Does 'Hunting Adeline' Have A Happy Ending?

Just finished reading ‘Hunting Adeline’ last night and it’s left me feeling emotional. Happy but in no way quirky or lighthearted. It’s been an amazing read where Adeline finally gets the revenge she has been hunting for. It’s come at a cost but she’s not the same person from the beginning of the book and you’re left knowing that the trauma of what she’s been through is still going to affect her deeply. But there is something so reassuring and satisfying in the way that Adeline has found her way to peace in the end. Even more so because her relationship with Zade has evolved from a typical romance to something much more complex and darker. I won’t lie and say that it’s all neatly resolved by the end of the book because it’s not. But if you’re after a heroine who has fought tooth and nail for her peace and achieved it through fires then then this is definitely the book for you.

'Hybrid of Catharsis and Ambiguity in “Hunting Adeline”' by Megaossa is a thrilling hybrid of catharsis and ambiguity that, while providing surface-level resolution in the form of winning battles, keeping the main couple together, and setting up a future that looks good for them, doesn’t resolve their psychological damage or their complex relationship in a purely definitive way.

Throughout the story, Adeline’s deep-seated psychological wounds are not cured or erased. Instead, they are explored and are even relayed in a powerful scene where she returns to a site of past trauma, this time facing her fears and coming to terms with the way they have permanently altered her. Zade too has grown in a meaningful way. His protectiveness of Adeline is now a collaborative and safe one, not controlling or constricting. As ever, however, their relationship is murky and exists on the border of morality.

The finality of the story wraps up in an unusual happy ending for this sort of genre, a white picket fence of a home sitting atop a fortress with open windows. Happiness is there for Adeline and Zade, and it’s founded on her regaining control over her life instead of escaping to ignorance of her past. Readers hoping for a truly realistic portrayal of pain and its resolution will likely find this suitable.

Bottom line: yes, but bloody. There is no sanitized conclusion to ‘Hunting Adeline’. Adeline’s happiness is embodied in her collection of knives and her husband who could burn down cities for her. Visceral rather than sugary.

What I find most fascinating is that the ending is so physical. When Adeline finally smiles at the end of the book it is because she has just broken someone’s fingers. Her joy is tied up with her ability to be violent. I think this is why Zade and Adeline work as a couple, because he never asks her to change or to soften in anyway, instead they can teach each other new ways to be domesticly violent.

That being said, this isn’t going to be an easy or “healing” read for everyone. In fact, there are quite a few damaged characters in this story and if you’re looking for a tale of redemption, you might want to look somewhere else. But if you’re interested in a damaged heroine or two who have somehow managed to claw their way up from the depths of their own dysfunction and find power in their brokenness? Then yes, read this. Just don’t read it before bed.