Creep

A Literary Fiction Novel by Emma van Straaten

Subgenres:

Psychological Fiction,
Obsessive Protagonist

Published 2025

Length 241 pages

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This book is for you if you're into...

Obsessive narrators who blur fantasy and reality
Darkly funny voices that make you squirm and root for them
Stories where loneliness twists into fixation on a stranger

From Little Stack

Alice knows Tom is made for her. He just doesn’t know it yet. She’s been cleaning his apartment for over a year, and the more familiar she becomes with his things, the more obsessed she becomes with the man. But when she is finally able to orchestrate their meeting, instead of falling into the kind of love that fixes everything, it shatters everything Alice ever thought she’d known. Disturbing and addictive, Creep will have you questioning everyone you’ve ever invited into your home.

As Featured in Captivating Novels on the Dark Side of Desire by Jena Brown

Publisher Description

From a blistering new voice in dark literary fiction, an unsettling portrait of loneliness, obsession, and identity which asks: if a stranger was left alone in your house, how well could they truly get to know you—enough to fall in love with you?

Alice and Tom are made for each other. Deeply connected, they share a flat in London, go to galleries together, enjoy the same books and wine. They even share a toothbrush. It's all picture perfect.

Except Alice and Tom have never met.

Alice has been cleaning Tom's apartment every Wednesday for a year. With every smudge wiped from his coffee cup, every multivitamin counted in the jar, Alice spirals deeper into infatuation, imagining a love so powerful it might erase a lifetime of self-hatred and loneliness.

But as Alice prepares for the moment when she and Tom will finally meet face-to-face, she discovers that love might not be the cure she thought it was. Instead, the line between fantasy and reality becomes ever more blurred, shattering everything Alice thought she knew.

Told in Alice's compelling, deliciously acidic voice, Creep is a literary study of unreliability and unlikability. Exploring alienation, class, and race, it's a skilled debut with resonance in the way that we view women, mental health, and the lost in society.