Sometimes, you need a book to remind you that your daydreams are tame and normal. This is that book. A fever dream of delusion, obsession, wishful thinking and warped reality, This Immaculate Body made me feel uncomfortable and wary - in a great way.

The relentlessness of this book is astounding. There is no reprieve in the pursuit of Tom, the love interest. The balance of self-loathing and self-belief shows the fragility of mental health and self image.

Though not without faults, the pace, fortitude and agonisingly bad decisions make this a fast, easy (well, not in all meanings) read.

Delusional Disorder is an actual psychological term for people who can't tell what is real and what is imagined. Written from the point of view of the instigator rather than the victim, its delves into the psyche of a delusional stalker. It is a compelling read and Alice is a complex character. Alice cleans Ben's home and although they have never met, she is 100% confident that they are destined to be together. Through her cleaning she learns intimate details about Ben, from the cologne he wears to his preferred foods. Every tea cup in the sink or hand print on the glass window is a message to her. Alice's actions and her feelings are driven by a desire to maintain a (delusional) connection to Ben.

The style of writing is so clever you almost feel complicit in her actions. It is at times deeply uncomfortable to read, it leaves you feeling distressed...for her, for Ben. I squirmed my way through some paragraphs, it's shocking, and dark but it does make you feel for Alice. She is as much a victim as Ben, a victim of her disorder. I would have loved some Ben chapters and his take on how he felt when he was discovering the incidents at home.

I can't say I enjoyed the read because of its content but I do feel more knowledgable and changed after reading this novel.

I’m left wondering why I requested this book because it simply was not a fit for me at all. Some reviewers ( the majority) loved its wordy narrative but it was a turn off for me.

Watch this space - This Immaculate Body will be a HUGE hit among those who enjoy 'weird girl' books.

If you want to peek into the mind of a disturbing, obsessive, lonely, and spiralling woman, this is the book for you! However, don’t expect to like the protagonist too much (except when she’s volunteering at Roseacres). Alice had me laughing, cringing, rolling my eyes, and wanting to give her both a hug and shake - all of which can only be attributed to van Straaten's incredible writing. I loved that the writing felt chaotic at times, it felt as though I was truly inside the mind of a woman like Alice.

The book touches on themes of mental health, fantasies, memory, relationships, and desire in a way that will leave you wanting more.

Put simply, Alice makes Martha (Baby Reindeer) look relatively normal... and that ending!? I underestimated how twisted Alice could be. Easily a 4-star read.

I’ve always make it my business to finish a book that I have started reading. I do it in respect for the author. I did finish this book but I’m left thinking “what was that all about?”

It was bad enough that the start and middle was confusing but that last chapter really messed with my head.

This is my honest opinion. I’ve seen a few high rating reviews so I would recommend you give it ago and I hope that you feel differently about it than I did.

A story about scars that refuse to heal, and the path trauma can take us down.

A humiliating and defenceless violation of Alice's privacy as a teen, caused not only a rift between her and her sister, Cass, but also a journey into obsession and fantasy with devastating consequences.

Alice is a paralegal most of the time. But she has kept one customer from her cleaning round whose house she cleans every Wednesday morning. Tom was polite and thankful to Alice and his star ratings mean so much to her. From one small act of kindness that probably wouldn't mean anything to anyone else, Alice invents a whole new life. She explores Tom's flat and creates a narrative purely in her head about the day they will finally meet face to face and her days of loneliness will end.

She will no longer hate herself and she'll be thin and sophisticated and the woman of Tom's dreams.

Alice's obsession becomes darker and more twisted when she notices a woman's presence in his flat.

We, the reader, cringe in terror and disgust at some of the acts of violence and invasions of privacy she carries out. Yet it is a testament to the writing in this book that we also feel protective and compassionate and just long for someone to show her the love she so craves.

A compelling read from the start that holds you in thrall to the last word.

The idea of obsession is a very scary concept, to then be in the mind of Alice adds a more terrifying layer to the thought processes and how much space obsessions take whilst also having empathy and genuine care for Alice and her surroundings.

Alice believes what she wants is what He wants - all parameters of reality shredded as her febrile plans continually preoccupy her. Her streaming, steaming, thoughts of how much she will be loved intermingle with memories she is desperate to smother, hence her images of self. Being inside Alice’s mind ranges from hilarious to horrifying, evoking commiseration, distaste, insight into body shaming and eating disorders. Her unexpected compassion for an elderly man, her shock in finding a blind date enjoyable, and her despair and loneliness portray someone who is drowning, not waving.
Emma van Straaten’s writing is lickety-split, with more ways than imaginable of rattling readers out of their comfort zones, driving them on to align with, align against, Alice. It is a breathtaking read. The cover is an evocative depiction of Alice.

This is an absolutely astonishing novel.

To begin with, Emma van Straaten has an incredible gift with her writing. She creates phrases that made me stop and grab a piece of paper just so I could jot down her gorgeous, descriptive sentences and use them for future inspiration. Her observations and descriptions are pure poetry, even in the darkest moments of the novel.

As you will see from the blurb for this book, this is a novel of obsession, and just how far someone can be dragged along by it and just how much control they can lose. The pacing is excellent, and at no point did I see the story playing out the way it did.

Emma has created a masterful character with Alice. You will pity her, be disgusted by her, be scared of her but most incredibly of all you will care for her. You will find yourself willing her to make the sensible choice, to shake her by the shoulders and make her realise that she is worthy of everything she sees others having, and this is all in spite of the monstrous things she does. That's some clever writing.

I absolutely raced through this, and I am genuinely excited by what Emma van Straaten writes next. I could say so much more about this novel, but there is no chance that I'm going to risk spoiling anything for future readers - just buy it, and be mesmerised.

This Immaculate Body by Emma van Straaten

Alice is Tom's cleaner and although she's never met him she's obsessed with him and convinced they belong together. As time goes on her obsession becomes more and more dangerous.

Wow this was quite a journey of a book - it sucks you in and won't let go! Alice is a compelling character and the writing is fabulous. I loved how the author made you absolutely baffled and shocked by Alice's behaviour one minute, then smirking along with her thoughts about her office colleagues/house mates the next! Highly recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

I struggled to get into this. There were good observations about people but the protagonist was so unlikeable that I ended up not enjoying being in her head and the prose so overwritten that I just couldn't invest. DNFd at 26%.
This honest review is given with thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this book.

The kind of book that has you holding your breath and squirming - an excruciatingly excellent dive into the obsessive mind. Van Straaten’s playful bending of reality, truth and memory take this book to the next level and I cannot wait to read more from her. Unhinged in all the best ways.

Review: This Immaculate Body by Emma van Straaten

This debut novel is a dark, unsettling and lingers in the mind long after the final page. The story follows Alice, a part-time cleaner who becomes fixated on Tom, a man she has never met but whose private world she meticulously pieces together from his home, his emails and the intimate details of his life. What begins as an unnerving obsession spirals into a harrowing exploration of self-perception, loneliness and the blurred line between fantasy and reality.

Van Straaten’s writing is immersive, capturing Alice’s inner monologue in a style that mirrors her fractured thoughts. The novel is as disturbing as it is compelling and drawing the reader into Alice’s dysmorphic view of herself and her world. Though unsettling the book evokes deep pity for Alice and making her a character impossible to forget.

With its creeping tension especially in the second hald and great storytelling the book is a gripping debut. Highly recommend it for fans of psychological fiction :)

Some people will love this book, probably fans of Baby Reindeer.

Alice cleans Tom's flat. She's never met him, but she is in love with him, obsessed with him.

The writing style took some getting used to for me. The words referring to Tom as "Him", "His" and "He" are all capitalized and my eye kept thinking it was the beginning of a new sentence. Once I had trained myself to be able to recognise it I was ok reading on. It's a story told from the viewpoint of Alice and is basically her inner thoughts for much of the book.

I wasn't too keen on the story, but that is down to me rather than the writing. It's a cleverly written book and it did keep me reading until the end. a very dark book and little bit like car crash tv, I wasn't keen but had to know what would happen. The writing is very descriptive and did make me squirm a few times. There was a poignant moment that I loved and was so pleased for Alice. I was willing that she would mend her ways, but her mental health issues won out.

I'm giving this book 4 out of 5 stars because the writing deserves it.

I enjoyed this one for it's commentary about self-esteem and how one moment in your teenage years can set in motion an insecurity for life. I also liked the writing, especially the almost biblical way in which Alice spoke about Tom. however, this didn't entirely standout to me as another in a long line of 'unhinged women' books. this trope/genre is getting very oversaturated and I don't think this book did anything in particular to make it stand-out unfortunately. that being said, I would still recommend this if you're a sucker for all kinds of weird, dark and messy women. Alice is certainly a character!

I really wanted to love this because I was getting Mona Awad / Julia Armfield vibes from the plot. But there was something about it that just didn't work for me. I still ENJOYED it, but I wanted to be consumed by it.

This is a very good time to be publishing a book like this, what with TV series’ like ‘You’ and ‘Baby Reindeer’ being very firmly set in the current cultural zeitgeist. I can struggle to read obsession sometimes as it does feel like for some authors it can be an excuse to labour over some details that don’t necessarily serve the book, just to show how mentally disturbed a protagonist can be. Like I really enjoyed the tone of voice of the character but there were points where the talks about body image just felt like a big sign saying ‘hey let me remind you again that she has no self respect, that’s why she’s doing all this messed up stuff’. I enjoyed the book, I just think there were some bits where the author committed too much time to the things I liked the least about the book.

I found this book extremely difficult to get into. A weak storyline that rambled along. It was, for me, a slow read with overly verbose prose, and a struggle to get to grips with. No build up of why Alice was so obsessed, though that could be because I missed the origin of her mindset due to lack of interest in the character.

With apologies to the author, but not a book for me or one I would recommend.

1.5*

Thank you NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group.

This Immaculate Body was a story about a woman who becomes obsessed with the person she cleans for.

Alice is an unusual character, and I cant say that I warmed to her at all.

Alice has never actually met Tom but she is completely in love with him.

Author Emma van Straaten writes with intensity and very (very) descriptive. I can not say that I was hooked from page one, I did have to read a fair few pages before I started to enjoy it.

I feel that this novel is really dark, disturbingly so but a good read if you can get hooked.

Thanks to Netgalley, the author and publisher for allowing me an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

3.5 stars.

Let me tell you I absolutely lapped this up. Alice is wild, I’m obsessed with Emma’s writing and quite frankly, I AM NEVER HAVING A CLEANER.

The book immediately peeks your interest because we meet Alice. Alice is in love with a man, they’re in a relationship, Alice feeds back to her Mum how they are going on dates and how loving of a partner he is BUT she has also never met him real life, spoken to him, and he has no idea who she is (this isn’t a spoiler, we get told within the first few pages). SO YEAH, WILD. The unhinged vibes are plentiful in this one guys, there’s some mysterious about Alice and her past, why she struggles to have a relationship with her sister and Mum, and as the book progresses it’s quite clear she is struggling with her mental health.

I wanted so much for Alice, if only she could see what she had going for her, potential friends, a love interest, a job she could have thrived in and just when I thought wow okay she is starting to realise that she shouldn’t be in love/stalking this man she absolutely blew me away at the end of the book 😂 (I won’t say more - you can find out for yourself). I would love a sequel to see where Alice ends up 🤞🏼👏🏼

A huge thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this proof copy, my first five star read of 2025!