Obsession
"Obsession" is the one word that could describe the book as a whole in the most accurate way possible. Joe is obsessed with Beck, and they are the love of each other’s lives – “Beck just doesn’t know it yet”. He will do anything, literally anything, to have her for himself. The lines of obsession are slowly but surely stretched, beginning with mild internet stalking, to house stalking, to following on the street and finally murder.
Self-worth
Beck doesn’t react to the warning bells that might have chimed had Joe’s obsession been for someone else. This might be because of her low self-esteem. The way she looks at herself and her life is so low that she lets people walk on her repeatedly for their own gain, while she labels herself a good friend, sister and girlfriend. Instead of reacting to the things Joe might have said, she let him, as she was “used to” that kind of behavior from those that were supposed to support her the most.
Love
Joe would never label himself obsessive, he was just in love. And as the whole book is told from his perspective, love could be a word describing the book. It is “love” that drives him to kill all the people that were between him and Beck. It was a pity, Joe thought, that Beck died, because they had such a strong connection, a love between them such as had never been told before.
