Name: Brittnee Coffmen's review of A Novel Obsession by Caitlin Barasch
Item: A Novel Obsession
Rating: 4.5
Author: Brittnee Coffmen

Caitlin Barasch

“Caitlin Barasch’s writing overflows with humor, compassion, intrigue, and the chaos of identity. It overflows with life itself.”—Jonathan Safran Foer, New York Times bestselling author of Here I Am “This book is a ride. An unruly study of fixation, performance, and the exquisite agony of anonymity.”—Raven Leilani, New York Times bestselling author of Luster A wry and bold debut novel, which is at once an irresistible catastrophe waiting to happen and an unflinching exploration of how we narrate the stories of our lives, as an aspiring novelist finds herself stalking—and writing about—her boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend. Twenty-four-year-old New York bookseller Naomi Ackerman is desperate to write a novel, but struggles to find a story to tell. When, after countless disastrous dates, she meets Caleb—a perfectly nice guy with a Welsh accent and a unique patience for all her quirks—she thinks she's finally stumbled onto a time-honored subject: love. Then Caleb's ex-girlfriend, Rosemary, enters the scene. Upon learning that Rosemary is not safely tucked away in Caleb’s homeland overseas, but in fact lives in New York and also works in the literary world, Naomi is threatened and intrigued in equal measure. If they both fell for the same man, what else might they have in common? The more Naomi learns about Rosemary, the more her curiosity consumes her. Before she knows it, her casual Instagram stalking morphs into a friendship under false pretenses—and becomes the subject of her nascent novel. As her lies and half-truths spiral out of control, and fact and fiction become increasingly difficult to untangle, Naomi must decide what—and who—she’s willing to sacrifice to write the perfect ending.

A Novel

A Novel Obsession

taryn a.

I both love and hate how this ended. But was that to intentionally leave it open for a sequel?

Brittnee Coffmen

“This book is a ride. An unruly study of fixation, performance, and the exquisite agony of anonymity.”—Raven Leilani, New York Times bestselling author of Luster A wry and bold debut novel, which is at once an irresistible catastrophe waiting to happen and an unflinching exploration of how we narrate the stories of our lives, as an aspiring novelist finds herself stalking—and writing about—her boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend. “I can’t help but compare our worth as writers, as lovers, as women. Is anything solely mine, or will I always dwell in someone else’s shadow?” Twenty-four-year-old bookseller and New Yorker Naomi Ackerman, desperate to write a novel, struggles to find the right story to tell. When, after years of disastrous Tinder dates, she meets Caleb—a perfectly nice guy with a Welsh accent and a unique patience for all of her quirks—she feels she's finally stumbled onto a time-honored subject: love. But then Caleb's ex-girlfriend, Rosemary, enters the scene. When Naomi learns that Rosemary is not safely tucked away overseas as she'd assumed but in fact lives in New York and works in the literary world, she is fundamentally threatened and intrigued in equal measure. On paper, Rosemary sounds like a better version of Naomi—but if they both fell for the same man, they must have something more essential in common. Determined to figure out how their stories intertwine, Naomi's casual Instagram stalking morphs into a full-blown friendship under false pretenses. She can't seem to get herself to quit Rosemary, in whom she discovers an unexpected confidant—and she can't stop writing about her either, having now found a more interesting subject for her nascent novel. As her lies and half-truths spiral out of her control, and fact and fiction become increasingly difficult to separate, Naomi manipulates the most important people in her life—her family, her friends, Caleb, Rosemary, and, perhaps most devastatingly, herself—in pursuit of her craft. Ultimately, she’s forced to decide who and what she's willing to sacrifice to write them all the perfect ending.

This book asks the question, ‘what if we unleashed our innermost, unhinged, neurotic anxieties and let them loose on our partner’s ex’s instagram?’ And it definitely delivers from there! 

I feel like it wanted to be a bit more meta-high-lit at times and instead it fell back into thriller-romance territory, but I enjoyed it even through all the cringe. 

I think all of us anxious-attachment babes out here who’ve insta-stalked our exes can totally follow Naomi down the rabbit hole and everyone else just won’t get it 😂

Amelia Hruby

This book asks the question, ‘what if we unleashed our innermost, unhinged, neurotic anxieties and let them loose on our partner’s ex’s instagram?’ And it definitely delivers from there! 

I feel like it wanted to be a bit more meta-high-lit at times and instead it fell back into thriller-romance territory, but I enjoyed it even through all the cringe. 

I think all of us anxious-attachment babes out here who’ve insta-stalked our exes can totally follow Naomi down the rabbit hole and everyone else just won’t get it 😂

Melissa Palmer

Obsession

This book was decent. The main character was somewhat annoying with her obsession with her boyfriend's ex and sabotaging her happiness. But I wanted to find out what happened at the end.

Erin Jensen

When you drive by a horrific car wreck and can’t look away? That was this book for me

Jerilynn Hallett 

Think a lighter "YOU" but from a female's POV...

Kristen Claiborn

I have so many things to unpack with this one…and I sincerely doubt my ability to get it into this review properly. Right this minute, while writing this review, I sincerely doubt my ability to write at all. 
	I wish nothing more than to put aside my own personal feelings about the story itself and just focus on the writing. Unfortunately, the story is what drives my love for books, so the two go hand in hand. I really didn’t like this story. I did enjoy the pacing of the book, and the format worked for me. I’ve long lamented on alternating storylines or timelines, I really feel like they’re overdone and not enjoyable in most cases. This one was written chronologically (YAY!) and only from a single person’s point of view (hallelujah!), which was refreshing. There were areas of flashbacks, but that’s all they were. Barasch is a talented writer, I did find myself impressed with her sentence structure, but then I was faced with some unnecessary rambling that turned paragraphs into pages. I hate that. 
	Naomi starts out as a completely likeable character, but embarks on an unstoppable (and unbelievable) downward spiral. While she has the power to stop the motion, she refuses, sinking deeper and deeper into what can only be explained as, well, obsession. I found the story so completely far-fetched, it was hard to really connect with it. While yes, many of us are curious about our partner’s ex (or exes), it doesn’t usually turn into what Naomi turned hers into. She was just so friggin stupid. After a while, I stopped hoping she’d pull her head out of her ass and just hoped the whole book would just be over. 
	One of the prominent thoughts I had throughout the entire book, especially after learning about some of the early experiences that shaped her life, I wondered where the hell her parents were. There was some mention of her parents and their favoritism of her brother, but the author failed miserably to dive into the relationship between Naomi and her parents, which might have actually been the root of her bizarre need to befriend the ex (and lie…lie some more, then lie about lying). I felt like that should have been explored a tad more to help us understand Naomi a bit more. 
	To sum up, just skip this one.

Addy A

I really liked the concept, but it was just so drawn out in execution and the ending was just so unsatisfying that I can't really say this was an enjoyable read. I will say the set-up was really well done for a moment there, but ultimately, there's a specific point where all the tension is sucked out of this premise and after that, this became a painstakingly boring read. It just felt like at some point, nothing was happening and it became really clear upon reaching the end, nothing consequential was going to happen either.

taryn a. &
A Novel Obsession by Caitlin Barasch

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