8 Books About Obsession to Lose Yourself In
When does an interest become an obsession? When does a romantic relationship become codependent? When does a fan become a danger to their object of affection? There's a fine line between passion and obsession, but it's a crucial one. Hobbies, passions, and relationships enhance your life, while obsessions take over completely. Still, while we should aim to avoid obsession in our real lives, they are fascinating to read about.
One of the best parts of reading is being able to live inside someone else's head for a while, and characters who are obsessed—with a person, fandom, ambition, or something else—offer a radically different way of looking at the world. That's why task #4 of the 2025 Read Harder Challenge is "Read a book about obsession." Some of the most memorable books I've ever read are ones with this theme, because they're so easy to get absorbed in. They also tend to get pretty weird: obsession can lead people to unexpected places.
As I put together this list, I realized books about obsession fall on a horror continuum. After all, an interest becomes an obsession when it is dangerous, harmful, illogical: it's only one small step from obsession to horror movie scene. So, I've ordered these books roughly in order of level of horror, starting with the furthest from the horror genre.
A quick note: you can read a book about Obsessive Compulsive Disorder for this task, but in these recommendations, I'm just discussing the more colloquial definition of obsession.
Milk Fed by Melissa Broder
This is the book that first sparked my interest in books with obsessive main characters. Rachel is singularly focused on her weight, counting calories and exercising to excess. When she meets a fat woman named Miriam working in a frozen yogurt shop, she begins to fall for her—and to see an alternative to her obsession. This is such a strange, engrossing book, and I found Rachel's journey slowly letting go of her calorie obsession to be extremely cathartic. But it's also about her relationship with her mother as well as Miriam and Rachel's different connections to their Judaism. If you have any history with disordered eating, be careful picking this up: it really puts you in that headspace. For me, it was worth it to see Rachel find her way out.
Idol, Burning by Rin Usami, translated by Asa Yoneda
Akari is a teenager obsessed with J-Pop star Masaki Ueno. She writes a blog about him, researching every detail of his life. He's her reason for living: it's a "devotion that borders on the religious." So, when he's accused of assaulting a female fan, she leaps to his defense, her blog becoming the place to get updates on the situation. As Masaki's reputation plummets, Akari only gets more invested and obsessed.
(Similarly, Y/N by Esther Yi follows a main character obsessed with a K-Pop idol.)
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What book do you recommend for this task? Let’s chat in the comments!
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