Imaginary Friend - book cover
  • Publisher : Grand Central Publishing; Large type / Large print edition
  • Published : 01 Oct 2019
  • Pages : 1200
  • ISBN-10 : 1538733854
  • ISBN-13 : 9781538733851
  • Language : English

Imaginary Friend

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 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.

Readers Top Reviews

Katrine FolleyGav
I have never written a book review before but felt compelled to warn other potential readers to think carefully before spending a very long amount of time reading this. It is mostly graphic horror, most of which is repeated and repeated. I have rarely abandoned a book but had to stop at around 80% as couldn't take anymore. I enjoyed the first quarter of the book before it descended into non-stop gore; the theme of an imaginery world in parallel to reality was intiguing initially. I kept on reading for as long as I could as I imagined there might be a great ending / plot twist that could redeem it but am unable to read to the end. Unfortunately the story line and character development was just not there for me - and certainly not enough literary skill for me to see past the endless descriptions of streets running with blood and hordes of threatening deer.

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