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.

This Immaculate Body is a hauntingly beautiful exploration of infatuation and the complexities of longing. The story immerses you in Alice’s obsession, capturing the delicate balance between fantasy and reality. The writing is striking, filled with vivid imagery that evokes the intensity of Alice’s feelings while also highlighting the stark loneliness that can accompany such desire. This book will leave you reflecting on the nature of love and the ways we perceive ourselves and others in its light. A truly mesmerizing read that lingers in the heart, This Immaculate Body invites you to explore the delicate intricacies of love, longing, and self-discovery.

I loved the tone & style of the writing, everything was very balanced & the pace was good too.
The storyline is wild but I found it unputdownable! I read along incredulously wondering what on earth could happen next - it even prompted discussion (& recommendation) with a friend!

Haunting and lyrical, This Immaculate Body is a tense tale of desire and obsession, but also a reflection of what it is to inhabit a female body in today's world.

<I><blockquote>Love is this: when it is your greatest desire to slice open His chest and crawl inside Him to rest. A compulsion to drink his blood, great copper gulps of it, to press yourself to Him, limb to limb, palm to palm, so that you might be absorbed.</I></blockquote>

Wow, this is an absolute tour de force of a novel! It starts off unhinged but - and this is the clever thing - I ended up feeling such extreme pity and sorrow for Alice trapped in a dysmorphic vision of her self, her body and her world.

Van Straaten's writing occasionally veers from intensity to something akin to overwriting but she pulls it back and the overall impression is of living with Alice in this through the looking glass world she has created. Only towards the end we're given some grounding via Cass, but meaning is left as suggestive rather than being pinned down definitively.

Obsessive, emotive, blackly funny in places but increasingly anxious and anxiety-inducing, I loved this!

This very unusual tale tells of Alice and her onsession with Tom.. She cleans for him and develops an unhealthy thought process that borders on insanity,

I loved this book. The author really helps the reader get inside Alices mind and at some point I wondered if it was me that was unhinged.. The writing is that good.

I am going to recommend this my library book club as I think that there will be many viewpoints about this book and about Alice.

Oh, so this was insane! I couldn’t stop reading, Alice’s unreliable narration had me screaming internally. Her thought process was so unbelievably unhinged and her obsession was Tom was so off putting. I desperately wanted to reach into this book and tell her to get a grip but simultaneously I was hooked by her actions and reasoning. I also found her insights into her mind, body and place in society unflinchingly honest. The writing was addictive and I simply couldn’t put it down, incredibly well written and planned.

What an interesting and dynamic read perfect for book clubs. I know this will be on everyone’s list as the must read book and I could definitely see it being made into a movie!