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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Simply too long.
This book depicts a long and bitter tale of a boy and his community fighting evil forces. Through a series of bizarre twists and turns, two boys who are fifty years apart find themselves involved in an ongoing battle with the devil himself. The author uses this fantastical saga to discuss may haunting adult themes such as poverty, abuse, and the struggle to overcome childhood circumstances. This is not a relaxing book. The characters are constantly sick, fighting, exhausted, and close to death, but they still engage in introspection and are often able to gain some insights into their lives.
This was a tough book to get through. It was way too long and I found myself skimming the last 100 pages. I had trouble following the plot. Maybe because I found myself losing interest about page 500 and just wanted to slog through and finish. I cannot recommend this book. Tighten up the story and it could be much better.
I really enjoyed this book! This is a big book and somewhat intimidating due to its length. It is a big story though and I felt like all of those pages really were necessary. I have not read this author’s previous novel but as soon as I saw this book, I knew that I needed to get my hands on a copy. My instincts were right and this book ended up being a wonderful experience.
Christopher and his mother, Kate, begin this journey in the middle of the night fleeing Kate’s abusive boyfriend. They end up in a small town in Pennsylvania where Kate starts a job at the nursing home and Christopher starts making friends at school. They live in a hotel room and Christopher appreciates all of the small things his mother does for him. Then Christopher goes missing for an entire week and everything changes.
This is Christopher’s story but it is also the story of all of the town’s residents. We get to learn the backgrounds, the secrets, and motivations for all of the key players in town. Each piece of knowledge adds to the overall story and I loved it when a piece of the puzzle snapped into place. I thought that the story was really imaginative and there were some pretty amazing twists that I never saw coming. The cast of characters was quite large and very well done.
Christine Lakin did a fabulous job with the narration. She handled a very large cast of characters incredibly well with each character sounding unique. I thought that she added a lot of excitement into the story as well as the character’s emotions. She has a very pleasant voice that was easy to listen to for hours at a time. This was my first experience in listening to her narration work and I was very impressed.
I would recommend this book to others. I thought this was a very well done story that was entertaining from beginning to end. I am thinking it might finally be time to give The Perks of Being a Wallflower at try.
I received a review copy of this book from Grand Central Publishing and I borrowed a copy of the audiobook from my local library.
Amazing
After reading parts 1-3 and realizing I had barely made a dent in the book, I checked out some reviews. I had just finished a book that was a total waste of time so I skipped to the epilogue and decided that was enough Imaginary Friend for me.
Could not finish this poorly written novel that is filled with supernatural happenings that are neither developed nor explained. I am sorry I wasted my time reading 250 pages before sitting it aside and saying ” enough of this garbage” …
As a reader my biggest pet peeve is when a book is labeled as one thing to ‘trick’ people into picking it up and it turns out to be a completely different genre. That is what this laughably labeled “literary horror” book was. There was nothing of literary quality in this book. It doesn’t push boundaries, or play with any deeper themes than normal fiction. And while it was paranormal suspense, it was also very much christian fiction.
You may wonder why I didn’t DNF the book, well I held up hope for a while that it wasn’t playing out like I feared it might be, and the I just needed a full picture so i could write a full review. Also, mama didn’t raise a quitter!
It was as if the author picked up on kids defeating ‘evil’ from IT and thought, what i drop the spider and turtle to just the devil and god? 😐 you don’t say. Please write a giant book about that idea.
He clearly didn’t realize that IT had themes and deeper meanings at play making it a story of literary merit. This book also seems to steal a lot from Stranger Things. I’ve only seen season one, but too many things are creepily similar. (OR maybe he did realize it. Whatever.)
I would also say that the author hasn’t been around actual 7 year olds (these boys acted like 12+) and may be holding a lot of Catholic guilt or dislikes Catholics in general? Take your own advice, “You’re free now.”
Had this book been genre’d properly I would have never picked it up. This guilt trip of malarkey could have had some sort of potential had the author not chosen to focus on why everyone is sinning and the over done idea of god vs. devil, a black and white good vs evil. IT’S 2020 WE ARE ONTO DEEPER IDEAS!
There is no deeper meaning or theme here. It is at face value a giant stereotype. From the stereotypical “all Catholics are hiding dark secrets” characters to the stereotypical town roles. Like men beating, hating, ignoring their wives, to a school teacher drunk every day at school. The sheriff that is haunted by that one case, to the wealthy snobby family that runs the town.
Had he written a story without all of that judgmental malarkey, and just kept this paranormal suspense idea it would have been a decent horror book.
While grammatically and sentence structure wise it is well written, the story has many point that are just unbelievable and eye roll worthy. It also repeats twists, and asks the reader to suspend their believe beyond the level that is acceptable.
Spoiler Alert (view spoiler) We’re all very surprised at this.
I know this book has an audience, I am so confused as to why the authors publishing company is choosing to purposely bait and switch it to the wrong readers. To hit charts maybe? I don’t know but I won’t read another book from this author, and I will also question books from this publisher before picking them up. (yes, I too picked it up because I love horror & read his previous wallflower book)
Other possible spoilery things that really were just wrong –
– Everyone calling/thinking of Ed by the name the BULLY gave him. wtf?! Totally makes sense.
– The senior in high school that can’t come to terms with the fact that you can’t get pregnant by a blow job, or someone touching your book. Honestly all those ‘sexual thoughts are a sin’ scenes were so laughable & cringe worthy.
2 days later, i’m sure glad the nightmare is over. He was so right. This book was a dream gone sick.
This book was a bit long but was a total page turner. I loved it, there was great characters and tons of twists and turns. I would recommend it for sure!
This book accomplished what few manage to do. It caused me physical anxiety while I read it & genuinely shocked me with a plot twist I did not see coming.
Absolutely phenomenal! Truly realistic characters with inspiring emotion, wit, insight and soul. Every time you think this book is going to end, you turn the page again and again. There were so many more layers to this book than I was expecting. With fast-paced writing and an action packed story this novel is a must-read for horror fans. Very similar to Steven King’s writing style. I had a lot of fun reading this book.
What a ride. To share anything would be to share too much and take away the enjoyment of experiencing this book for the first time. Great world building and haunting storyline. I could not put it down! Left me thinking long after I read the last sentence.
OMG, THIS IS THE BOOK OF THE YEAR!!! I could not put it down. LOVED every single page
I loved everything about this book. I read at least 200 books a year, and this is, by far, the best book I have read in years! I’m serious. The characters are so well defined and believable that I can see them. I tried to make this story last as long as I could but it only took me about 3 days to read 715 pages. I didn’t want it to end! I hate it when I figure out the plot half way through the story but I just kept getting hit with one surprise after another. It was amazing! I am not going to give away any of the secrets to this wonderful thriller, which did keep me on the edge of my seat, by the way, but it also brought me to tears. I loved it. And by the way, the main character whose name is Christopher, is just WOW! That’s all I can say. Stephen Chbosky thank you for writing the best book I’ve ever read in at least 10 years!
Fans of 2009’s Perks of Being a Wallflower (the book and popular movie based on it) by Stephen Chbosky might be surprised by his recent foray into a completely different genre—adult horror. Chbosky has been busy in recent years as a screenwriter, but it has been 10 years since the release of that debut YA novel. It was worth the wait: Chbosky has given readers a marvelous tome of a book with Imaginary Friend. Reminiscent of the best early works of Stephen King, Imaginary Friend brings back that experience of feverishly whipping through thick and well-worn copies with a combined sense of terror and delight. The homage to King is obvious, but Chbosky skillfully alludes to his predecessor while bringing a unique perspective and style of his own—one that may even surpass his model. As the novel opens, Christopher Reese and his mother are moving to Mill Grove as they try to find some reprieve from the string of bad circumstances that followed his father’s death. The small town appears ideal as a place to hide and begin anew, but of course, it also happens to have a dark history of suspicious and supernatural child disappearances. Imaginary Friend features the prototypical young boy with special powers that emerge and harness his strong moral core and innate goodness. He is tasked with leading a misfit group of friends in a seemingly hopeless quest to save the world from imminent takeover by an evil force. Christopher humbly bears responsibility for saving the world and protecting his loved ones, even if it means that he must sacrifice himself. Chilling and exciting from beginning to end, Chbosky uses this familiar setup to build a story that excels at not only bringing thrills, but also manages to be inspirational and uplifting as well. The 700+ pages fly by, leaving a breathless reader satisfied but wishing for more. Great for fans of sprawling stories with a large cast of excellently developed characters and anyone who yearns for a book truly worthy of their time.
Well written. Horror story, revolving around a child!
This was most certainly not what I was expecting from Stephen Chbosky’s next novel. Where Imaginary Friend doesn’t hold a candle to The Perks of Being a Wallflower a thoroughly enjoyed this story of nightmares and the value of family. However, I may be slightly biased as The Perks of Being a Wallflower is my favourite standalone novel of all time.
The religious themes where laid on kind of thick, but it didn’t do so in a manner where it was shoved down your throat that this is what it is and you must believe it. I did not feel at all like Stephen wrote this book in an attempt to convert anyone, which can often be the case with books of a religious nature.
I’m proud to say I guessed the twist before it happened, but I’m unsure to say whether that’s a good thing or not. A twist is, well, a twist, and is supposed to take you off guard. I immediately found myself wondering the answer as soon as the first clue was laid. Regardless of whether it was a good twist or not, I felt incredibly excited and happy with myself when it came to be that I was right.
The length was a tad excessive, but I couldn’t imagine cutting any of the story out to make it shorter. All it meant was that it took me a bit longer to read it than usual.
I still really enjoyed Imaginary Friend and will continue to pick up works by Stephen Chbosky (if there will be any more) in the future.
This book was so what the fuck-y that I finished it several hours ago and I still don’t know what the hell to do with myself. I fell into the advanced reader hype. It was so infectious that I couldn’t help it. Every time I opened bookstagram and someone posted about it I knew that I had to read it. And none of they bookstagrammers gave away spoilers or much of anything about the book it was mostly lots of AAAAAAHHHH!! So yea.. I knew i had to have it.
Okay now on to the book review…….I don’t know what to tell any of you. If this book had mind, it would be out of it. I’m not sure that I’ve ever read anything like this. It wasn’t what I thought it would be and when I thought I had the right thoughts, they turned out to be wrong. At least twice.
The book is a little over 700 pages so she is a pretty big baby. The size isn’t a deterrent for me. And it’s not necessarily a fast paced book, so consider yourself forewarned. It’s most definitely a slow fall type of situation but once it picks up speed toward the last 150ish?? pages your head will be spinning.
This is not a feel good book. Not at the beginning or the middle and definitely not at the end. So if you’re not ready for heavy moments, stay away.
I took away a star for two reasons. The ages of the main set of kids seemed off. I feel like they should have been a bit older than 7ish. The other reason is because I was hoping to be scared…and I wasn’t. It was a different type of mind fuck for me. And no it’s not hard to spook me LoL. Other than that, this book is definitely going to stay with me for a good long while. And I don’t know how to feel about that.
Interesting premise, but needs editing. Way too long. I didn’t care for the allusions to religion.
I was really into the book at first (it was sitting at a 4 star rating at that point). By mid-book, I was starting to grow tired of it and all the endless mindless babble. At 80%, I was completely irritated with where the book was headed, but felt I needed to finish because I had already invested in most of this so called Horror book.
Let’s face it, the book was about 350 pages too long. I am also NOT intrested in books with religious undertones, especially when the book is being sold under Horror pretence. Save time and skip this book. If you’re looking for a horror book, stick with Steven King.