Imaginary Friend Is Infinitely Readable Horror from the Author of The Perks of Being a Wallflower
‘Tis the season to be spooky, and kicking it off is a horror-filled mystery from an unlikely source: twenty years after publishing The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky has returned with a second novel that couldn’t be more at-first-blush different. A big fat thriller in the classic Stephen King mold, Imaginary Friend is less about coming-of-age and more about staying alive.
Imaginary Friend (Signed Book)
Hardcover $30.00
Imaginary Friend (Signed Book)
Hardcover $30.00
Which isn’t to say the two novels exist at a complete remove from one another. While Imaginary Friend may be a darker and—at 720 pages—much chunkier read than Chobsky’s YA contemporary classic, it shares a similarly emotional core, this time centered not on teen friendships but the bond between mother and son.
Which isn’t to say the two novels exist at a complete remove from one another. While Imaginary Friend may be a darker and—at 720 pages—much chunkier read than Chobsky’s YA contemporary classic, it shares a similarly emotional core, this time centered not on teen friendships but the bond between mother and son.
Seven-year-old Christopher has just moved to Mill Grove, Pennsylvania, with his mother, who has fled an abusive relationship. At the novel’s outset, mom Kate thinks their biggest problems stem from the past that haunts them and the stack of bills that only grows. But then Christopher disappears in the Mission Street Woods for six days. When he returns, he remembers nothing of what happened to him, only that “the nice man” helped him get home.
While no one believes in the existence of “the nice man,” they count their lucky stars that the boy seems unharmed. In fact, he’s performing better in school than ever before. And his new-kid social circle expands to a tight-knit group of boys: Special Ed and the M&M’s, brothers Matt and Mike.
Christopher, though, simply isn’t able to drop back into his everyday life. He returned from the woods with a mission, urged on by a voice in his head, and a deadline: he must build a treehouse, and it must be finished by Christmas—or else something terrible will happen to him, to his mother, to the town, and to the world.
Why? Not even Christopher is totally sure.
As Christopher and his friends labor on the treehouse, we’re introduced in teasing fits and starts to the “imaginary” world Christopher traversed during his disappearance, a shadowy place dominated by the “hissing lady,” whose shadowy agenda is a lurking threat both he and “the nice man” must thwart.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Paperback
$6.00
$14.99
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Paperback
$6.00
$14.99
The lines between the imaginary and the real begin to blur, with Christopher and Kate at the center of the chaos. Dark thoughts plague Mill Grove residents, escalating into even darker actions. Christopher develops new powers and endures escalating headaches. A spreading sickness seems linked to an old town mystery.
The lines between the imaginary and the real begin to blur, with Christopher and Kate at the center of the chaos. Dark thoughts plague Mill Grove residents, escalating into even darker actions. Christopher develops new powers and endures escalating headaches. A spreading sickness seems linked to an old town mystery.
And every road leads straight into the trees beyond Mission Street. We’ve warned you before about the perils of going into the woods, and Chbosky has filled his with particularly devilish nightmares of a personal sort.
Below the treeline, a battle of good and evil plays out, with Christopher’s treehouse apparently a key to it all. More than simply demons or monsters, the horror of Imaginary Friend —and of the woods themselves—stems from the little voices in your head, the ones whispering about your darkest fears, your deepest secrets, and your most most devastating insecurities.
The woods, and the “imaginary” world they hide, give these voices form, which then bleeds out into the rest of Mill Grove. You’re not safe in your home or at school. Evil waits under your bed and on your porch.
A pervasive sense of dread set against a quaint small town setting gives the novel distinct Stephen King vibes. It makes good on that promise with a compulsive readability that will delight King’s Constant Readers. Across hundreds of closely typeset pages, Chbosky expertly draws out the tension and mystery until the final act, ensnaring more and more of Mill Grove’s residents in his tightly spun web.
Even as the cast grows, Kate and Christopher remain the beating hearts of the narrative. Their relationship—forged from and strengthened by traumas both individual and shared—is the thread that holds the plot together, even as the world spins out of control.
You see, in Imaginary Friend, hell is empty and the devils are all in the Mission Street Woods. The question is whether one little boy and his mother can send them back.