What a freaky book - it was amazing. When done right, the obsessive & unhinged woman story can be one of my favorite types of thrillers/dark fiction. Alice got under my skin, but I also related to her. Really enjoyed this.

We found female Joe Goldberg, but somehow more whiny and pathetic? Based on the premise, I expected "Creep" to be a lot more disturbing and a lot... well, creepier. Alice, our main character, is just a sad, lonely, deeply delusional human being, obsessed with a man she's never met, making up romantic scenarios for their life together. And that's pretty much it! While her behavior does escalate, nothing about it feels surprising or particularly memorable, and most of what I felt reading this book was second-hand embarrassment.

It also doesn't help how repetitive all of this feels, constantly being inside Alice's head, even if Emma van Straaten's writing is beautiful at times. And while, yes, the narrative does attempt to explore loneliness and the crushing weight of expectations in modern society, none of this goes deep enough or offers any exceptional insight. "Creep" could still potentially be appealing to fans of stalker stories, but don't expect it to offer anything new or particularly exciting.

This is one of the most unsettling books I’ve read in a long time. It follows a woman who becomes dangerously obsessed with a man whose house she cleans, and watching her spiral out of control is both horrifying and weirdly mesmerizing.

Alice is a complete disaster. She lies, manipulates, and uses everyone around her without a second thought. She is awful in every way, and yet you cannot look away. The writing pulls you so deep inside her fractured mind that it’s impossible not to follow her down.

Some parts are brutal to read. The choices she makes are gutting, sometimes almost unbearable, but that is exactly what makes the story so powerful. It is an uncomfortable look at how delusion and obsession can consume a person.

3.5/5
I love weird girl literature! I love all the absurd things she would do. and being in her head when she was obsessing over him. I had a hard time connecting with the main character. I think if we received more of her backstory it would have been different. I think anyone who loves weird girls would love this book.

CREEP, Emma van Straaten’s debut thriller, is a sweeping look at mental health, loneliness, and all-encompassing love

Alice and Tom have a standing date every Wednesday when Alice arrives to clean Tom‘s house. The only problem is, that Tom is not there in person. Alice checks his emails, counts his vitamins and even uses his toothbrush! She has obsessive fantasies about Tom‘s undying love when they finally meet face-to-face. Alice also works at a care home and befriends Tom‘s grandfather in an effort to learn more about him. Tom has no idea that any of this is happening. He is merely going about his days, dating and only texted a ‘ Good morning’ message to Alice which set her entire one-sided relationship in motion. As the.‘relationship’ continues to grow and Alice drops further into the rabbit hole, she is preparing for the meet-cute she is so skillfully creating in her mind.

CREEP was, well creepy. It is a study in mental health issues where obsessive love can lead a person to do some very strange things. The writing was clear and concise and reminded me of why I love debut authors. This was an enjoyable read that kept me turning pages late into the night, all the while checking the doors and windows to ensure they were locked. I can’t wait to see where Emma van Straaten goes next, as she seems to be a seasoned writer who, hopefully, has more stories to tell.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins for this ARC opportunity. All opinions are my own and given voluntarily.

A solid weird girl novel, but I wasn’t super vibing with the formatting. The writing style wasn’t really my taste, however I thought the plot was compelling and the main character was interesting to read.

I loved this story so much! This is such a tiny little book packed full of craziness! The story was intriguing and our main character was so complex. I was Invested from page one and loved all the unpredictability.

Was hoping to find a new author of unhinged female rage. Sadly, it didn't live up to my expectations.

Another book for the unhinged girlies. I requested this on NetGalley while I was going through my unhinged woman, mentally ill girlie struggling at life phase (cue Melissa Broder and Jen Beagin readers). This isn't quite that. While still maintaining the unhinged, obsessive woman vibe, our heroine is clearly no longer riding the edge but has fallen right off the cliff. Obsessed with a man she's never met, and fancying herself in love with him (and him also very much in love with her) Alice inserts herself into his life and fantasizes about him during every minute of her own.

This wasn't as fun as I was hoping it would be. While Broder and Beagin books have that sort of "grounded in reality, life is hard, we just gotta get through it" vibe, Alice is very much living in her own world. It's sorta the difference between laughing at yourself knowing you're ridiculous vs wondering why people are laughing at you and saying you're crazy. Alice is clearly narcissistic and a bit insane, not *just absorbed in her own world.

The story is interesting and it's the type of book where it's a bit hard to read because everything the heroine does is clearly unacceptable and unhinged (cringy). You don't root for her, but it's an accident you just have to keep looking at.

The author did an incredible job at keeping Alice confident in herself and entirely sure of herself, while also coming across a bit insecure. The subtitle of the book being "A Love Story" is brilliant and adds layers to it! There's some twists, or rather, natural story progressions, that change the vibe as you continue reading, but I enjoyed it! Wasn't a favorite but definitely enjoyed, and if you read the synopsis and think this book if for you, you're probably right. It gives exactly what it says it's going to give. It was good and I enjoyed the read, but it wasn't as fun and quirky as I was hoping it would be. I think if you're looking for a more serious book with an unhinged female lead, this might be the one for you.

Meh. While I do love a good story about messy, unhinged women doing messy, unhinged things in the name of obsession and "Love".......... this was firmly just an "OK" read for me. Did I finish it? Yes. However, did I also sit on writing this review because I just.... didn't know what to say, really? Also yes. It was fine, it was good.... it just wasn't anything for me to write home about, if that makes sense. Would still recommend as a quick read for people who love these kinds of domestic thriller-y types of stories, and would still be open to reading other works by van Straaten in the future

What a fun, weird, kind of emotionally distressing book--it had it all!

Alice is not well. She's in a very dedicated relationship with Tom, whom she's never met. But she's the maid who cleans his one-bedroom apartment (ok, Tom) and knows things like how many vitamins are left in the jar compared to last week, but not that that's absolutely a red flag. Alice's obsession with Tom grows, along with her own self-hatred, and the list of unhinged things she's done to get close to him is never-ending. 

Alice isn't likable, but she's so entertaining, and I felt very immersed in her POV. To the point that I would be careful reading this is you're feeling low or if characters having body image and eating issues might get to you. I ended up feeling a little more dragged down than I expected to after reading, but it was so well done I couldn't be that upset. I wasn't sure where it was going, or even where I wanted it to go, but what a ride, and the end did not disappoint. If you enjoy weird girl lit fic, short, dark books, satirical humor, and support women being a little delulu, this one's for you. Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

Creep is a filthy, funny, and feral novella that follows a young woman spiraling through obsession, humiliation, and bodily chaos. Alice becomes fixated on a man she cleans for, and what follows is a grotesquely intimate unraveling. There’s self-destructive sex, compulsive stalking, and an alarming disregard for hygiene. It’s short, but it lingers like the smell of something rotting under your bed.


WHAT THE FUCK did I just read?!?

Emma van Straaten has written a THE unhinged woman. This book is repulsive, hilarious, and honestly kind of liberating. The narrator is pure chaos. She’s spiraling and nasty and obsessed and just completely feral. I loved her.

Reading this felt like falling face-first into someone’s private, festering diary. I gagged. I laughed out loud. I questioned my own sanity a little. There’s piss, blood, grime, desperate sex, and the kind of oversharing that makes you recoil and then lean in closer. I kept wondering what happened to her to make her this way, and then I kind of didn’t care. She is what she is, and she’s not apologizing.

If you liked Wetlands, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, or anything Ottessa Moshfegh touched while blacked out, this is your next obsession.

Verdict:
Four stars. I don’t know if I need a shower or a tattoo. Maybe both.

Unfortunately, 30% in and I have to put this book down. I was drawn to this book immediately, as I am drawn to stories with unhinged characters, but the writing is overpowering the story. The excessive words and run on sentences are confusing and I’m finding it hard to follow the plot. I wish there was some background on why Alice is the way she is. This story will be perfect for someone, but not for me.

CREEP is an aptly titled, unsettling novel about obsession. It’s a disturbing, meandering narrative of Alice, a woman entirely consumed by her delusions of an intimate relationship with a man whose home she cleans. (Note: she’s not actually a cleaner by profession - not anymore. She has long since moved on to a job as as a paralegal but takes an hour-long break each week to clean his home.) As you might expect, the plot escalates and as she gradually reveals more about the extent of her infatuation, things become blurrier - what’s real? What is imagined?

I actually found the writing style to be quite compelling, despite how unhinged it was to be in Alice’s mind, as I felt as if it mirrored her consciousness. I read it in a sitting - probably ill-advised, given the content. There is a layered commentary here about how callously women’s bodies and minds are analyzed and then how easily dismissed. There’s a cleverness here that I can’t describe.

I am cautious in endorsing any plot that centers around stalking and violent obsession like this - but then I think about Stephen King’s MISERY, the continued success of YOU, and so many more. I suppose sometimes a book isn’t necessarily a read you enjoy and yet you recognize its impact. It feels strange to rate it, really.

This is not a book for every reader. In fact, I might suggest that it’s not a book for most readers. But personally, I will think about it again and again for months to come.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Perennial for the advance copy. All opinions are entirely my own.

Wow. This book surprised the hell out of me! When it began, I was thinking this was going to be a lighthearted yet darkly quirky book about obsession. As you get to know Alice (the book is written with her voice), you realize just how deep her character is, how ill her mind is, and how loneliness can drive people to madness.

Before getting a job as a paralegal, Alice was making ends meet by cleaning houses. Soon after starting to clean Tom’s house, she got rid of her other clients, and she began to crave her Wednesday mornings spent cleaning for the man she has fallen in love with. And he loves her too, she just knows it. They haven’t met, but it’s clear to Alice that every fingerprint was left for her, that his laptop remains unlocked so she can be a witness to his life, and the single toothbrush in his bathroom makes it clear that he only wants one woman - her.

After a year, she decides it’s time to meet him in person. He will be blown away by her beauty and charm, they will eventually marry and have babies, and maybe even move outside of the city as they grow old together. She’s consulted the astrology charts, and has found the perfect Wednesday for them to finally be together. That day didn’t go to plan, but she soon finds out he’s taking a trip to Paris with his mother and sister. All the better - she can meet her new family at the same time, and they will sip champagne and eat chocolate and croissants and start planning for the future.

As Alice becomes more and more unhinged, you get a full picture of how mentally ill she is, and how loneliness and ugliness made her who she is today. She’s quite the sympathetic character, despite her misdeeds, her disordered eating and self-harm. The title of this book is perfect, as this is definitely a creepy love story that gets quite deep into Alice’s psyche. It also has a few surprises, so it’s hard to put this one down! What a great concept and uniquely-written book. 4.5 stars, rounded up for being a debut.

(Thank you to Harper Collins, Emma van Straaten and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review.)

For a debut novel, Creep is pretty good. As a fan of stalker stories this premise really intrigued me. Execution was okay, I'm hit or miss with stream of consciousness litfic.

Alice was both tragic and extremely unlikable. Her experience of being a woman in this world was understandable and made me feel for her. However she was completely deranged and delusional. While many books leave me believing that most people are terrible Creep was the opposite, where I was struck with the kindness that everyone showed Alice. They tried so hard! And she was so awful!

I've never been a creepy stalker but this felt very… realistic? With someone like Joe Goldberg it's so far fetched that no one noticed him. Alice did her creepy stuff out of sight which was more believable (still unhinged, but believable). The resolution seemed realistic too.

Overall, a decent book that you can finish in a day.

Unfortunately i DNF’d about 10% in, i just couldn’t get into it- it felt like everytime i picked it up, i would just read the same paragraph over and over and finally just decided to call it. Maybe I’ll try it again later? We’ll see!

I'm glad I gave this one a read and it was good, for me I think it just didn't hook me and I wasn't in the domestic thriller reading mood when I did read it. I'll give it another try later in the year.

Creep is a dark, intense debut novel centered around Alice, a deeply flawed young woman struggling with extreme neediness, low self-esteem, and a vivid, delusional fantasy about unrequited love. As the story unfolds, her obsession with a man she cleans for grows disturbingly more intense and unsettling, challenging readers to confront the complexities of self-worth and emotional isolation. Emma Van Straaten crafts a haunting, unforgettable character in Alice, making this a gripping and disturbing read that's hard to put down.

Unfortunately I don’t think the writing style of this one was for me. This started off great but it was extremely descriptive to the point I caught myself feeling impatient which is unusual for me. The prose was more flowery than I tend to prefer although the plot itself was very intriguing. I might try this again in the future. This reminded me of My Husband by Maud Ventura but for some reason I didn’t have these issues with that one. I think My Husband gave more internal monologue and character exploration whereas this one was more so descriptive of her surroundings (tastes, smells, etc). I think I’m more interested in what’s going on in the character’s mind and what made her the way she is. I felt like I was reading The Scarlet Letter again and I didn’t love that. It may have been the wrong time for this one because I just ultimately didn’t have the patience.