Thursday, May 20, 2021

The Obsession by Jesse Q Sutanto

 


The Obsession by Jesse Q Sutanto
Release Date - February 2, 2021 
Publisher Website - Raincoast Books
Publisher Social Media - Twitter
Pages - 304 pages
My Rating - 3/5
**received for an honest review**

Here is the Goodreads synopsis
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.”
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.
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.

Obsession, blackmail, and murder. The synopsis of The Obsession sold me on this book. I was intrigued by the little tease about Delilah and could not wait to pick this up. The Obsession is certainly fun in an over the top way. It's got everything dialed up to an eleven which, sadly, is not always a good thing.

The writing is zippy and keeps the narrative flowing. It crests the sharp turns of all the plot twists going full speed. This means that not all of them land but you can't look anywhere else. It's a book easy consumable in one sitting for those who just hang on and go for the ride.

This is a book that hangs itself on its twists and reveals. Some are genuinely clever and well handled. There are others that venture into the more outlandish category. It requires the reader to suspend disbelief in order for the plot to work. This book demands the reader to check everything st thr door and follow where it leads.

There is nothing passive about Delilah. There might have been once, but abuse at the hands of her stepfather has changed her. We see this side of her character surface when she kills that abusive stepfather. We see a character who is intriguing and compelling. Part of me wishes we had this character in a different plot. She was the most interesting element of the story to me and the ending definitely made me want to follow her.

Logan is your typical unstable stalker. He is convinced that Delilah is meant to be with him and is willing to do whatever it takes to make that happen - even if he has to blackmail her into dating him. We've seen his type before and there is nothing new or interesting to be found in his character. If the plot did not deviate from where I expected it would go, and if Delilah had not been so interesting, I would have rated this one lower than I ended up doing. 

This book's content warnings should be pretty obvious. There is a lot of focus on abusive relationships. The stalking aspect of the story could also be triggering to some. I would not recommend it to those who may struggle with those themes as they are prevalent and woven into the story.

If you like Pretty Little Liars or Riverdale I predict you'll enjoy this. It will offer a fun read that will definitely be a distraction. Just keep your expectations in check, and remember that some of it is more on the ridiculous side. I am invested enough to pick up the sequel, and I feel that is a testament to how well the author set up the ending of this one.


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