Paranormal/Futuristic
After Obsession
By Chris
Dec 23, 2011 - 2:08:01 PM

Aimee Avery has always had strange abilities, her prophetic dreams being just one of them.  Although her dreams have helped her on certain occasions, the one night she needs them most, they desert her – the night her mother commits suicide by drowning in the river.  Or at least that's the story told around town.  Reeling from another river incident, only this time it's her best friend Courtney's father who has gone missing, Aimee senses there's something even more sinister going on... and it's affecting everyone around her.

Alan Parson and his mother have just moved to the quaint Maine town to help his cousin, Courtney, and her mother through the loss of her father.  Despite family being the reason for the move, Alan realizes quickly that there's little else there for him.  If it's not his football player physique marking him as an outsider in a town that has no football team, his tanned skin and long black hair, courtesy of his Navajo heritage, certainly do the job.  That said, there's more to it than Alan just feeling marginalized.  There's most definitely something off kilter with the townsfolk.  But more importantly, he senses there's something even stranger going on with his cousin.
 
Aimee and Alan have never met, but there's a familiarity and a connection that neither can deny.  That bond will be key, especially when it becomes blatantly clear that something has gone very wrong with Courtney.  Bound by their loyalty and love for Courtney, it will fall on them to figure out what's plaguing both her and the town.  And if they don't succeed, no one can.
 
With fast-paced action and emotionally intense scenes, AFTER OBSESSION makes for a highly entertaining read.  Collaborative writing efforts always intrigue me in that I wonder who wrote what or if there is a sense of continuity throughout the story.  This being my introduction to both Carrie Jones and Steven E. Wedel's writings, I can honestly say that the story had an innate flow to it and I could not discern between changes of writing styles.  Told from the hero and heroine's points of view, I found both perspectives equally engrossing and bracing.  Aimee, being the small town girl, once considered a freak turned hotty, and dating the BMOC (big man on campus), is the kind of character a teenage girl can easily sympathize or empathize.  Her point of view is easily more teen-malaise amplified than Alan's, but in a good way because teenagers will be able to relate to her (even sans prophetic dreams).  Alan, despite his more obvious differences to the rest of the "vanilla" town, is a rock.  Comfortable in his own skin and who he is, even without knowing who his father is; Alan is the kind of boy all boys should look up to.  And undoubtedly, he's most definitely the kind of boy all girls will want for themselves.  Together, Aimee and Alan make a formidable pairing and one that I thoroughly enjoyed watching blossom.
 
A young adult paranormal series just ripe for the horror-obsessed, aficionados of the creepy, angst-loving teenager in all of us, AFTER OBSESSION sets the stage for what could easily become an enslaving series.


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