Status Updates From If I Stopped Haunting You

"...she reached between them with one hand and gripped the outline pressing against his pants.

'Is this for me?'

'Only for you,' he bit out."

Corny

I need more clarification. What about Neil's Native characters makes them "palatable" to white readers, and what about Pen's Native characters makes them so threatening to white folks? Neil writes horror for Pete's sake, so how accurate is that supposed to be about anyone? Pen and Neil keep bickering about representation, but the details are so lacking that these arguments are happening in a vacuum for me.

"The imagery of all the other vulgar things her tongue could do instead made his cock hard."

A guy falling for the woman that physically hurt him. This truly is a horror novel...

Is he gaslighting himself?? 😬😬

"Just like every fucking reader who decided that one skirmish was enough to cancel me and ruin my life."

Skirmish??? He was bleeding 😬😬😬

I might end up DNF'ing this. The writing is clunky, there's no believable tension between the lead characters since they're just drooling over each other all the time, and there are weird plot elements like "the castle rented for cheap because it's haunted" -- wouldn't a lot of people pay MORE to stay in a place rumoured to be haunted? This would be more fun if I weren't wanting to edit every other sentence.

"Whether or not he deserved to be put in his place, Penelope Skinner suddenly wished he'd be the person she knew he could be. Be the young, excited author he'd been once upon a time. The one she'd look up to. The one who'd been her hero.

But that Neil Storm was gone. And this echo of that boy she'd once admired was left in his place. And it was all her fault."

Yikes 😬😬😬

"Sliding her left foot behind her, she turned and chucked her book at the cocky bastard. She watched gleefully as it smacked in to the side of his temple. Then he flew out of his chair, yelling obscenities. There was a twinge of guilt in her gut as she watched blood trickle down the side of his face."

The vibes are so off 😬😬😬

I’m so excited to finish this book so i can give it five stars it’s fire

This is the last time I will give the benefit of the doubt

I mean this isn't bad so far.... Pen needs to be medicated tho. And there were a lot of similarities in the beginning to wilkens real life situation

heavy on the plot and heavy on the hot & heavy im here for it

she and her book had become public enemy number 1 lol

stfu this is not at all what I thought it’d be like it’s way better woah alr wilkens you got me im in it

Finally the spiiiiice

insta-lust…. imagine how sick we are.

Struggling!!! I don't like Pen. I don't like how she's not being held accountable for her actions. I don't like how Neil is going along with her crazy.

Its so weird to read this... like surely this was written before the deal... so then like... what happened to the author sounds like her actual nightmare.

Hmm. Unless the author is being purposely deceitful, it seems like, if she's self inserting, the author knows that getting thr paperwork with a tribe is difficult... interesting this book has that when people shat on her for the same thing. Curious what those who actually read the book thought.

Oof..... see i wish I didn't know about said controversy cause like. Knowing makes this book and the MC's problems so...Meta. even tho I'm sure she wrote this before her own controversies started....

Welp. Didn't know this author was controversial when I added it. But I'm curious if the book sticks the landing. Tho. It is hilarious it's about a passing native wanting to speak for other natives and the controversy is the author isn't actually native? A pin can be put in that since there's also problems with forcing people to paperwork their heritage when paper has been lost. I'll judge the book for the book only.

Pen is pretty awful. She has a unique ability to always make herself the victim. The only real reason she threw that book at Storm was because he's successful in being an author, and she's not.

ok so she can apologize for throwing a boot but not the book?

this woman needs a therapy retreat not a writers one

Reading this because of the controversy surrounding the author

I’m kind of nervous about this one… I thought the cover was cute and I liked the premise, BUT now I’m seeing some questionable things about the author and main character being annoying? I bought this with my own money… so I’ll read it and give it a chance lol I haven’t read a book with such a wide variety of reviews.

Why are we even bothering to try to make these horror parts feel like real horror, instead of just filler between the cringe attempts at romance?

The scariest part of this book so far is the amount of cringe

I picked this up from the library before hearing all the controversy 💀

i dont usually vibe with pop culture references in books but a haunting of hill house shout out?? IM UP