Creep by Jennifer Hillier

Sheila Tao would appear to have it all. In fact, she’s recently engaged and planning a wedding to a man she loves very deeply. 

But Sheila has secrets. First and foremost is her sex addiction, which she’s been working on for three years. Second is the affair she’s been having with one of her teaching assistants. 

She knows it’s time to come clean to her fiancé. But she’s afraid it’ll mean losing him. She’s certain, though, that it’s time for her affair to end. Unfortunately, her lover doesn’t agree!

The good folks over at Simon & Schuster just recently rereleased Jennifer Hillier’s debut, Creep, and I figured what better time to read it :)

I have to admit that while I’ve been familiar with Hillier’s name for a while, I only just started reading her during The Covid Times with her latest, Little Secrets. But of course I knew I had to read more once I’d finished that one!

Creep is a pretty dark read. And, I should mention, the first in a duology (followed by Freak). 

When we meet Sheila, she’s about to end her affair with her TA Ethan Wolfe. It’s an affair that we learn began in the wake of hearing of her father’s death. Obviously, given that we learn that Sheila is a regular attendee of Sex Addicts Anonymous and in therapy as well, the death of her father was a bit of a breaking point for her. She’d been doing well until then, and had even become involved seriously with her now fiancé. But...

Sadly though Sheila is a well respected psychology professor, she missed some key clues as to Ethan’s personality. 

Ethan is not willing to let Sheila go. And he makes that abundantly clear!

Sheila is a hard character to actually like. Which is not to say that I didn’t empathize with her. Reading her story, though, is like watching a horror movie: you’re yelling at her the whole time not to do the thing she’s about to do!

She does feel very real as a character, as well. Her issues make her vulnerable to Ethan and his ilk. They also lead to a very real problem in her relationship. And this is a big part of her story. Even if she hadn’t been cheating, even if she hadn’t crossed paths with a sociopath, even if she hadn’t strayed off the path of recovery that she’d been working so hard to uphold, she still knowingly keeps key information from her fiancé. And that was always going to be a problem for her. 

Of course her relationship issues with her fiancé are just a small part of the plot :)

I really enjoyed the twist ending in Creep! Of course, reading it now as opposed to when it originally released, I was well aware that there was a sequel and the whole time I was reading I was wondering how the story would continue. I can’t say that I didn’t have my suspicions, but I was still very pleased with how the story played out!

If you haven’t read Hillier yet, now is the perfect time to start! The rerelease of Creep is out now—I’d also recommend scooping up a copy of Freak alongside it because you’re definitely going to want to dive straight in!

Order a copy from your favorite indie via Bookshop!