOU for reading Zade's lines as if he was a South Park character because it fits tremendously well
This inspired me to make a book in the perspective of a man
Written by a man but I’m a woman and it’s a parody, it might be called bloody her or if someone recommends a corner name I might go with that and it will possibly involve the following: female side protagonist with blonde hair darker than her skin, male protagonist that’s 7’10 (he describes her in the average male writer way but exaggerated), illegal ostriches and a half assed apology from the male protagonist
Ok but what did he do where he has to give the half ass apology? Cut off all her toes?
That dude probably hates doorways
@@nikkicarreon cut off her hair for a potion😁
honestly, dead dove books should just stay in fanfiction
Fr in AO3 they are safe outside children will find them who normally aren't in fandom spaces
HELL I've read dead dove fanfics that have a better basis than whatever this dumpster fire excuse of a "romance" this was 😭 majority of booktok is just recycled fanfiction
the fact that a 19 yr old mcdonalds worker and uni student can write dark subject matter(with smut) more eloquently and breathtakingly while handling the trigger subjects and suffer from minimum wage, while a middle aged woman can write absolutely atrocious characters and stories and handle dark subject matter even worse while being paid is ridiculous. inequality at its peak
@@rinneamagay fr they be purchasing porn at 20 yrs old...embarassing
@@killme5630 And you have comments like "I am going to hell for writing this, you're going to hell for reading this" and "this example should not be followed"
This was so thorough and entertaining! And I love that youre not pulling punches. I'm tired of reviews for bad books being like "it's just not for me"
"What's next, helicopter pilots???"
The news anchor also reading was the best way to finish that bit lmao
This makes me feel so much better as a writer I'm not joking. Its awful that this book is so well received with what it contains but it makes me feel like anything I write will be better, especially the romance which I'm not even that good at writing.
As another writer, I second this. It isn’t just the nonexistent plot that’s bad, but the way it’s executed. Every single thing is on-the-nose, there is no subtlety, no “show don’t tell”, nothing. The reader is assumed to be either 5 years old, or lack the skills to put two and two together. This “book” overall makes my unedited drafts look like literary masterpieces and they’re ROUGH.
Honestly, it's a total moral booster in a twisted sort of way. I really think if I wanted to I could write a better romance book without knowing anything about romance myself lol