About the Book
Alice has been cleaning Tom's flat every Wednesday for a year. With every smudge wiped from his coffee cup, every multivitamin counted from the jar, every crease smoothed out in his bed, Alice spirals deeper into infatuation. But as Alice prepares for the moment when they will finally meet face-to-face, she discovers that love might not be the cure she thought it was...
Told through the eyes of an obsessive protagonist, This Immaculate Body is a literary study of unreliability and unlikability. Exploring alienation and loneliness, class and race, it's a skilled debut with resonance in the way that we view women, mental health and the lost in society.
[published in the US under the title Creep]
About the Author :
Emma van Straaten is a writer of British-Mauritian heritage living in London with her husband and toddler. Born in Lewisham, she grew up on the Sussex coast, headed north to Durham to study English Literature, and is now happily surrounded by books working at The London Library. In 2021, days after her daughter was born, she won the inaugural Discoveries Prize with an early partial draft of This Immaculate Body and has been writing whenever she can, ever since.
Review :
Absurd, shocking, and deeply unsettling. After this darkly funny read, you may never feel so comfortable letting a stranger into your home again
Stirring to its very core, This Immaculate Body enthrals beyond measure. It bleeds, burns and beguiles, and asks you, dear reader, to give in to obsession. Truly, a religious experience
A momentous, kaleidoscopic portrait of a woman on the edge. A wild ride from start to finish
The relentlessness of Alice's slipping grip on reality hooks you . . . if this doesn't make you cancel your cleaner, nothing will
Written in an electric stream of consciousness, van Straaten's debut - which won the inaugural Women's Prize Discoveries ward - is as terrifying as it is heartbreaking, revealing how loneliness and damaging adolescent experiences can shape a person. A chilling book by an exciting new voice
A compelling debut . . . original, darkly funny and addictive this has twists that will leave you reeling
A thriller with a difference . . . A fascinating portrait of love, obsession and desire
A thriller as much as it is an exploration of how we present ourselves and perceive our material culture, this is an evocative story that deserves immediate cult status
Absolutely addictive. From the very first page, Emma Van Straaten had me by the Hail Marys. Obsessive, delusional, disastrous - but so intricately woven with heart, warmth and empathy. I'm as devoted to This Immaculate Body as Alice is to her delusions. An impeccable debut from a rising talent
Brilliantly tense (and at points very tender) descent into madness. I wanted to shout at Alice and I also wanted to hold her tight. Van Straaten's prose is unique - long sentences and paragraphs which fold the reader into Alice's close, procedural obsession. In lots of ways, it's a dark read, but Alice's hurt and hope is luminous. She's a deeply flawed girlie with a big beating heart
Safe to say this is one of the best books I've read in a long time. It was addictive, unsettling, and propulsive, I was hooked after the first page. I will be recommending to everybody when it's out in February!
Truly fascinating and compulsive - transgressive with an ending that gave me whiplash. Emma's writing is gorgeous - rich and delicious and evocative even when uncomfortable. I found myself drawn to and repelled by Alice in equal measure, I couldn't tear my eyes away . . . an accomplished and visceral debut. I'm slightly concerned about how decisively Alice crawled into my head and has stayed there since I finished reading
An addictive deep-dive into the dark, throbbing heart of obsessive desire. Baby Reindeer meets Convenience Store Woman
Deeply unsettling, horribly insightful, oddly hilarious and alarmingly tender. This Immaculate Body is a deliciously addictive portrayal of blood-thumping, heart-bursting obsession that lures you in and makes you culpable
When it comes to love, we've all got the odd horror story. But Alice loves harder than most. She's dangerous, vulnerable, devious, hilarious, and she pushes our sympathy to breaking point. I loved every minute of her unsettling company
I couldn't turn away from This Immaculate Body - Emma van Straaten paints a frank and utterly compelling portrait of obsession, with a protagonist that got completely under my skin. A deliciously unsettling novel
An intense, richly textured book that I read with one eye covered - eager to see what Alice would do next, yet afraid for (and of) her. Every sentence crackles with suspense and sensory detail
This is a novel best read in an intoxicating, headlong rush
This fine author is one to watch . . . A tale of obsession - and of how women see the world, and how it views them - it is a compulsive listen, and is garnering cult status
[A] compelling and unsettling story of obsession
You might be thinking that you have already read your fair share of women unravelling, but you have never read it like this. This book is like an adult version of teenage tumblr infatuations, but on steroids. While the 'unhinged woman' trop can be difficult to execute convincingly, Van Straaten does it right . . . An absolutely amazing debut, This Immaculate Body has been living in my mind, crystal clear, since I first read it last year
