Review: The Obsessed by Lizzie Buehler

The Obsessed by Lizzie Buehler

Blurb from Goodreads:

An endearingly riotous coming-of-age debut from an award-winning translator, about a young woman who maps the love plot of her favorite novel onto her life and finds herself flailing when she gets into a relationship with a fellow literary obsessive.

Astrid is obsessed with the Russian American novelist Sofiya Sova, whose life trajectory serendipitously parallels Astrid’s own and whose writing seems to encompass every anxiety that Astrid has ever had. In hopes of gaining the purpose she so desperately craves, she begins her PhD with the resolve to live off the ethos of Sofiya Sova’s novel.

But when her boyfriend, Charlie, breaks up with her and she meets a fellow Sofiya Sova obsessive named Elijah, Astrid finds herself transcribing the love plot of her favorite novel onto her own life . . . until Elijah begins to pull away and Astrid is left flailing in a life scaffolded by obsession.

A bighearted portrait of the anxieties of desire, The Obsessed explores the trials of modern dating, the strange ennui of academia, and the question of how to create a world for yourself within and without the confines of your influences. What we’re left with is a striking portrayal of how a willing reader can bring a text to life, and similarly the animating power of a good novel.

 

If you are ok with books that entirely cerebral, with little to no action, this one is for you.  It's mostly musings and internal thoughts of a graduate student obsessed with various people, for various reasons (some of which are explained, some of which are not as well explained).  Still, very interesting and well written.  Give it a try!

The Obsessed comes out next week on July 28, 2026 and you can purchase HERE.  

Elijah was the first person I'd ever met who responded to my stories of obsession with tales of his own. He hadn't forgotten how to breathe, but he had forgotten how to blink. In middle school, he told me, he spent upward of eight hours a day thinking about his eyelids, because if he didn't, he would never close them, and then his eyeballs would dry out and his vision would be ruined forever. He also refused to eat anything that he hadn't prepared himself, because you never knew what might be lurking.. on your plate otherwise. You couldn't trust just any chef. This meant that for almost five years, Elijah had subsisted on a diet of nothing but fruit and macaroni and cheese.