Thrillers about obsession are a staple of the suspense genre, often delving darkly into the subject of an obsession with love or a stalker who is obsessively following the main character. Nonetheless, Beautiful Dreams by Salman Alhamadi is the same, but fully reinterpreted, as it presents a new, psychologically rich, and perhaps even more frightening story.
The novel shifts the theme of romantic obsession to that of maternal obsession, and the protagonist is deeply rooted in trauma, so the reader cannot help but sympathize with the obsessive character.
The Romantic Fixation on Maternal Fear
How Beautiful Dreams redefines the genre the most, and the most important aspect is by altering the nature of the very obsession. Rather than a jilted lover or a crazy admirer, the obsession behind this story is that of a mother by the name Anna. It is not about having somebody to love her, but it is her obsession to save her son, Victor, against an imaginary danger.
This recontextualizes the idea of obsession as a twisted form of love and intense maternal instinct, making the protagonist whose motives are both highly relatable and terrifying at the same time.
Obsession as a Traumatic Effect
Obsession is traditionally depicted as a major weakness of characters or a kind of malicious nature in traditional suspense novels. Beautiful Dreams is a subversion of this, as Anna’s obsession with Anna is directly shown as a result of her trauma in the past. The disappearance of her brother, Misha, which has not been resolved for several years, left her with a great psychological wound.
By combining this past pain with her natural instincts of protection, she feels an even stronger urge to protect her son when she sees a new danger to her son, which makes it difficult to trace the boundary between rational fear and paranoia. The obsession is not her; it is what her trauma, coupled with the manipulations of the antagonist Dmitri, has transformed her to be.
Bringing the Obsessive to be the Hero
The most innovative aspect of the novel is the point of view. In the majority of obsession thrillers, the reader witnesses the obsessive asbeing safely on the victim’s side. However, Beautiful Dreams puts us right into her mind, that of the obsessive herself. We accompany Anna throughout the process, experiencing her love, fear, and growing panic.
This raises a very serious question: Will she be a hero who is battling some silent evil, or is she an untrustworthy narrator who is going insane? Alhamadi, in making us sympathize with the character displaying the obsessive behaviors, redefines the role of the reader and introduces a distinctly disturbing suspense.
To sum up, Beautiful Dreams is a genre-buster in suspense novels, exploring the theme of obsession. By shifting the focus of motivation to motherhood and basing the actions on trauma, Salman Alhamadi has crafted a story that is not only a thriller but also a sensitive and compassionate character study, one that will linger with the reader long after the last page.