The Obsession

This was an okay book. Firstly, the description had me hooked. Who can resist that description?
The story itself kept me entertained ‘till the end. In fact, I was so entertained that I finished it in 4 days.

But, the book was still mediocre. There are parts in which it disregards logic just to prolong or intensify the conflict. I mean, sure, I like conflict. But does it have to be based on misunderstandings and faulty logic? For example, Delilah does not call the police on Brandon because Brandon himself is a cop, and she believes that all the cops would defend him, and Brandon would punish her, and their community would shame her and her mother for falsely accusing him. To me, this reasoning makes no sense. Because Brandon is corrupt, she assumes all the cops are corrupt and somehow able to hide obvious evidence. All she had to was show someone the bruises on her and her mom! And Logan agrees with her, with the reasoning: You simply don't accuse a cop. What? Delilah is supposed to be smart. I guess, being abused would result in faulty thinking in that situation, but even Logan agrees with her. Huh?

I also don't like Aisha. She's the overused funny-quirky-loyal-best-friend archetype that I see in every single high school book with a female protagonist. She's literally that best friend girl from Daughter of Smoke and Bone.

But still, I think this is a good book because it has a simple, interesting concept and was entertaining. It was super predictable, but still—I enjoyed it.

This is like the junior version of “Gone Girl”. Both Logan and Delilah are a bit unhinged.

I'm not sure if it was meant to be predictable, but it was obvious from very early on that Delilah is part of the drug dealing shenanigans at Draycott.

Loose plot thread: whatever happened to the neighbour's garage camera footage? What was the point of Mendez poking around?

Sutanto gets around any potential plot holes by ending the book before any repercussions can play out, but if we (the readers) had been able to stick around a while longer, I think the whole story would have unravelled.

did not finish

did not finish

I loved the idea of this book, but the execution falls flat for me. I want to read about a very toxic love obsessed boy, as I'm sure many of us had to unfortunately deal with in high school. But the writing was way too rushed for me, especially toward the end, and I could have gone without the >SPOILERS drug subplot as I feel what happened in the beginning was enough. I loved that the book did not hand waive away the relationship and portayed it exactly how it was, which I am so glad that the book does that, instead of making excuses for it like a million YA, and even a lot of Adult “romances” and romances in not quotes do. Not sure if it was just my copy, but i did not see a list of resources for readers who may be dealing with similar experiences that occur in the book, which i have wonderdfully seen some authors do, but was lacking in this one which rubbed me the wrong way, but again may have been my copy.  The great premise was there, but the sub par writing did not hold it through. 

my brain is still foggy from a day spent battling booster shot side effects, so pardon me if this is incoherent

enjoyed this a lot more than i thought i would!! it's very similar to you, but after season one for the most part, and i really enjoyed that aspect. the female protag surprised me at several points with her motives and the male protag was properly creepy.

my gripes stem from some of the writing, and there definitely could have been more scary moments between logan and delilah that built tension for the climax. otherwise, though, had a good time!