Thank you to Fleet publishers and NetGalley for a digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I was really taken by this story from the very first page, it is written with a fast moving pace which reflects the thoughts and actions of the main character, Alice. It describes so well her tormented mind, her self destructive nature and her deep desire to be loved and held. It kept reminding me of the purportedly true TV series Baby Reindeer, I imagine these are the sort of thoughts the female stalker in that had. I was fascinated by this deep insight into Alice’s mind and world, though also saddened that this is probably a very real representation of some people with deeply disturbed mental health problems.
Throughout most of the book I thought I’d be giving a 5* review, but it felt unfinished, a disappointing’end’. Maybe there’s going to be a sequel, I would read it, would like to hear more about Alice.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book.

I am not quite sure what to say about this book. The beginning is strong stuff and I felt quite ill when I read about all the things poor Alice did to feel closer to Tom - eating stray eyelashes, for example, and licking things. Ugh! I almost stopped reading.

The book is well written and it describes in excruciating detail the thoughts and actions of an obsessive and lonely young woman. Alice is not just mildly obsessed with Tom, it seems to me that she is mentally ill and I suppose it is testament to the quality of the writing that I really felt as if I was intruding into the life of a vulnerable adult.

It is a very uncomfortable read and I do wonder what is the point of it. Alice is a disturbed young woman, very much in need of help, and I question in what way is the reader entertained or improved by reading about this sad situation? it is not an enjoyable read and neither do we learn anything useful. At times I felt like I was reading case notes.

As far as the actual plot is concerned, I don't feel that we found out enough about what had happened to Alice regarding her father, the parental break up and the incident at university.

A very uncomfortable read.

What a disturbing book, I loved it. I was recently considering getting a cleaner for my house, but this book has changed my mind. A gripping look at obsession from a deeply unreliable narrator, this book is delightfully dark. As her worldview gets more and more unhinged, the plot gets harder and harder to follow until I was rereading sections just to understand what was actually happening. I really enjoyed this read.

An entertaining novel that was easy to read and enjoyable. However, some of felt like it didn't really add up and then when finally getting the answers they were somewhat disappointing.

Beautifully written, this novel about obsessive love and self-loathing drew me in from the first page. While deeply sad and disturbing at times, I found it compulsively readable, wondering what was going to happen next. Unputdownable.

I've read a lot of books about obsession and they're always hit and miss. I find Megan Abbott's stories about obsessive female relationships compelling while those by Robin Wasserman and Tara Isabella Burton feel forced. Recently, Tony Tulathimutte's Rejection kept me glued to the pages with a mix of pity and revulsion while This Immaculate Body just didn't work for me. I'm going to try to explain why.

The writing put me off almost immediately. I noticed another reviewer say it was overwritten, but I'd argue you could say the same about Tulathimutte's work. No, it's not just overwritten. It is written in a way that suggests to me the author was trying to be deliberately edgy. Graphic descriptions of menstrual blood and clots that try and fail to add gravity and edge to something as simple as using the bathroom. In fact, lots of weird thoughts about blood in general.

The story is about a woman called Alice who is a cleaner for a guy called Tom and she develops an obsession with him, though they have never actually met. As a cleaner, Alice is able to get acquainted with the intimate details of Tom's life from the contents of his drawers and his fridge. Conveniently, of course, unlike absolutely no one except your ninety-year-old grandpa, Tom regularly leaves his computer unlocked and without password protection so Alice can read his emails.

In Tulathimutte's Rejection, I could understand the characters' actions, even as I was repulsed by them. In This Immaculate Body I felt a disconnection, like I did not understand Alice's thoughts or actions at all.

Maybe it is because we are plunged straight into Alice's unhinged behaviour without any character development, explanation or background, but, unlike other readers, I couldn't muster any sympathy for Alice. If you want me to sympathise with someone who behaves in this way, I’m going to need more of a build-up of empathy for them. As it was, I struggled to feel sorry for Alice, which I think was crucial to liking the book.

And, unfortunately, by the time the book started to humanise Alice and offer up suggestions for why she was the way she was, it was already too little, too late for me.

I could imagine fans of heavily-written character studies like Cline's The Girls enjoying this.

This thriller will ensnare you in a tight grip until the satisfying conclusion. There were more twists and turns in this book than a roller coaster ride! Wow!... I was sitting there in complete surprise with a wide-open mouth! If you like a good thriller with lots of twists, you need look no further!

I was surprised at how quickly I responded to the narrative voice in this visceral, harrowing story, especially because Alice is not likeable. The skill of the author is how she makes you care; without pulling any punches, she reveals the soul hidden behind the broken shell.

Complex, riveting, lush, shocking, evocative. I read this in a day and can’t recommend it more enthusiastically.

Books about obsession are normally right up my alley, and overall I did enjoy this one, but it didn't keep me totally enthralled the way I was expecting. A little too overwritten at times, for me.

I liked this novel, though I didn't love it. It's a compelling portrait of a woman's obsession with the man's whose flat she cleans and her increasinly unhinged actions. She is a fantastically unlikable character, which isn't a bad thing, though in this case it ultimately put me off.

I found this really disturbing, upsetting even, this tale of obsession and fantasy and being at odds with the world. A dark but addictive tale although there was some light peeping through.

This is my first Emma Van Straaten book and what a brilliant one it was!

It’s written so beautifully yet almost sporadically like Alice’s mind. I was captivated and couldn’t stop reading.

Alice’s mental state is clearly very unhinged and she’s a very unwell individual who hasn’t recovered from an event she classes as the end of her life (during school). She holds onto grudges and simply cannot move on from past.

Somehow, Emma made me feel sorry for Alice by the end of the book. She was so desperate to be loved the way she wanted and felt she deserved. However, she was absolutely terrifying in the ways she managed to worm her way into Tom’s life. It was frightening to read her thought process and beliefs towards him. Emma is able to brilliantly write about an unwell mind whilst maintaining a storyline. I truly
Believe her writing style in this book is done in a way to match Alice’s thought process.

Psychologically thrilling yet unnaturally unnerving; I couldn’t put it down.

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.

"This Immaculate Body" really got me, thanks to the first-person narrative, as a portrait of someone whose unaddressed mental health struggles progressed to full-blown delusions that led to actions of serious consequences to others. Emma van Straaten very skilfully presented defence mechanisms that occur in such cases as Alice's, with the sentence alongside the line "this is how a memory is formed" at the end of falsified chain of events that helped the protagonist feel less guilty about the consequences of her actions that involved a vulnerable person.

It was a deeply uncomfortable read, in the best way possible.

An obsessive and dark tale this will take hold and refuse to let go. With a biting prose and intriguing characters it is an absolute must read.

The opening page alone will grab you and drag you in, and if you're anything like me, you will race through this book.
I felt uncomfortable for the majority of it, wincing at certain moments, almost gasping at others.
However, I felt sorry for Alice and this sad life she is living.
It made her a little bit more easy to understand amongst all the craziness.
I believe this is the authors first book, and I can't wait to see what she offers up next.

This is an accomplished literary debut that hits the rare blend of being utterly compelling as well as deeply lyrical and poetic. The prose is beautiful. There are long, towering sentences that left me breathless. Such astute observations about gender, race and society as well as covering mental illness, eating issues and body shame
I loved this. I kept rereading sections to take it in more.

In This Immaculate Body (UK release Feb 2025) we meet Alice who cleans Tom’s flat, once a week. She arrives after he goes to work and leaves before comes back. She’s been doing this for about a year and has examined every detail of his life from his bookshelves to his bathroom bin, and she feels that she knows him intimately.

Their love is intense - it’s just that he doesn’t know about it yet.

As we come to understand Alice the depths of her disturbed and damaged nature are revealed. There’s been at least one shadowy event in her past life which changed the future course of it. She has distanced herself emotionally from her family and finds social interactions exhausting and hard to decode. Constantly comparing herself to Cass, her estranged, older, sister, Alice is wracked with loneliness and tortured by self-directed body-shame which she “medicates” with binge-eating and self-harm. She feels superior to everyone, and yet completely unworthy of their interest.

Her desperation for connection has brought her to this all-consuming devotion to Tom, a longed-for liaison which she has been using these past months as a salve for her pain.

Believing that it’s time Tom reciprocated her great love, Alice starts to plan their first meeting.

This is such an assured debut novel. Alice’s voice is lyrically dissonant, desolate, and withering.

“Sasha, round-cheeked, with teeth that go off in different directions like fireworks…”

“Love is this: when it is your greatest desire to slice open His chest and crawl inside Him to rest.”

As she builds her fantasies wisps of malevolence appear. She has flashes of self-awareness, but hastily quashes these with make-believe, reframing the situation to her advantage, illogically transforming each new transgression into an achievement.

Alice is a completely convincing traumatised creation, begging to be saved, and spurning every offered hand like a wounded creature in a trap. She pushes our sympathy to the limits, though we ache for her to find some measure of peace.

Dark and compelling.

This Immaculate Body by Emma van Straaten captures the protagonist's self-loathing of her flaws in a raw and honest way and the feeling of not fitting in.

I could not put this book down! It was insane, in the best way. Alice was so unhinged and creepy but you also felt for her, I think that's something that's really hard to write. I was physically cringing at some of the things Alice was doing yet I couldn't look away - the writing was so addictive! Highly, highly recommend this book.