54 pages • 1-hour read
The Obsession
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Chapters 16-20Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, mental illness, rape, physical abuse, and substance use.
Chapter 16 Summary
Xander helps Naomi set up for a photoshoot of his chaotic bookshelf, which she nicknames “Storyland.” She photographs his hands with a Jane Austen novel and a beer, celebrating their successful shoot. Their intimate conversation is interrupted when Xander’s friend Lelo, a landscaper, arrives with the rest of his band: Dave, Trilby, and Ky. During setup, Ky mentions that Marla has been missing for several days now.
Naomi directs a gritty band photoshoot using props like chains and tools, with Tag joining in. Later, Naomi and Xander share wine, and she invites him back to her place. That night, Xander comforts her through a nightmare.
Meanwhile, a masked man holds Marla captive; he tortures, rapes, and photographs her before strangling her to death while calling her Naomi.
Chapter 17 Summary
Naomi edits the weekend’s photos, experiencing a rare sense of happiness in her new life. Her contractor, Kevin, announces Lelo’s arrival, who tours Naomi’s yard and proposes a barter arrangement—his landscaping services in exchange for her photography work. Naomi agrees to the deal, appreciating his vision for her property.
At his garage, Xander works on a truck as Lelo visits to confirm that Marla is now officially considered a missing person. Troubled, Xander mentally retraces Marla’s likely route after she angrily left the bar days earlier. He concludes that she was abducted shortly after leaving and predicts that she will be found dead.
Chapter 18 Summary
Naomi takes Tag for a walk to photograph the shoreline when the dog discovers a woman’s pink high-heeled shoe, leading Naomi to Marla’s body on the beach. She immediately calls the police and then Xander. Chief Sam Winston arrives with his deputies to begin their investigation. Xander takes Naomi home, and she decides to paint a guest room as a coping mechanism.
Later, the chief visits Naomi’s house to take her formal statement about finding the body. That night, Naomi wakes from a nightmare that triggers a panic attack, which Xander helps her through. They make an early breakfast together and discuss their evolving relationship, which Xander simply defines as a “thing.”
Chapter 19 Summary
Naomi runs errands in Sunrise Cove, delivering framed prints to Krista, an art retailer at a local shop, who agrees to produce postcards featuring her photography. At home, Kevin and Lelo act as unofficial watchdogs until Xander arrives, and the group discusses circulating rumors about Marla’s autopsy results.
Naomi attends Marla’s funeral with Xander, Kevin, and Jenny. The service triggers disturbing memories of her father. After the ceremony, Marla’s ex-husband, Chip, approaches Naomi and thanks her for finding Marla’s body, which brings Naomi to tears as she mourns a woman she barely knew.
Chapter 20 Summary
Chief Winston visits Naomi to reveal that he knows her father is Thomas David Bowes, the notorious serial killer. He assures her she isn’t a suspect in Marla’s murder but advises her to tell Xander the truth about her past. Distraught, Naomi attempts to end her relationship with Xander when he arrives with dinner, believing that her dark family history makes her unworthy of happiness.
Xander surprises Naomi when he reveals that he has known her true identity since she noticed the book about her father in his apartment. He assures her that his knowledge of her father’s crimes does not change how he feels about her.
The scene shifts to Marla’s killer stalking waitresses leaving a pizzeria. When his primary target, a young blonde waitress named Maxie, is picked up by her father, he uses chloroform to abduct an older waitress from the parking lot instead.
Chapters 16-20 Analysis
The photography motif reaches its most sophisticated expression in these chapters, revealing how Naomi’s artistic practice functions as both psychological armor and a means of asserting control over her narrative. During the photo shoot with Xander’s band, Naomi transforms the mundane garage setting into something deliberately provocative and commercially viable. Her direction to “imagine [her] naked” demonstrates how she manipulates her subjects’ emotional responses to achieve her artistic vision while maintaining distance (246). The photography sessions—from the careful composition of Xander’s bookshelf to the theatrical staging of the band shoot—represent Naomi’s attempt to frame reality according to her own aesthetic and emotional needs. This artistic control becomes particularly crucial as her past threatens to overwhelm her present, with the camera serving as both a shield and a sword in her ongoing battle to define herself on her own terms.
Redefining Identity in the Shadow of Infamy undergoes thematic development as Naomi’s carefully constructed identity begins to unravel. The revelation that Xander has known about her father’s identity all along fundamentally alters the dynamic between concealment and disclosure that has defined Naomi’s adult life. Chief Winston’s visit forces the confrontation that Naomi has spent years avoiding, yet his matter-of-fact approach—treating her background as relevant information rather than a defining characteristic—offers a model for how knowledge need not automatically transform relationships. Xander’s revelation that he knew about her connection to Thomas creates a complex layering of deception and protection: He kept her secret not out of ignorance but out of choice, subverting her expectations about how others respond to her identity. This reversal challenges Naomi’s fundamental assumption that knowledge of her past inevitably leads to alienation.
The symbol of the house on the bluff reaches a critical juncture as Naomi’s commitment to permanent residence faces its greatest test. The discovery of Marla’s body at the foot of her property transforms the house from a sanctuary into a crime scene, forcing Naomi to confront whether she can maintain her chosen identity when her past trauma reasserts itself so violently. The ongoing renovations and landscaping represent competing impulses toward rootedness and flight. Naomi’s decision to continue with Lelo’s landscaping plans despite the trauma of finding Marla’s body signals a conscious choice to resist her historical pattern of escape. The house becomes a battleground between her ingrained survival instincts and her desire for genuine transformation.
The interplay of light and shadow manifests most powerfully in Naomi’s photography and her psychological state throughout these chapters. Her careful manipulation of lighting during photoshoots as she adjusts angles and controls shadows mirrors her attempts to control the revelation of her own identity. The “light, shadow, angle” that she describes as “atmosphere” becomes a metaphor for how truth can be shaped without being distorted (237), much as Xander’s knowledge of her past has created an atmosphere around their relationship without fundamentally altering its nature. The nightmares that plague Naomi after discovering Marla’s body represent the shadow side of her psyche reasserting itself, while the pre-dawn breakfast scene with Xander suggests how shared experience can illuminate even the darkest memories.
Naomi’s character development through crisis reveals how fundamental nature expresses itself under extreme pressure. Her immediate response to finding Marla’s body is to call the police and then Xander, which demonstrates the integration of her survival instincts with her capacity for connection. Her panic attack and subsequent attempt to push Xander away represent not regression but the natural testing of newly formed bonds against the weight of historical trauma. Xander’s steady presence throughout these crises—from the practical matter of painting walls to the emotional challenge of confronting her deception—establishes him as a stabilizing force who can weather Naomi’s storms without being overwhelmed by them. His revelation that he has known her identity for some time reframes their entire relationship, suggesting that genuine intimacy can exist not despite secrets but because of how those secrets are held and honored.
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