Wednesday 23 January 2019

Obsession by Amanda Robson Book Review

Okay, I thought this book was going to be a little weird, but what I got was insane. I was intrigued by this months ago so when I got it for my birthday I was keen to start it straight away. Quite quickly I realised it wasn't going to be as I expected and a much darker story than any other I've read recently.
Obsession by Amanda Robson
'One evening, a wife asks her husband a question: Who else would you go for, if you could? It's a simple question - a little game - that will destroy her life. Carly and Rob are a perfect couple. They share happy lives with their children and their close friends Craig and Jenny. They're lucky. But beneath the surface, no relationship is simple: can another woman's husband and another man's wife ever just be good friends? Little by little, Carly's question sends her life spiralling out of control, as she begins to doubt everything she thought was true. Who can she trust? The man she has promised to stick by forever, or the best friend she has known for years? And is Carly being entirely honest with either of them?'

My review

This might sound a little petty but the first thing I picked up on with this book, was that there seemed to be some basic mistakes that had been missed in the editing. The main one being that in the synopsis it says 'Jenny' but throughout the whole book it's spelt 'Jennie'. That stood out to me straight away and from then on I noticed a few other little things which you would assume would have been picked up on before publishing. Anyway, it's only a few small details but it was obvious to me so I thought it was worth a mention. So now onto the story, we are thrown straight in with this book, there is no hanging about. Within a few pages, Carly asks the question 'Who else would you go for if you could?' and whilst you know it's going to start a whole load of drama, I never expected it to go as far as it did. Rob, not really thinking answers that he's always liked their best friend Jenny, and that's when things really get going.

As it says in the synopsis Rob and Carly are the perfect couple so I was shocked at just how badly things spiralled out of control. Instantly after that one question, you see that each character isn't as they seem and straight away I felt so uneasy because of Carly. Amanda Robson has written this in a way that makes you genuinely feel tense the whole way through the book and I can't even say the amount of times I felt so uncomfortable, I considered stopping reading. I just couldn't believe some of the things that were said, even with the characters Craig and Jennie who at first come across much more 'normal' than Carly and Rob. Each person was so unlikeable, I didn't connect with any of them, and whilst I'm sure that was what Amanda wanted with this book, I do usually like to have someone to root for, someone I feel invested in, so I wasn't sure how to feel for the majority of this.

I also found this book to be very up and down in that one minute I was desperate to keep reading and it really picked up the pace but then other times I was just bored and found myself skimming parts until it seemed to go somewhere again. I know not each book can be exciting all the way through but one thing to note with this is that it's extremely religious, something else I had no clue about before starting. Not that it's an issue at all but sometimes there was almost too much focus on that side of it for some of the characters and I just got a little bit lost.

This has probably come across quite negative so far which isn't my intention but I'm just very conflicted with it all! The main thing I did like was how the story was told by all 4 characters. It would constantly switch from Carly to Rob, Jennie to Craig and I didn't find this confusing at all. Each chapter flowed brilliantly. It was actually nice to hear from each person and get inside their minds as even though it was Carly who started everything, each person was affected differently by it.

I suppose all that's really left to say is that I do think it's worth a read if psychological thrillers are your sort of thing. Whilst it was far more sinister than I expected at times and left me feeling quite uncomfortable for most of it, I am glad I read it actually. It's just unlike any other book I've read before, it's genuinely shocking so I just don't think my mind could comprehend everything that was going on at some points!

If you've read Obsession, I'd absolutely love to know what you thought!

Book reviews - Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell // The House Swap by Rebecca Fleet

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1 comment

Unknown said...

I absolutely loved the book! Personally, Carly was my favourite character as I felt there was a real vulnerability to her and I felt like she was the most misunderstood of them all. Due to this, I really disliked Jenni's character and had a bad feeling about her from the beginning. She was really painted out to be perfect but I definitely saw through that! I absolutely hated the ending and am so angry at Rob for how he acted at the end of the book. This review is very interesting and it was so good to see the book from another perspective.

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