One minute review in Instagram
If you think romance should be soft and safe, Lights Out will prove you spectacularly wrong. This dark, spicy “stalker rom-com” is part thriller, part kink-fest, and entirely unhinged—in a deliciously compelling way.
Plot Overview (Spoiler-Safe)
Aly Capellucci is a trauma nurse drowning in chaos—both on duty and inside her head. To escape, she obsessively watches TikTok-style videos by the.faceless.man, a masked figure whose videos are equal parts erotic and enigmatic. One night, a drunken comment leads to a wild twist: he shows up in her house, masked and provocative, filmed for an audience Aly didn’t know would include her bed.
This provocation arms Aly’s curiosity more than her fear. Entranced, she embarks on a dangerous but exhilarating relationship with the masked man—who is Josh Hammond, a reclusive cybersecurity expert haunted by his notorious serial-killer father. Their romance accelerates from voyeuristic obsession to breathless encounters. As their interactions escalate, boundaries blur. Josh’s stalking becomes oddly tender, and Aly’s willingness to surrender becomes intoxicatingly mutual.
When the body of a violent predator looms into their orbit, Aly and Josh cross a threshold—they become accomplices in something darker than lust. To protect each other, they lean on Aly’s formidable mob-connected relatives, turning the story into a frenzied blend of lust, violence, and unlikely family alliances.
Characters in the Spotlight
Aly Capellucci
An emotionally hardened trauma nurse, Aly seeks thrills to feel alive. Her fascination with masked anonymity reveals deeper cravings—for surrender, excitement, and understanding. She's unorthodox but believable, her desires rooted in trauma and numbness rather than fantasy tropes.
Josh Hammond
Masked, mysterious—and morally gray. Josh builds an erotic empire online while wrestling with identity fears rooted in his father’s legacy. He’s creepy, protective, and playful—an odd but effective blend that keeps you both repelled and intrigued. As one reviewer put it, he’s “a masked cinnamon-roll stalker,” merging threat and sweetness with bizarre charm.
Supporting Cast
Minor players—like Aly’s mob-connected uncle and his sons—pop in to turn the dial from kinky couple-drama into farcical crime thriller. While not deeply developed, they inject comedic tension and a twisted sense of “family.”
Tone & Writing
Allen writes in a conversational, snarky style that’s as comfortable winking at the reader as it is exploring moral darkness. The tone swings from laugh-out-loud banter to skittish foreboding and scorching intimacy, usually within the same paragraph. If you like your stories equal parts dark and comedic with a hard edge, Allen delivers.
Selected Lines That Capture the Vibe
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“Maybe it was time to accept the fact that I wasn’t normal, and I never would be. I wanted things most people didn’t, craved darkness and depravity, instead of light and love.” — This line sums up Aly’s psyche and the book’s ethos.
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“I thought we could spend some quality time together as a family. You, me. Our maladjusted son who just scooted his butt across the carpet behind you.” — A bizarrely heartwarming line that marries humor and twisted affection—thanks to their cat.
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“I want someone with a soul as black as night. Someone who would burn the world down for me and not lose a single minute of sleep over it.” — Josh’s dark devotion in a nutshell.
Tropes at Play
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Stalker Romance / Masked Intrusion – Josh breaks into Aly’s life in full drama-queen fashion.
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Insta-lust – Obsession blooms at digital speed, trust and attraction racing forward.
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Dual POV – Alternating perspectives let readers empathize with both Aly’s trauma and Josh’s conflicted psyche.
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Hidden Identity / Faceless Desire – The mask is literal and symbolic—desire untethered from identity.
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Mob Family Rescue – When things get too wild, family steps in (standard dark-rom twist).
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Consensual Knife Play / Kink Exploration – This isn’t vanilla.
Trigger Warnings (Heed these carefully!)
Allen is not shy: content warnings include explicit sexual content (knife play, breath play, fear play), stalking, home invasion, mention of rape/abuse, murder, unintentional cannibalism, mob violence, and psychological trauma. If any of that is a boundary for you, please proceed with caution.
What Works
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Audacious premise that flips the rom-com script into something deliciously disturbed.
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Electric chemistry that’s playful, unsettling, and often goofily romantic.
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Voice and humor — the banter is genuinely funny and self-aware.
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Emotional undercurrent — amid the chaos, Aly and Josh share trauma, loneliness, and longing, giving their madness emotional stakes.
Where It May Misfire
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Tone wobbles—what is supposed to be unsettling sometimes reads as silly or fan-fic level; the handle-riding scene is a frequent cite for that dissonance.
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Pacing issues—many readers praise the setup but say the second half sags or relies on convenient plot twists.
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Unrealistic stakes—mob family sidesteps legal consequences in ways that strain credibility for some readers.
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Narrative convenience—Aly deduces Josh’s identity quickly; redemptions happen with minimal friction, leaving skeptics wanting more conflict.
Community Notes (Candid Opinions)
On the pro side, fans highlight the audiobook’s appeal and Josh’s oddly charming darkness: “The audiobook was done extremely well…Josh was quite sweet and funny, and had an interesting backstory” — even if they found the romance veered into insta-lust.
Among critics: “It was poorly written, boring, and repetitive as f***…every time she said ‘pussy’ I laughed…she sounded like she was reading a vacuum cleaner manual,” pokes one Redditor—tone-burn fatigue was real for them.
Another adds: “The mob. As if men in the actual mafia wouldn’t just give her a black eye…just wattpad fanfic,” pointing to the narrative’s occasional unearned leaps into absurdity.
Final Thoughts
Lights Out is like riding a thrill-ride in the dark with someone you half-trust, half-fear, and maybe secretly want to run away with. It’s not for the faint-hearted—or those who demand realism or emotional decorum. But for readers craving a twisted, kinky, boundary-pushing romance with unexpected laughs and sickeningly sweet moments, it’s unforgettable.
If you’re curious about how trauma, taboo, and weird humor can collide, give it a shot—just maybe keep a light—and a sense of humor—close by.
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