After Obsession (review)

After a local fishing boat goes down, taking its crew with it, the residents of a small Maine town begin behaving strangely—or, more to the point, meanly. Aimee tries to brush it off, but as her best friend, Courtney, becomes increasingly cruel and erratic, Aimee begins to wonder if the hostility that has suddenly taken over the town has something to do with the recent spate of nightmares she has been having. Still, having weird dreams about shadowy river demons and hearing voices are not typical teenage behavior, so she stays mum until she meets Alan, Courtney's gorgeous half-Native American cousin, who recently moved to town and seems to instinctively know that something isn't quite right. Together, they discover that Courtney is slowly becoming possessed by a demon and that Aimee and Alan are fated to combine their powers and defeat it. This is pretty standard supernatural romance fare, but neither supernatural nor romance element is all that compelling. As protagonists go, Aimee and Alan are fairly generic, the artistic good girl with secret powers and the hot, mystical bad boy who knows better than everyone, so their rushed romance feels simply obligatory. The plot moves along clunkily as well, with much of the action being sparked by convenient catalysts such as a helpful school librarian who bestows upon Aimee a miraculously informative packet containing the entire history of the local river and the origins of the demon. There are plenty of solidly creepy tales of possession and redemption out there these days, and readers will better served by turning to them.