The Obsession is a 2021 Young Adult novel by Jesse Q. Sutanto (Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice For Murderers, I'm Not Done With You Yet). The handsome, charming Logan could have anybody he wants. He wants Delilah Wong, a shy student at his boarding school, Draycott Academy. But Delilah has secrets too, and when Logan discovers them, it will change everything.
Tropes
- Amazon Chaser: Subverted. While Logan is initially in awe of Delilah killing Brandon, he is a control freak who has little to no respect for her agency otherwise, threatening her whenever she talks back to him or tries to break up with him. When she insists that he destroy the tape, he agrees, but plots to kill her immediately afterwards.
- The Bad Guys Are Cops: Delilah's abusive stepfather Brandon is a police officer.
- Caught on Tape: Delilah got caught on tape by Logan killing Brandon, though she escapes from the other camera.
- Extremely Protective Child: While Delilah is self-interested, she's also motivated to protect her mom from Logan and the knowledge of what she did.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Logan passes the incredibly low bar of not using his leverage over Delilah to pressure her into sex, letting her choose when to have sex.
- Faux Affably Evil:
- Logan is hot, charming and is obsessed with Delilah, repeatedly telling her that he loves her or thinking about how much he does. He's also a controlling hypocrite who threatens to expose her as Brandon's murderer if she breaks up with him, while still pretending to be a loving boyfriend.
- Brandon is a playful, casually racist cop who often pokes seemingly harmless fun at Delilah's expense. He also beats her mother and become more explicitly racist and violent when drunk.
- Fetishized Abuser: Deconstructed in Logan's character. He is described as being extremely handsome, ripped, intelligent...and madly in love with Delilah. Characters frequently tell Delilah how lucky she is. However, Logan is also a manipulative stalker blackmailing Delilah, a feature that nobody but Delilah knows about, and which she admits sours his appeal completely.
- Gone Horribly Right: Delilah pleads with Logan to destroy the tape to that they could be together without any leverage or threats. He agrees, but unknown to Delilah, knows that she won't stay with him and plans to murder her immediately after so she will die loving him. He doesn't get the chance to, however, as Delilah kills him.
- Karma Houdini: Delilah escapes justice from killing Logan and Brandon and being the Draycott drug dealer.
- Nightmare Fetishist: Rather than being horrified, Logan is delighted upon seeing Delilah murder Brandon, calling her a Valkyrie.
- Nothing Nice About Sugar and Spice: A relative version. Lisa is a cardigan-wearing, cuddly-looking librarian and a ruthless drug dealer.
- Obliviously Evil: Logan is confused to why Delilah is angry with him for blackmailing her.
- Race Fetish: Logan is implied to have one for Asian girls more generally, following on Delilah from Sophie.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Logan seems to believe this, as he tells Delilah that he won't push her into having sex. (Though he won't let her break up with him.)
- Replacement Goldfish: Delilah is one for Logan's first love, Sophie. Near the end, she figures out that he may be straight-up delusional due to the resemblance between her and Sophie.
- Stalker with a Crush: Logan is one for Delilah. He's trained cameras on her house even before they've spoken a single word to each other.
- What Does He See in Her?: Even Delilah's friends admit that they don't understand why someone as handsome as Logan is obsessed with Delilah. Delilah agrees with them.
- Wicked Stepfather: Delilah's mother's boyfriend, Brandon, is violently abusive to her mother and emotionally abusive to Delilah.
- Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: Both Delilah and the Draycott librarian, Lisa, who is a drug queenpin.
