Obsessed

Rating:
Summary: Do you obsess?
Review: If you didn't have obsessive tendencies before reading this book, you will by the time you finish!

Realtor Stephen Friedman is set on his next potential slice of paradise, happy to forget his Jewish history and get on with life.

Roth Braun is set on regaining the power his father lost to a Jew years before in a Nazi concentration camp.

When a rich Jewish woman dies and leaves a priceless relic to the Museum, Stephen's life suddenly turns upside down. The past he'd put behind him suddenly spirals him out of control. When he learns the dead woman was his mother and that more priceless relics could be hidden in her house, he becomes obsessed on regaining his inheritance.

Roth Braun is also determined to claim the relics, but for a different reason.

Stephen and Roth go head to head in this amazing fast paced, highly emotive, and often hilarious, story.

Dekker spins a tale that entwines two storylines, bringing them to a compelling finale. Allow yourselves to be pulled back in time to Nazi Germany, where you will once more face the plight of the Jewish concentration camps. These dark, and sometimes hard to read, segments are twisted between chapters set in the 1970's where Stephen and Roth attempt to outwit each other. Stephen's antics are at times hilarious and bring wonderful light relief to the story.

OBSESSED is a well paced and intriguing tale that will keep you reading late into the night. The only low point for me was one plot element near the start that I found a little hard to accept, but this was easily overlooked, and I'm sure it wouldn't be a problem to many others. The characters were well written and I was drawn into their plight, silently cheering them on. Roth was ... well, evil. Dekker does a great job of creating antagonists that are easily despised.

This is another keeper for your Dekker library.

Get OBSESSED!


Rating:
Summary: AreYou?
Review: Imagine being transport back to 1970, and your name is Stephan. You believed you had a ordinary life until the unspeakable happens: your adoptive. You mother was rich, but also a mother during the era of nazi Germany. Upon her death she leaves you clues that unsolves more than relics, but something or someone more value. How far would you go to get that prize? Would you go far enough to die?

Roth and his father want the same treasures, the same power, but want more than stephan wants: greed and the unthinkable. Dekker takes it one step above Three and the Circle Triology. An interesting novel, unlike any other he has written.

Rating:
Summary: Cold,cryptic, but Captivating
Review: Just the sheer magnitude of how nefarious Dekker's characters can be sends a chill down your spine. Interlaced with suspense,romance,hope,perseverance,and resilence, Obsessed weaves two characters from opposite sides of the spectrum, both driven by their innermost passions, to come together to epitomize such a conflagration as David and Goliath and such an obsession as God has over man. This book involves characters with such depth to come to life before your eyes and underneath it all a ground-breaking,earth-shattering,heart-stopping message that we all need to hear.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent characterization and tempo = the Dekker formula
Review: More and more, I'm seeing Dekker apply his formula to different settings. The story tracks closely to Thr3e and Blink, as a psychological-suspense thrill ride. In this case, the author traverses the very tense generational struggle of Jews who survived the Holocaust, those who barely remember it, and those who never experienced it. Stephen Friedman fits in the middle, and tries his best to escape burdensome and unsolvable emotions by simply distancing himself from them.

Another strength of Dekker is his ability to bring us into the mind of evil and perversion. Roth Braun and his father are unrepentent anti-Semites, who glory not in racial purity, but in pure worship of "the prince of the air." I felt the twisted pleasure these butchers take in emotionally toying with their victims, instilling them with hope, then dashing it. It's a scary thing to understand why psychopaths do what they do. This author brings us to that uncomfortable place.

In-depth characterization, several surprising but ultimately intelligent twists, and high-speeed pacing are standard fare for Dekker's novels, and these same ingredients saturate Obsessed. As a stand alone, this might well garner five stars--especially to those new to what I call the Dekker genre. However, having read nearly all of his previous works, I have noticed with Obsessed the feel of formula. It is as if he has found a writing equation, and simply is running different scenarios through it. It works well, but over time becomes somewhat predictable. I came to the end of Obsessed and was pleased, but not greatly surprised at how the story wrapped up.

Bottom-line: This is great writing, with excellent characterization and tempo. I only hope Dekker continues to stretch his approach.

Rating:
Summary: Plenty of action
Review: Stephen Friedman invests in real estate and tries not to think too much about his Jewish herritage and the hollocaust. Until he learns that his birth mother--a women he can't remember--was a hollocaust survivor and has recently died. As part of her will, she left one of the five stones of David (the stones he picked for his battle with Goliath) to a hollocaust museum. Stephen (whose birth-name was David) becomes obsessed with the dead woman--and the possibility that the other four stones of David might survive. Together, the five might be worth as much as a hundred million dollars (1973 dollars).

Since he lost the stones and his genocide journal, Nazi prison leader Gerhard Braun and his son Roth have searched for the stones of David--and for the woman who stole them. When Gerhard sees the newspaper obituary about the dead woman, he sends his son to retrieve the stones--and the journal she stole. Once in America, though, Roth discovers Stephen/David's existance. If Roth can only drink in Stephen's dispair, he stands to gain all of the power his father lost--for the glory of Lucifer.

Roth launches a cat-and-mouse game with Stephen. Stephen becomes obsessed first with the stones, then with the idea of another orphan--one he had been intended for at birth. If he can find her, he is certain he will know bliss. And leading Stephen to that bliss, then stripping it from him is Roth's idea of the ultimate in power--even more than the serial murder of single Jewish women Roth undertakes while in Los Angeles.

Author Ted Dekker tells an action-packed story as Stephen battles to stay ahead of Roth's deadly plans--and as Roth plays cat-and-mouse games with him. Dekker switches between occupied Poland in 1944/45 and Los Angeles/Germany/Poland in 1973, allowing the earlier events to influence what happens later. Stephen is enterprising in his attempts to break into his birth-mother's home and recover the treasure in her basement safe--and willing to risk everything to find it. Unfortunately, I didn't find the characters quite equal to the story. Roth is pure evil, but Stephen certainly seemed willing to adopt criminal activities quite quickly. His obsession with Esther--to the detriment of the attractive and potentially interesting Sylvia--doesn't seem quite natural or make him more sympathetic to the reader.

Rating:
Summary: Ted Dekker, once again, does not disappoint his fans.
Review: Ted Dekker keeps you guessing with each new chapter. His ability to keep the story moving and turning will keep you reading until the end. If you like suspense novels, either secular or Christian, you will love Obsessed.

Rating:
Summary: Thrill Ride
Review: There's nothing like a book that distracts me from all the things I'm supposed to be doing, be it taking notes in class, homework, chores, etc.

There's nothing like a book that has me on the edge of my eat from cover to cover, keeps me guessing, or tempts me to peek ahead in anticipation of what's to come.

There's nothing like a book that makes me read Scripture in a completely new light.

Obsessed was such a book.

Obsessed takes Jesus' parable of the pearl of great price and gives it flesh, so to speak. It's the story of a treasure hunt - not only of a man's obsessive hunt of proverbial pearl, but also his journey to discovering what that pearl is.

Like many Dekker books, Obsessed rings with the theme of God's desperate love for His children. Yet in this book, Dekker goes a step further, to man's proper response to God, to His love.

The question of Obsessed is one that few dare to ask: is God obsessed with us? And if so, the question proceeds, can we obsess over Him? If He is the pearl of greatest price, what is He worth to us? What are we willing to pay for Him and for His kingdom?

Obsessed is, in a word, thrilling. Buckle up and enjoy the ride.

Rating:
Summary: Lock your doors, and settle in for a night of suspense...
Review: This brilliant piece of historical fiction revisits the horrors of the Holocaust with a new hope for the future. Obsessed is a story of the intense passion of God's love for mankind. In the end, can heaven's obsession over the souls of men triumph over the forces of evil?

Once again, Ted delivers big. A brilliant work of suspense and passion, Obsessed combines the thrills of THR3E with the intensity of the Trilogy. Obsessed will keep you looking over your shoulder and locking your doors.



Rating:
Summary: Amazing, as always
Review: This Ted Dekker book is write on pace with all of his others. How can he title a book Obsessed and not expect his readers to become obsessed after reading the first chapter? That's exactly where I found myself, hooked and I read it in 2 days! I highly recommend this book to anyone, especially existing Dekker fans! Buy it today and finish it tomorrow!

Rating:
Summary: I am Obsessed!
Review: What to say? T3d's done it again. I'm usually not much of a fan of modern works. Classical literature is my passion, and I'm often somewhat skeptical of contemporary author's ability to write well. And then, I read Black. My entire mindset underwent a paradigm shift so dramatic, so utterly complete, that I began to devour any and all books by Ted Dekker. Now, several months later, I have had the incredible privledge of reading his latest offering: Obsessed.

As has become his trademark, Dekker seamlessly weaves spiritual depth into a genuinely captivating tale. Gone are the days when a parable sounded like a parable and nothing more. In Obsessed, the imagination has been given full freedom to invent and create and illuminate in the tradition of the Inventor and Creator and Illuminator. Tolkien's idea of "subcreation" has rarely been capitalized upon so richly and rewardingly.

Others have already given a basic synopsis of the plot; I shall not bore you with recitation of the book's moving story. Rather, I seek to spark some thoughtful, reasoned consideration of the book's main premise - Obsession.

Ted makes a shrewd observation near the beginning of the book. A wise, kindly old antiques dealer tells Stephen - the protagonist - that man was created to obsess. Value is often not so much intrinsic as ascribed. For example, diamonds are shiny, compressed carbon. Yet, they are valued and sought after world-over. Why? Because people percieve value in them, and are willing to pay copious amounts of money to obtain them. The price a person is willing to pay determines the worth of the diamond. We know that people obsess over such petty things. Indeed, entire wars have been waged over less. And Ted Dekker has the audacity to posit that humans act in such manner because they were created to do so!!!

In fact, he goes so far as to say that our obsessive tendencies are a reflection of God's character, because He is obsessed with us. Moreover, and much more importantly He is obsessed with Himself. Due to His infinite worthiness, His obsession is not petty or narcissitic, but wise and proper. And in the midst of His obsession is one great and glorious goal, one end to which His obsession must lead: He longs to lavish the extravagance of His love upon His children - to the praise of the glory of His grace!

The problem is, mankind has collectively shifted focus from what should be the object of their affection and obsession - God Himself - onto worthless baubles and meaningless floccinaucinihilipilification. To combat this, Ted has carefully crafted a brilliant expose of our spiritual unfaithfulness and wrapped it in the guise of a fascinating, compelling, oft-disturbing novel. And for that I am thankful. By the end of my read, I finally understood - and longed for! - the need for obsession. My earnest prayer is for Christ to be my all. I desire to be obsessed with Him as He is obsessed with me. May you who read this become consumed with the same obsession.

Oh, and make sure to read Obsessed if you haven't already. For that matter, read all his books! I've enjoyed every one of them. Elyon's blessings!!!!!!!
~EvadingShadows