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This Immaculate Body

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This Immaculate Body

By: Emma van Straaten
Narrated by: Hanako Footman
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About this listen

 'an impeccable debut from a rising talent' Alice Slater
'transgressive, with an ending that gave me whiplash' Kirsty Capes
'deserves immediate cult status' Dazed
'Baby Reindeer meets Convenience Store Woman' Kirsty Logan

Alice has been cleaning Tom's flat every Wednesday for a year. With every smudge wiped from his coffee cup, every crease smoothed out in his bed, every multivitamin counted from the jar, 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.

This Immaculate Body is a story of obsession, of the way women view the world and the ways that the world views them. As Alice frantically tries to cling to an imagined future with Tom, the line between fantasy and reality become ever more blurred, putting everything she has dreamed of at risk.

[published in the US under the title Creep]©2025 Emma van Straaten (P)2025 Hachette Audio UK Family Life Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Suspense Thriller & Suspense Heartfelt
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I choose this as a well known book blogger wrote in February that this could be their book of the year. Okay, I don’t read as much as her, but I average a book a week and I’m not sure I get the hype. I didn’t feel the story really went anywhere and thought the ending fizzled out and was an anticlimax. Some storylines didn’t really go anywhere- would we believe that James wouldn’t have tried to track Alice down? Would Tom not have changed the locks or installed an indoor camera? Yes, poetic license I know. I wouldn’t say, don’t read it. There are some real moments of uncomfortable tension and I felt it had potential. Read it, if like me, you want to know why others are raving about it, but don’t feel you have to too! The narrator has a beautiful voice, but isn’t a character narrator so there isn’t much variation in tone.

Some moments of tension but it doesn’t go anywhere

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Stunning performance, so gorgeous, so unhinged. A protagonist with a similar inner monologue to when I hadn’t slept in 72 hours and thought the street signs were communicating with me…

Absolutely deliciously unhinged

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I found that the ending was a little ambiguous.i was hooked in just like a bystander at an accident that couldn’t look away.

A gripping insight into obsession.

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This book is quite something. Shocking in places. It's about a girl who is in love with a man she cleans for. I won't say anymore. I don't like book reviews where it's just a recount of the story. It's beautifully written, emotionally intelligent, funny, heartbreaking, gripping and quite frankly almost warped in places! It's brilliant! I plan to read it again soon! I hear that it may be made into a drama series on TV. Can't wait!'

Amazing book. Sad, chilling, compelling...you have to read it!

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Sensual. Unflinching. Gross. Beautiful. Moving. Enraging. Painful. Desperate. Funny. Real. Alice's story of loneliness, her desperate need for connection and validation, which leads her to obsessive fixations is a wild ride. Extreme, but also entirely relatable. The book's exploration of race and class is also though provoking. This audiobook is perfectly cast - a truly stunning reading of the book. Huge congratulations to all involved. And can't wait to read Emma van Straaten's next book.

Wow!

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Love a book about a unhinged woman then you will love this. A very descriptive novel about a woman unravelling. This story is beautifully written and the narrator really brings this book to life, her voice is perfect for the protagonist. Very much enjoyed this. P.S didn’t see that ending coming

What a nutter

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I should start by saying I would have walked straight past this in a bookshop. (Something about the cover and the title doesn't really speak to me. Interestingly, in America this book is marketed as Creep and the cover gives more of a Bret Easton Ellis vibe which would absolutely have caught my eye.)

Fortunately, I know Emma to be an incredible wordsmith and when I saw she'd written a novel I immediately bought a copy. I'm glad I did. I am deeply envious of her powers of descriptive writing: her words could frame a muddy puddle as a thing of beauty.

The protagonist definitely grew on me. She's a great mixture of introspective and deluded, manipulative and laudable; I found myself thinking, "Yes, obviously on one hand she's potentially a serial killer — but on the other she's such a hard worker and I'd be lucky to hire her." I was invested and curious to know what would happen next — particularly when Tom's reviews started changing.

I listened to the audiobook and have to say Hanako Footman absolutely nailed the narration.

Beautiful descriptive writing, great narration

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Disliked most of the book for its repetition, very boring , well read though , must have been a bore for the narrator.

Not brilliant.

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I’m really wanted to like this but it was just dull. Lots of beautiful language but boring. Concept is better than the story I’m afraid.

Boring

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