Review: The Obsession

The Obsession by Jesse Q. Sutanto
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

In the spirit of honesty and professionalism, I will say that I should have put this book down the moment I noticed I disliked it. It is my fault but I personally don't like not finishing books because they might get better … this one didn't.

The Obsession is a YA Thriller novel that is marketed for fans of You (the Netflix series and books) with a promising: “Boy Meets Girl. Boy Stalks Girl. Girl Gets Revenge.”

First of all, I am not in the target demographic and I’ve read enough thrillers to not get easily engrossed in the typical plots. However, if the series of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder taught me anything, is that it is possible to enjoy a YA thriller series as an adult and it does not have to be unconvincing.

So, I want to take my personal stakes out of the review, and I will use “Boy Meets Girl. Boy Stalks Girl. Girl Gets Revenge” to go over the flaws in this novel. 'Boy meets girl' is the typical trope for romance, therefore, I expected a deconstruction of romance into a thriller. However, from the first moment, we know it is not love or romance. It is almost as if the novel does not think you are capable of noticing otherwise. The revenge aspect is perpetuated by the girl, but ‘the plot twists’ surrounding her undermines the revenge (as it is against two, not just ‘the boy’) and concludes with a conversation about being prey or predator by nature.

The characters are bland. The girl is meant to be the main character that goes through a lot of development, but there was no moment when I cared about her as a person. It is clear she is a player on the board. The illusion of characters as actual people might not be what everyone seeks, but for me, it made me indifferent towards her and towards the guy.

The backdrop is unimportant, yet it is so overstated that there is a sequel coming that continues in the same privileged school. Like the equally disappointing They Wish They Were Us, this novel wants you to think it will be a mix of Gossip Girl and You, with rich private school kids and delusional dangerous people. Again, The Obsession does not deliver and the wealth is just another cliché that becomes irrelevant after mentioning they live in a dorm situation because it is convenient for the plot and the ‘plot twist’.

This brings me to the heart of thrillers. They are meant to induce you into an anxious state that makes you be at the edge of your seat when the plot twists just keep surprising you. In this novel, the plot twists are predictable, and that is the worst thing you can have when reading/writing a thriller. On top of that underwhelming plot, I think it was a mistake to have both points of view the whole novel.

As readers, we are never surprised or buying into the delusions because we have the immediate perspective of the other. You’s success is due to Joe as an unreliable -but charismatic- narrator. Gone Girl’s major moment is when the reader breaks away from the story that Amy built. We then realize that what we assumed was real was all fabricated by her to make us sympathetic. I feel this novel could have been better if it would have used this resource to surprise us.

I wish you do not read this novel, but if you do, I guess I should give some positive comments. It is easy to read, fast-paced, and with an ‘empowering’ ending, but mostly it is meh and you can do so much better with your reading time.


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