Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky

Imaginary Friend

by Stephen Chbosky
Published: Grand Central Publishing, 2019
Pages: 720
Genre: Horror
Amazon, Goodreads

We can swallow our fear or let our fear swallow us.

About the book

Single mother Kate Reese is on the run. Determined to improve life for her and her son, Christopher, she flees an abusive relationship in the middle of the night with her child. Together, they find themselves drawn to the tight-knit community of Mill Grove, Pennsylvania. It's as far off the beaten track as they can get. Just one highway in, one highway out.

At first, it seems like the perfect place to finally settle down. Then Christopher vanishes. for six long days, no one can find him. Until Christopher emerges from the woods at the edge of town, unharmed but not unchanged. He returns with a voice in his head only he can hear, with a mission only he can complete: Build a treehouse in the woods by Christmas, or his mother and everyone in the town will never be the same again.

Review

It’s been a long time since I’ve been so frustrated with a book. This is a GOOD book that left me breathless in certain parts but ultimately failed by being too long.

Don’t get me wrong. I like a long novel that as long as it has an interesting plot and great character dynamics and writing. Unfortunately, at least in my opinion, Imaginary Friends doesn’t quite make the cut.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is one of my favorite books of all time, so I nearly peed myself when I saw that Stephen Chbosky published another novel. 

So let’s start with the basics: the plot involves a young boy whose mother is running from a bad boyfriend. They settle in a small town in Pennsylvania. All seems well until Christopher goes missing for six days in the mysterious woods; he comes back home but with an imaginary friend no one else can hear. This plot is very similar to many of Stephen King’s plots, such as The Shining or Firestarter — a young child with unusual powers that ends up facing trouble and gets help from some older, wiser adult.

The thing is, though, this book is not bad! It’s well-written with strong character development and a thrilling storyline. It seems like I’ve already read this book while I was in the middle of reading it.

The book also drags on a bit, especially at the end. There were definitely some scenes that could have been cut that weren’t necessary. At the end, I was frustrated that I put quite a bit of time into reading a 700+ book that was overall very good but didn’t need to be so long.

RATING (out of five puppies)