Creep by Jennifer Hillier

Creep by Jennifer Hillier

It's About:  Professor student relationship… I mean really.  Can there be a happy ending?  Apparently not.  Professor Sheila Tao is a popular professor at PSSU.  From the outside, she appears to have it all together.  She’s successful, intelligent and recently engaged to Morris.  But there is one small problem:  she’s secretly sleeping with her teaching assistant, Ethan.

It wasn’t supposed to happen.  She was mourning the loss of her father and Ethan had been relentlessly flirting with her.  In a moment of weakness and poor judgment she gave in to him.  But, it lasted far too long.  Three months exactly.  Sheila knew it was wrong, but couldn’t help it.  Consumed with guilt, she decides to end the relationship when she gets engaged to Morris.  Sweet, good Morris.  He has no clue about Ethan and she doesn’t want to continue hurting him.

Walking away from Ethan isn’t going to be easy.  When she tells him, it’s over, his true colors begin to show.  And he is scary!

Why I picked it off the shelf:  I was in the mood for a book that would be hard to put down.

Thoughts:  What can I say about Creep?  It is a edge-of-your-seat psychological thriller.  It makes you think how well do you really know someone?  Appearances can definitely be deceiving.   Sheila is a flawed, broken character, one the reader wants to see have a happy ending.  The demons she's fighting are intense and it's uncertain if she'll win the battle.


Ethan is a sick, twisted, perverted antagonist whom, at first sight, appears to be charming, gorgeous and smart.  He wants Sheila and becomes obsessed with her when she ends their affair.  Hillier did a fantastic job allowing the reader to get inside his mind.  


What I loved most about Creep was it read like a movie.  I vividly pictured each scene in my mind and found myself reading faster to see what would happen next.  When I put the book down, I couldn't stop thinking about it and wanted to pick it up once more just so I read one more chapter.  As I got closer and closer to the last pages, I couldn't figure out how it would end.  One significant sentence (a clue regarding one of the characters) stayed with me and I wondered how the author would tie it in with the ending.  That sentence and the twist paved the way to a gripping conclusion.  I cannot wait to get my hands on Hillier's follow-up thriller Freak, to be released this summer.

Recommended to readers if:

• you are looking for a psychological thriller
• you want a book that will keep you reading through the night
• you enjoy reading about flawed characters moving beyond their past

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Book Details:
ISBN: 9781451625844 ◆ July 5, 2011◆ 368pgs ◆ Gallery Books ◆ Mystery/Thriller
Print copy borrowed from library