Instant New York Times Bestseller One of Fall 2019’s Best Books (People, EW, Lithub, Vox, Washington Post, and more) A young boy is haunted by a voice in his head in this acclaimed epic of literary horror from the author of The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Christopher is seven years old. Christopher is the new kid in town. Christopher has an imaginary friend. We can swallow our fear or let …
Christopher is seven years old.
Christopher is the new kid in town.
Christopher has an imaginary friend.
We can swallow our fear or let our fear swallow us.
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.
Twenty years ago, Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower made readers everywhere feel infinite. Now, Chbosky has returned with an epic work of literary horror, years in the making, whose grand scale and rich emotion redefine the genre. Read it with the lights on.
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A haunting and thrilling novel pulsing with the radical empathy that makes Chbosky’s work so special.
Imaginary Friend has been a long time coming. And like a fine Bordeaux, it rewards that wait in countless ways. This is a fearsome, remarkably ambitious novel that breaks through the boundaries of the horror genre to become epic — in all the best senses of the word.
If you aren’t blown away by the first fifty pages of Imaginary Friend, you need to get your sense of wonder checked.
Disturbingly-fantastic and shockingly-twisted! Demented and horrifying! Intense and riveting! Suspenseful and addictive! Dark and complex! A horror-laced, jaw-dropping, psychological thriller at its best! WOW!!!!!!!!!
Imaginary Friend begins as a complex story of a young dyslexic boy who goes missing. He reappears after almost a week with no memories of where he was or what happened to him, but he’s suddenly able to read without trouble, designs a tree house in a soon-to-be-demolished wood, and has a new friend only he can hear, a “nice man.” The “nice man” guided him from the woods when he was lost, and the child, Christopher, learns the “nice man” is hiding from a “hissing lady” and her army of deer, “mailbox people,” and another child, a previous abductee named David.
From there, Christopher gains god-like powers and must battle for the very souls of the residents of his town. Or maybe the world.
In some ways, Imaginary Friend reminds me of Stephen King’s The Stand, but with clearer definitions (mostly) of good vs. evil. Well, sort of. See, a large plot point is this whole deceit that must be queried out. There’s a lot of representation of a sort of Christian religion, and when everything in the town goes to hell (almost literally), there’s a lot of profanity. After all, the worst of humanity is dredged from the town folks’ souls. Also, the ending leaves a clear opportunity for a sequel, should Mr. Chbosky so desire.
There are some instances of lasting imagery, and as stated before, Stephen Chbosky writes beautifully. He seems to have an innate belief in the good in mankind, which is charming. Most of his characters are rounded and inspire compassion. If the reader didn’t care about the characters, there would be no way they’d finish the book. And certainly, it is quite a long book.
Just finished! Great book. Reminiscent of It and The Summer That Melted Everything. Really enjoyed this book, but it is super long. Starts out slow, but introduces you to characters. This book is totally different than Chbosky’s last novel. It’s indeed a horror/fantasy.
I needed a couple of days to process my thoughts for this book. I enjoyed reading and yet is a big book I didn’t feel overwhelmed by it. I did feel like the ending is rushed. I did like all the different characters and how they all come together. Also wow what a reading twist I didn’t see coming . I would recommend this book.
An unputdownable, extraordinary book. Stephen Chbosky manages to combine the heart and emotion that suffuses all of his work with Stephen King chills. The pages practically turn themselves.
Sure, this unputdownable book is the scariest thing I’ve read in a long time. Mysterious woods. Evil forces. Unseen worlds. But it’s also, like everything Chbosky does, imbued with heart and soul. You’ll fall in love with these characters. That’s why they stay with you, like a haunting.
This book hooked me from page 1. I did find it a little slow in the middle but I still enjoyed the book. Must have an imagination while reading this book. It may seem daunting being 700 pages but I found it worth the read. Enjoy 🙂
Kate Reese and her son Christopher, flees an abusive relationship in the middle of the night and end up in the small community of Mill Grove, Pennsylvania – just one highway in, one highway out.
Everything seems to be going well until Christopher disappears for six days. When Christopher was found, he seems to be a different person – one who doesn’t struggle with reading or learning, helping her mother win the lottery, and a voice that is telling him to build a treehouse in the woods by Christmas, or something terrible may happen to everyone.
I absolutely adored this book! Though it is 700+ pages, the book read very quickly. It had a lot of elements of the supernatural and it is quite scary in some parts. Horror is not my genre but I simply adored this book. Maybe it’s because I loved Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower from 20 years ago and seeing that he is back with this book really piqued my interest.
I am so glad I read this amazing book. I loved every page of this masterpiece.
I learned a long time ago that reality was much weirder than anyone’s imagination. – Hunter S. Thompson
When I got this book as an Advanced Reading Copy I did not notice beforehand that it was over 700 pages long. I’m glad I didn’t notice because I probably wouldn’t have started reading it. And I’m very glad that I read this book.
Most of the book reminded me of a Stephen King horror novel – and that’s a good thing in my opinion.
The book starts out with single mom Kate Reese fleeing an abusive boyfriend with her young son Christopher. They end up in a small town in Pennsylvania.
Kate and Christopher live in a motel while Kate tries to get back on her feet. Then Christopher disappears in the nearby woods for six days – and he comes back changed.
The author did a great job with giving us characters to care about. There are many characters and many interlinking stories. The book WAS long but it kept me engrossed all the way through.
This is a story about good and evil and I know (after reading the book) that some readers had issues about how good and evil were portrayed. I actually raised an eyebrow a few times during the story. But I still think this is one of the best horror books I’ve read. Dive into it remembering it’s fiction and you shouldn’t have a problem with it.
Highly recommended.
I received this book from Grand Central Publishing through Net Galley in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review.
Terrific book! One of the best this year.
Imaginary Friend is a sprawling epic horror novel that hearkens back to the classics of the 1970s Golden Age, but, like Stranger Things, with a twinkle in its malevolent eye. Enormous, scary fun.
Little boys and their treehouses. Have you ever wondered what goes on up there? Now is your chance to find out.
Little Christopher has convinced 3 of his friends to join him in building a treehouse and this leads to a very creepy scary sometimes gory journey to hell and back.
I absolutely loved the way the author writes and this is not a book you “stroll” through or even “walk” it’s a very fast paced running from terror journey. I flew through so quickly because I couldn’t wait to see what horrors would come next.
Thank you to @grandcentralpub for this early copy. Publishing date 10/01/19
Stephen Chbosky’s second novel (coming October 2019) is the real thing. As I began reading this book I felt that thrill you get when you realize you’ve just discovered something brilliant. In fact, I felt a lot like I did the first time I picked up a Stephen King novel. It’s a big ambitious novel about a boy, a small town, and the supernatural terrors lurking all around him. It puts me in delicious mind of books like Summer of Night, Boy’s Life, and Something Wicked this Way Comes.
3.5 Stars. A young boy who and his mother move to a new town to get away from her abusive boyfriend. The Young boy starts talking to a plastic bag with a smiley face on it. Says it’s his friend. A nice man. From there, the story goes in every direction from a flu epidemic to crazed deer invading the town to Hell itself. For me, the novel went back and forth from the grotesquely bizarre and intriguing to the downright absurd. Chbosky tied everything together nicely in the end, but the 700 pages could have been cut down by 100 or more and readers wouldn’t feel a difference. Where this story really succeeds is Chbosky’s commitment to empathy. There are no hollow, one dimensional horror story archetypes. Every character in this story, even the villains, are loved by the author. The empathy he has for the characters makes this gruesome tale much more than a monster-of-the-week kind of story. I admit, I have never liked horror movies, especially ones with overindulgent gore. As a young teen, I enjoyed Stephen King’s novels. They got me into reading adult literature. This book felt just like a classic King novel, one I was glad to read and glad to be done with.
Imaginary Friend’ is the most suspenseful, intriguing, mesmerizing horror story I have ever read! The author, Stephen Chbosky, grabbed my attention from the get go & held it throughout by slowly & subtly alluding to the basis of the entire book … good vs evil!!
Each & every character in this tale is given ample depth/insight & unusual backgrounds that need to be explained in order for the finale to be as poignant as it is.
The novel is very lengthy, but upon finishing it…not even one section could be edited out!!
No spoilers here, but the real identity of the main female protagonist/antagonist is brilliant!
Sacrifice of any kind often comes at a cost, but who amongst us would not do battle with any adversary in order to keep those we care about free?!!
Good vs Evil … can you be sure that you can identify which is which? That’s where true feelings of terror can rear it’s horrifying head.
This book is a masterpiece and should be treasured! It is so beautiful and deserves all the recognition in the world! I don’t know how Stephen Chbosky does it, but he needs to never stop! He has a great voice that everyone needs to hear! I cannot tell you how much this book means to me, so just read it and you’ll get it!
Where to even begin. I liked it enough to have to finish it, but that’s about it. I had high hopes. It was long, and got boring at times, which I wanted to blame on a funk. I can’t though, I just can’t. This read so much like a King book it was unreal, I swore a few times I was reading IT all over again.
This could have been EPIC if done better. Cut out 300 of the 700 pages, remove all the repetition and needless crud. More action closer together would have held my attention better. I have come to learn that longer is very rarely better.