SuitabookThe Obsession
Natasha Preston
- Reading
- Read alongside a calm check-in about online privacy and personal boundaries, not immediately after frightening scenes if those linger. Agree that the reader can pause, discuss troubling moments or stop without needing to finish.
- Themes
- Privacy and online exposure: Connie’s mother shares family life for followers, while Connie increasingly resents exposure, comments and the publication of personal details. The story strongly questions whether attention, money and audience engagement justify overriding a young person’s privacy and safety.
- Trust and safety: Connie receives unsettling online attention and struggles to judge whether people, sightings and explanations are safe or threatening. The thriller uses uncertainty about whom to trust, while showing that Connie’s responses can be brave yet reckless and that reassurance does not automatically remove her fear.
- Social media and responsibility: The family’s online success affects routines, relationships and safety, while Connie questions whether financial or social rewards make the exposure worthwhile. The book presents online success as unable to repair the emotional costs of lost privacy, and connects audience-building with responsibilities towards those being filmed.
- Worth knowing
- Before choosing it, consider whether the reader is comfortable with repeated threats, stalking fears, four teen deaths, head injuries, an injured girl, mild profanity, teenage drinking and relationship secrecy.