DNF Review:
Despite loving the premise, this one ultimately wasn’t for me. Here's why:
Zombie vampires in an apocalypse? A Walking Dead + Daybreakers vibe with a splash of Vampire Diaries? On paper, The Afflicted sounded tailor-made for me. I’ve enjoyed all those influences, and the concept alone of finding love in a ruined world where humans “donate” blood to vampirekind was enough to instantly hook me.
The story opens strong, giving us a compelling look at this new world through Juliet’s eyes. As a human living under vampire rule, her perspective offers thoughtful insight into fear, survival, and the compromises people make to stay alive. Early on, I appreciated how grounded and human those moments felt.
Juliet is also involved in a relationship with a man who is not the male lead, and at first I was genuinely intrigued. R.D. Baker isn’t afraid to push boundaries with relationship dynamics, so I assumed this connection would meaningfully shape the main romance. Unfortunately, after some predictable developments, that relationship ended up feeling strangely pointless for the amount of page time it consumed. While it technically nudged the main couple together, the emotional payoff didn’t match the buildup.
Silas, our vampire MMC, was one of the more interesting aspects of the book. Through him, we get historical context about how the world fell apart, and glimpses of both the vampire hierarchy and his dark past. However, a significant portion at the beginning of his page time is spent working through his forbidden lust for Juilet, out with another vampire, repeatedly, on page. While I assume this was meant to set up future jealousy and tension, by the time I stopped reading (around 70%), it hadn’t yet served a clear narrative purpose.
If you’ve watched The Vampire Diaries, you’ll immediately understand when I say Juliet felt very much like a human Elena: whiny, naïve, and inexplicably desired by everyone. Her human boyfriend is even named Matt, though unlike early-season TVD Matt, this version is older, secretive, and ultimately selfish. The comparison became increasingly distracting, rather than nostalgic.
Where the book really lost me was in its balance. Unlike a TV show where intimate moments can break up tension without overwhelming the plot, the ratio of story to spice here became explicit heavily skewed. The book was already quite spicy , with each main character involved with other partners on page. But once Juliet and Silas finally came together, nearly every interaction involved sneaking off for sex. It stopped complementing the story and began replacing it.
Between roughly 50–70%, the plot became repetitive and stagnant. Conflicts circled without evolving, the setting remained largely confined, and the broader world, arguably the most interesting aspect, faded into the background. The one element that truly worked for me was the slow-burn friendship between Juliet and Silas. Their gradual trust and communication made sense given their unusual captor/prisoner dynamic and shared isolation.
That’s why the sudden shift into frequent, explicit encounters felt jarring rather than rewarding. What had been a thoughtful slow burn turned into something that read as rushed and confusing, undermining the emotional groundwork that had been carefully laid.
I also want to be clear that saying this book was “too smutty” feels almost unfair, because I love smut, and R.D. Baker writes it well. Her scenes are detailed, confident, and the kind that usually leave you a little envious of the characters involved. The issue wasn’t the quality of the spice, but the weight it was given. Even excellent, well-written smut couldn’t keep me invested when it began to replace forward momentum, character development, and world-building rather than enhancing them.
Ultimately, I realized I was picking up other books instead of feeling compelled to finish this one. I had no urgency to see how the romance resolved or to learn more about the world as because it became clear we weren’t going to explore much beyond the compound anyway.
After reading other reviews, I found many echoed my exact feelings:
1. Too long
2. Too repetitive
3. The spice outweighs the plot rather than supporting it
4. Juliet becomes increasingly annoying, never managing to elevate above weak human status
5. Silas’s attraction feels underdeveloped beyond physical chemistry
6. The story never fully recovers from the mid-book slump
All of this is to say that The Afflicted has a brilliant premise and a strong opening, but for me, the execution lost focus. What could have been a gripping post-apocalyptic romance instead became overly repetitive and smut-heavy at the expense of world-building and character growth. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it enough to finish.