Kayla Reviews THE OBSESSION

• Genre: Young Adult
• Length: 304 Pages
• Publication date: February 2, 2021
• Buy The Obsession

Summary from GoodReads:

A classic sort of love story… except somebody might wind up dead.

Nobody knows Delilah like Logan does. Nobody. He makes sure of it by learning everything he can through her social media and watching her through a hidden camera he has trained on her house. Some might call him a stalker. Logan prefers to be called “romantic.”

But after Logan sees Delilah killing her abusive stepfather, he realizes there’s still more about her to discover. His sweet, perfect Delilah isn’t so perfect after all.

Delilah knows she should feel guilty, but all she feels is free. She’s so over the men in her life controlling her. Except Logan saw what she did, and he won’t let her forget it. 

Delilah is done being the victim. And she refuses to be a character in Logan’s twisted fantasy. If Logan won’t let her go… she’ll make him. 

My Take:

I want to start by saying that this book was not what I expected, and I’m trying hard to write an un-biased review despite my subverted expectations.

What I expected: A novel focusing on a realistic Young Adult relationship in which one partner becomes obsessed with the other, crossing multiple boundaries until the relationship becomes toxic. I’ve been a teacher for years, and I’ve seen students locked in toxic relationships where one behaves obsessively. I was hoping that this would be a book for those students–one that would let them know that they were not alone and help them to cope.

What I got: A Young Adult version of Netflix’s You in which the female protagonist learns to fight back against her obsessive stalker.

There is inherently nothing wrong with what I got from this book. It was a fun thriller, and the ending really did shock me. However, I was left longing for what I expected if for no other reason than I wanted a book I could hand to a student who might be facing such dire circumstances.

All in all, this is a well-written, edge of your seat thriller that keeps things PG-13 enough for the kids. If what you’re looking for is a wicked revenge tale with a questionable protagonist, this book is for you! Better yet, it comes out tomorrow, so go ahead and purchase it.