Whew, Creep was a little too dark and depressing and I had to force myself to finish it. I just don't think this type of genre is for me. Thank you NetGalley and Harper Perennial for this advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest review.

In Creep by Emma van Straaten, we follow Alice who is obsessed with Tom. She cleans his apartment and has a whole plan of what their future life will be when they meet. I appreciated this dark literary piece of fiction that explored the loneliness and obsession of one woman. While I was hoping for a little more, a take that we hadn't seen from similar works, I still enjoyed t he read. However, if you are a fan of unlikelable main characters, Creep will be a great next read.

Alice, go to therapy challenge.

The premise of Creep is fascinating—Alice has been cleaning Tom’s flat for a year and has created an entire imaginary relationship with him, built from crumbs of his daily life.

This book lives up to its name, offering a dark and deeply unsettling look at obsession and loneliness. Alice’s narration is sharp and vividly detailed, which works to draw you into her mindset, but can also make the writing feel overwhelming at times. Especially early on, I found myself losing the thread of individual sentences.

The novel does an incredible job exploring themes of alienation and the stories we tell ourselves to feel connected. But it’s also a slow burn, and I wish there had been earlier hints about Alice’s intentions.

If you’re intrigued by dark, literary character studies and don’t mind unreliable narrators who are as frustrating as they are fascinating, Creep might be worth picking up. does.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Perennial for the free ARC.

Weird but engaging. Loved the capital H throughout when referencing Tom just felt so right considering she really found him God-like.

I thought this book was honestly just ok, I genuinely wanted to really like it but I found the story to be just be meh sadly

What did I just read? Holy crap, this book left me speechless. Spending time in the absolute batshit insane mind of our main character, Alice, truly made me feel like I was just as crazy as her and I loved every second of it.

If you take Eileen and My Husband and shake it up, you’ll get Creep. Creep takes obsession to a new level as Alice spirals into insanity as her infatuation with Tom, a man whose house she cleans, increases. As her obsession intensifies; so does her self hatred and self harming behavior. This was truly a wild ride.

This book definitely won’t be for everyone but if you love visiting the mind of someone that’s balls to the wall crazy, I think you’ll love Creep.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC!

My rating for this book kept getting lower and lower the more that I read. I could not wait for this to be over. It’s such a shame because I was really looking forward to reading this. A unhinged stalker who cleans a man’s home and is obsessed with him although they never met? Say no more sign me up. Unfortunately the synopsis of this book was the most exciting part. This book is SO OVERWRITTEN I mean overwritten in a way where it felt as though the author was trying to hit a word count. Overwritten in a way to sound “literary” without anything actually happening the entire book. There was zero character development or insight as to why this character was unhinged- she just was. The entire book we spend inside her head daydreaming about a man. That’s it. The last 20% was nothing new and nothing we haven’t seen a million times in “unhinged woman” books.

Creep by Emma van Straaten follows Alice, a young woman who prides herself on knowing everything about Tom. She knows what he likes to eat and what medicine he is supposed to take. She knows his schedule. The only thing she doesn’t know is Tom himself because they have never met. Alice is Tom’s house cleaner. She is also obsessed with him.

I really enjoyed a lot about this book. It reminded me a lot of being in Joe Goldberg’s head while reading “You.” The way Alice takes everything and twists it in her mind to think that Tom is in love with her was so interesting.

The writing style is very different. I think it is purposely overwritten so that you really feel like you are in Alice’s mind and I don’t think it will work for everyone. It took me awhile to get used to it but once I did, I was flying through this book.

If you are the kind of reader that needs characters to behave perfectly, this isn’t the book for you. None of the characters are great but to me, that makes the story more compelling.

All in all, I don’t think this will work for everyone, but I know some people will really enjoy it!

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication date: Feb. 25, 2025
Alice knows how Tom takes his coffee, what medication he takes and what side of the bed he sleeps on. She’s convinced they are soulmates, tied together for life. The only problem? Tom and Alice have never met. For a year, Alice has been cleaning Tom’s apartment, immersing herself in his life and convincing herself daily that they are meant to be together. Alice tells everyone she knows about her “boyfriend Tom”, so convinced in their future, until the day comes when she can finally put her plan into action and help Tom realize that Alice is the one for him.
“Creep” is the debut novel by author Emma van Straaten. Dark, obsessive and addicting, it is the perfect read for fans of Joe (Caroline Kepnes, “You”), with an equally compelling female protagonist.
Alice struggles to make friends, has a sister who, on the surface, is unattainably perfect and works a mediocre job that allows her to clean Tom’s house on Wednesday mornings. Although it is quite obvious from the get-go that her obsession with Tom is not reciprocal and she is more awkward than charming, Alice somehow connects with readers in her struggling, stuttering way.
Alice identifies Tom by name only a few times but, throughout her narration, she labels Tom only as “Him” (capital H), which hammers home the level of obsession Alice has, and how high of a pedestal she has placed her beloved Tom. Alice monitors his emails and copies his appointments into her calendar, all so she can stalk him subtlely, convinced that he is her One and Only. She ignores potential relationships, which had me yelling at her through the pages, all in order to pursue her fantasy.
Van Straaten’s “Creep” flows well, the writing style indicative of Alice’s verbal narration of her thoughts. There are adequate breaks and punctuation (thank Goodness!) making “Creep” an easy-to-read page turner. Although not a completely unique premise, the fact that this is a debut novel makes van Straaten’s “Creep” stand out above the crowd.
The ending itself was believable, and although it tied up all of the loose ends, I was fascinated with Alice and all of her eccentricities and I hope to see her again!

I tried so hard to read this book but the writing just didn't work for me. It is extremely detailed and heavy. I skipped a whole page on her describing food. There are some serious heavy topic and hopefully when it comes out there are trigger warnings included. It is a short read which is great but sadly I just couldn't finish the book because the writing style was so off putting. The book also drops you right in, which I love but I did want background of the main character and instead was given descriptions of everything else.

I would recommend this to people who.are fans of women's fiction and indie movies!

I was so excited when I saw I was approved for Creep, but as I started I found myself immediately turned off by the writing style. While it's a fantastic concept, the execution rubbed my brain the wrong way, and I ended up DNFing around 45 pages in.

Luckily, I noticed a “Disclaimer” mentioned in the table of contents, so I hope the final version of this book includes the necessary trigger warnings: self-harm, eating disorders, body hatred and fatphobia, blood, and stalking.
I struggled to get through the first 50 pages. The writing style is definitely intense—highly descriptive and occasionally grating. That said, it does an excellent job of immersing you in the main character’s mind. After battling through those initial pages, I set the book aside and switched to lighter reads because Creep just wasn’t working for me at the time. A few days later, I picked it up again and couldn’t put it down.
I don’t think the pacing changed; rather, I was in a better headspace to dive into a story about a woman unraveling. Once I was ready to be creeped out, the book delivered. I felt disgusted and ashamed for Alice, the protagonist. While not much happens plot-wise, the book excels as a character study of a woman with severe trauma making all the wrong choices.
I have to admit, reading Creep left me feeling mentally unwell for a while, both during and after finishing it.
This book reminded me a bit of I’m a Fan by Sheena Patel, combined with Acts of Desperation by Megan Nolan.

Thank you to the publisher Harper Perennial for providing an advance reader copy via NetGalley. Available Feb. 25 2025

I loved the premise of this book but, unfortunately, I could not get into it because I couldn't handle the first-person narrative, stream of consciousness writing style. I didn't really. understand the narrators motives and it didn't really feel like a lot was at stake for her.

Incredible concept.

I started this one with lots of hope but wound up slogging my way through it - the writing style came across as annoying (to me), I found the plot unengaging and it never picked up for me.



Thank you to Harper Perennial and NetGalley for the DRC

Three and a half stars.

Emma does a great job creating a creepy stalker. The story is fun to read with how cringy you feel along the way. I wish there was either a twist or more of a story here.

This book is titled perfectly because honestly, it gave me the creeps at times. But in all reality, this book was really good. I liked the author’s writing style and the way she fully made you feel your skin crawl. This book the hairs on my neck standing up just thinking about how the main character acted! Overall, a great read.

The writing in this felt overdone and overtly edge, as if it was trying to guide the reader to make predetermined judgements about the characters. It was easy to read, but definitely won't be for everyone.

"Creep" is crazy, and fun, and bizarre, and dark. It feels like "He's Just Not That Into You" meets "Baby Reindeer".

It was creepy, I will give you that. Hiring a cleaner has never been less appealing. It should have been compelling but I felt like it dragged and I was reading it forever. It was bogged down by repetitive details I didn't think added much. We get it, you have bodily functions! You're obsessed! What else?

I've been notified I'm receiving a print ARC of Creep (thank you so so so much Emma! Ahhhh!!), so I'm submitting this in the meantime as I don't feel it's fair to have this count against my FB ratio when I'm waiting on USPS. I'm pausing at 15% into the ebook l, but even that far in I could already tell I'm going to love this!

Will certainly update w actual review & include links once finished... I don't anticipate that being any longer than a day or two after the print ARCs arrival :)