My Experience
I came upon the novel, The Obsession, by Nora Roberts when looking through my mom’s bookshelves at the beginning of this year. She is an absolute bookworm and has a minimum of 200 books in her collection, it’s awesome. I had set a goal for myself in 2025, which I usually don’t do. I tasked myself with reading a minimum of 1-2 books per month. I had finished my first book and was looking for the next, but wanted to read a book by a new author. I picked this one up and just decided to read it. If I didn’t like it, I would put it back. The Obsession is a perfect combination of mystery, romance, and suspense. This book had me feeling all ranges of emotions. Anger, sadness, empathy, love. The main character, Naomi, is the daughter of a notorious serial killer who abducted and killed young women. Naomi was 11 when she followed her father into the woods, thinking he was going for a swim in the creek on the hot summer morning. Instead, he retreated into a small bunker hidden deeper in the woods. She stayed behind when he left and let curiosity take over. She lifted up the hidden latch and went down. She had thought maybe it was the bike she wanted for her birthday. Instead, she found a girl bound and gagged in a cage. Without thought, Naomi untied her and helped her out. She carried the girl to the sheriff’s office which was over a mile away from the deep woods. This experience followed her everywhere, through to adulthood. Her entire life she spent running away from who she thought she was and only could be, the daughter of a man that beat, raped, and killed women. She ran both metaphorically and literally, never staying in the same place for long. She did this until she fell in love with an old abandoned bed and breakfast on the bluff with beautiful views and trails to take pictures (She became a photographer, adding to her love and sense of need for travel). She loved her solitude, never opening up to anyone outside her little family circle (her uncles and little brother). That was before she met Xander Keaton. He was a charming and handsome mechanic yet rough around the edges which showed his hard work and she couldn’t help but fall in love (neither could I).
Classifying my Experience
Going through the experiences glossary, I realized this book had me feeling more emotions than I originally thought. I’ll start with immersion. Immersion was the first experience I had when reading this book. The opening chapters describing the traumatic event Naomi endured narrated it in such a way that immersed me in the book like I could see what was happening through her eyes, although it is not narrated in first person.
The second experience I had was awe. I felt awe for Naomi at many points in the story. When she showed no hesitation to untie and carry the girl in the bunker to safety, I was in awe of the strength she showed knowing it was her own father who had done this. I felt awe again later when Naomi took the big step of buying the old abandoned bed and breakfast to fix up as her own. This was way out of behavior for her. From her past actions and current attitude, it was a shocking revelation to see she had finally settled down and hoped for a future somewhere.
I also felt a lot of empathy and anger for Naomi. The experiences glossary defines empathy as “The feeling of understanding another person’s actions. You may not condone the actions or identify with the person, but you accept that their actions weren’t wrong”. I felt the anger before I felt the empathy. Naomi spent her entire adult life running away from her past and that angered me. She was so closed off and identified so much with her past and let that hold her back. She didn’t want to face what was actually there, she just wanted to run and hoped running would make it disappear (this is ironic in the end because her past did in fact follow. This will hopefully make sense as I describe more to the story). Even though I was angry at Naomi for allowing her past to play such a huge role in her future, I felt empathy for her. I do not identify with Naomi or any characters in the novel, but this avoidant behavior is completely understandable and something I can identify with.
The last two experiences I wanted to talk about are love and wonder/wish fulfillment. I fell in love with Naomi’s romantic interest, Xander Keaton through the narrator’s storytelling. He was kind and patient, yet he pushed her to her limits. He didn’t baby her or find it a big deal that her father was a killer. Xander found out about Naomi’s past before she was willing to open up to him. Even though he knew her darkest secret, he let her come around in her own time and treated her no differently. He was infatuated with everything Naomi was and did and I fell in love with that. I am such a huge sucker for love. When I watch it in movies or read it in books without fail, it makes me cry. In the end, Xander helped Naomi open up to her past and accept she could live the life she loved but never thought she wanted or deserved. The feeling of wonder came at the end of the book when I got that generic happy ending that I wanted, or wish fulfillment. Of course, this feeling didn’t come without its ups and downs. I often felt anger at the author for not getting to the point or giving me the ending I wanted when I wanted. It was like I had to work for the happy ending. Remember when I said that Naomi’s past did in fact follow her? That would be when a killer with the same motive and killing style as her father followed Naomi to Sunrise Cove (the small town where she set up shop). This was where I had to work for that happy ending. Naomi was the final target of this sick killer and they were not going to stop until they got what they wanted. Eventually, they got her. He cornered her in her own home when she was waiting for Xander to return. There was a twist though, the killer was her supposed friend from high school. The two of them had a slight falling out and Naomi moved on with her life after him. He spent those years following Naomi through her posted photography and killing women who shared features with her, working up to his final kill. Luckily, Xander came back just in time to knock the killer down and detain him. Naomi was shot and so was her beloved dog “tag”. As you already know, there was a happy ending. Naomi and her dog were okay and made a full recovery. The book ends with a not-so-romantic proposal from Xander which made it all the more romantic for me.
What Prompted My Experience?
A few direct quotes I remembered before going through and reanalyzing:
“The inlet, deep gleaming blue, curved and widened, split around knots of land green with the earliest whispers of spring. Shorelines climbed up, upholstered with trees, as the water traveled out through a narrow channel into deeper blues. In the distance just west, mountains rolled up against the sky to back a thick forest of green shadows” – Nora Roberts, p. 87
The scenery described in this quote just gets me. I love a good view of something pretty, especially nature. In these quotes (I’m sure I will find more when looking deeper) I feel a sense of tranquility. There is nothing more calming than sitting and staring out into the beautiful landscape that surrounds you. I wished I could live through Naomi (minus all the nasty trauma she endured) just to get a taste of what those views brought, combined with the beauty of the house she bravely decided to renovate.
This next quote is about a time Naomi was ready to call it quits and go back to her old ways:
“You want me gone, I’ll go. I’ll take the damn dog if that’s how you want it. I don’t force myself on anyone. But give me the truth” “I just did! This is a mistake. All of this, and I need to correct it.” “By dumping me, the dog, this house, what you’ve started making here? That’s not what you want” “You don’t know what I want.” She hurled the words at him, along with fear-tinted rage. “You don’t know me.” –Nora Roberts p. 309
This is where I felt the anger and the empathy for Naomi in wanting to run. The argument started when Naomi felt suffocated by Xander and Kevin (the guy working on her house and now close friend, along with his wife Jenny). The killer that followed her to Sunrise Cove was out hunting and they didn’t want to leave her alone in that big house. Despite this being a kind gesture, Naomi felt she could handle her own, which she could, but shouldn’t have to. She wanted to run away from all of it, to go back to never staying in one place for long. Xander however was not having this. I didn’t include it in the quote because It is not the main point of my anger and empathy, but this is when Xander revealed he knew who she was and where she came from.
This quote, again, is an argument between Naomi and Xander. This time, it is not about Naomi wanting to run, it is about Xander knowing about her father and Naomi’s fear of being seen differently because of that:
“Understand this, then. It’s insulting and annoying- remember that- for you to think I’d feel any differently about you because your father’s Thomas David Bowes. That I’d act differently because 17 years ago you saved a life- no doubt saved a lot of lives. And if this whole fucked-up bullshit is the reason you’re trying to kick me to the curb, you’re out of luck. I don’t kick that easy” – Nora Roberts, p. 312
This quote is a lot different from the first, but it stuck with me all the same. The way Xander goes about talking Naomi down is odd yet special. He doesn’t let his anger take control but he expresses it exactly as it is, and he’s right. Naomi would get so caught up in the fact that her father is Thomas Bowes she would forget what was right in front of her. She would go right back to wanting to run and forget everything she built with Xander and he wasn’t going to let that happen.
Finally, a quote about love (took long enough):
“Immersed in her work, immersed in sunlight, slim hands competent with her tools, dark green eyes focused on her art. That long, slim body in a pale blue shirt and khaki pants that stopped just above her ankles, her feet bare. So this is what it was, this was how it fit. How his half-fit anyway, he thought. It fit, all those moving parts, because he was in love with her” – Nora Roberts, p. 321
This quote gave me chills. As I said earlier, I’m a sucker for love. Neither he nor Naomi had ever experienced being in love which made this all the more special.
The best quote by far, our happy ending:
“It’s a good spot. We ought to get married down there in the backyard.” “It’s a good spot for– What?” “Fall’s nice, all the color” Contemplatively he sipped the beer. “October. That’d give you time to do what women think they need for it. Flowers and the dress, whatever.” “But married? That’s–” “How it ought to be.” Casually, he rubbed his big hand up and down her calf. “You’ve got until October to get used to it. That’s long enough” –Nora Robert p. 469
This is the passage where the happy ending unfolds. He proposes in a not-so-romantic way, more so telling her that’s where they are going to get married. I really like this because with Naomi, asking her to marry him in the generic down on one knee way wouldn’t work, she would get scared and possibly try to run. Naomi has grown so much since she and Xander met, but marriage is something she never thought about.
I couldn’t find the direct quote I was looking for to show when I fell in love with Xander and when Naomi realized she had found someone special, but I can explain what I remember. As you know, Naomi is renovating an old abandoned house. Xander was helping her bring in a table for the dining room to complete her set. As he was doing that, he picked up some lavender flowers from the front garden. I don’t remember if he put them in a vase before he gave them to her or after, but that’s besides the point. He walked up to the porch where Naomi was waiting. He handed her the flowers. While this seems like a small gesture, it meant so much to her. This was the moment she realized she may have fallen in love with him. In Naomi’s fashion of course, she denied it. I wish I could find the direct quote in order to explain this better, but I spent so long looking for it and couldn’t so I figured I would paraphrase it for now. This gesture from Xander sent Naomi almost off her feet. She loved the flowers and she loved him, she just wasn’t ready to accept it yet.
Narrative Technologies
Narration:
Choose Your Own Accomplice: A life story that presents an existential journey (from the past) and a way of understanding it (from the time of writing) without suggesting that it will be the same way to make meaning of other existential journeys.
Storyworld:
Almighty heart: The combination of the secret discloser (a narrative technology in which a narrator shares an intimate secret about a character) with wish fulfillment (constructing a world in which a character can get everything they want)
The narrator starts the story by sharing Naomi’s most intimate secret (her father being a serial rapist and killer) and by the end of the story, Naomi meets the love of her life and ends up engaged, he moved into her newly renovated beautiful house and she owns a dog. Her life’s puzzle pieces fit into place perfectly.
Plot:
Opportunity to observe: Constructing a story in which characters display many emotions, perhaps unpredictably, encouraging the viewers or readers to observe and recognize the emotions they are experiencing.
In the “fights” Xander and Naomi got into, you felt the emotion and the passion but also the anger
Pivot into Positive Emotion: Any plot decision designed to generate positive emotions in viewers.
Citations:
Roberts, Nora (2005). The Obsession
