So. It’s happening. H.D. Carlton’s Haunting Adeline, the book that turned “he’s stalking me and I kind of love it” into a whole literary subgenre, is getting adapted into a film. Carlton confirmed it herself on Instagram in mid-July, and BookTok has not shut up about it since. Understandably! This is the “will they, won’t they” that’s been simmering for years, ever since the first fan-made trailers and the persistent, wildly false Netflix rumors started circulating.

Here’s the thing about Haunting Adeline, for anyone who’s been living a normal, well-adjusted life without it: it’s the first book in Carlton’s Cat and Mouse Duet, and it is not a gentle read. Adeline Reilly moves into her late grandmother’s gothic mansion expecting a fresh start. Instead she gets Zade Meadows, a vigilante with a human-trafficking hit list and an obsession with Adeline that goes well past “concerning” and lands somewhere around “criminal.” It’s stalker romance at its most unhinged, with nearly a million Goodreads ratings behind it and a fanbase that will fight you in the comments.

What we actually know (not much, but here we are)

Let’s be honest about where things stand, because the internet has gotten a little ahead of itself. Carlton’s announcement is real. Everything past that is fog.

No studio has been named for the ultimate enemies-to-lovers cinematic experience. No director. No Adeline, no Zade, no release date, no confirmation of whether this is heading to theaters or straight to streaming. Filmmaker Courtney Solomon, who’s been floated as involved on the production side, has surfaced in casting-related posts alongside Carlton, but there’s no official word yet on exactly what his role is. What is confirmed is an open casting call for Sibby, Adeline’s best friend, which sent TikTok into an audition-tape frenzy roughly two seconds after it dropped. Zade and Adeline, the two roles everyone actually cares about, remain completely uncast, and no casting director has been publicly named for them.

As for “filming starts in October” and “release in 2027,” I’d take those with a full shaker of salt. They’re circulating on fan accounts and haven’t been confirmed by Carlton, a studio, or anyone with actual production authority. One outlet mapped this out as sitting on the very first rung of a six-rung ladder toward an actual release. We’re early. Very early. The kind of early where the fan casts (Madelyn Cline! Michele Morrone! someone’s dream about being cast as Sibby!) are outrunning the facts by a country mile.

What we do know is coming sooner: Deviant Ink Publishing, working with Blackstone, is putting out adult graphic novel adaptations of both books in the duet, illustrated by J.B. Roe, with the first volume expected later this year. If you want to actually see Zade and Addie before the movie machine grinds through however many rungs it has left, that’s your nearest bet.

The discourse, because of course there’s discourse

Now for the fun part: watching a corner of the internet lose its collective mind in two completely opposite directions.

On one side: a Change.org petition against the adaptation has pulled in thousands of signatures, built around the argument that translating the book’s stalking and non-consent onto a screen risks romanticizing real abuse in a way the page, somehow, gets away with. It’s not a fringe take, either: it’s the same conversation dark romance has been having about itself for years, just with higher stakes now that there’s a camera involved.

On the other side: fans are out here defending the adaptation as artistic freedom, the same argument that’s kept mega-best selling dark romances thriving on BookTok despite (because of?) its most extreme content. Competing pro-adaptation petitions exist too, though they haven’t come close to matching the opposition’s numbers.

Carlton, for her part, has said she’s staying closely involved (script, casting, music, set design, the whole deal) and has posted addressing the backlash directly, essentially standing by the project while acknowledging the discomfort it’s stirring up. Whether “uncensored and faithful” survives contact with an actual studio, an actual rating board, and actual distributors is the question nobody can answer yet. Books can get away with things movies structurally cannot, and Haunting Adeline is about to find out exactly where that line sits.

For now: no cast, no date, no studio, just a lot of very online people with very strong feelings and a Sibby audition tape or two. I’ll be here when there’s actually something to report.

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