I am a member of the American Library Association Reading List Award Committee. This title was suggested for the 2020 list. It was not nominated for the award. The complete list of winners and shortlisted titles is at <a href="https://rusaupdate.org/2020/01/2020-reading-list-years-best-in-genre-fiction-for-adult-readers/">

I never read his first book, but this story did not entertain me at all. The writing was amateur and the storyline was meh.

I was a little skeptical because I had read some not so nice reviews on this book, but I decided to see for myself. It takes a particular type of book to scare me and Imaginary Friend is one of those stories that made me only want to read during the day on a crowded train. Different things scare different people and this book contained my scare factor and still gives me chills. The book started off strong and had a good vs. bad horror vibe to it and evil that, of course, messes with kids! That’s what gets me! I had an idea of the who, but the ending still surprised me and was very tastefully done and wrapped up. Then I thought, well this author waited years before coming out with another book so of course he was going to be great!

I tried to get into this book several times, but I just couldn’t. I have heard so many good things about it. It’s just not for me I guess.

I never read The Perks of Being a Wallflower. As a result, I don’t know the author’s usual style and won’t be making any comparison here.

Now, to Imaginary Friend.

I love an epic story. You know, a door stopper of a read. And at 720 pages, this counts. But, oh, it takes a long time to get through those pages. In comparison, I just read a book that topped out at 775 pages. I read it in two days. Imaginary Friend took weeks.

Chbosky builds the story at a rather glacial pace. It will take a dedicated reader to finally reach the horror of the piece, some 200 pages in. The first couple hundred pages are spent fleshing out our characters and dropping little hints about the dark history of our town.

Once we get to the meat of the story, things start moving briskly. The story is eerie and, at times, scary. The horror – once it comes – is well done.

I loved our characters. In fact, my love for them is what kept me returning to the book. Chbosky builds fully fleshed characters we absolutely love and fear for.

Ultimately, it’s a good story. However, I think that some readers may lose their patience at the book’s pace and give up long before anything actually happens.

3 stars. Though I loved the horror once it came, the book became more work than pleasure.

Thank you to Grand Central Publishing for providing me with a copy of Stephen Chbosky’s novel, Imaginary Friend, in exchange for an honest review.

Strange things are happening in the small, Pennsylvania town of Mill Grove. The town has been plagued with missing children spanning over several generations, inspiring urban legends. Kate Reese is escaping an abusive relationship and she decides to make a fresh start for herself and her seven-year-old son, Christopher, in Mill Grove. On the surface, it appears to be an idyllic town, but soon Christopher is swept up in the horrors that have befallen other children of the community. It all begins when Christopher makes an imaginary friend that he names “The Nice Man.”

I love horror and I have never been legitimately freaked out until Imaginary Friend. The horror and graphic imagery is on a level that almost made me quit the book. I’m quite honestly shocked by how much Chbosky’s novel affected my sleep and invaded my imagination. He’s an incredible writer.

Chbosky’s story assaults the reader in multiple ways. He balances intense descriptions that leave little to the imagination, with gaps that allow the reader to imagine the worst. I read that Imaginary Friend is in development to be made into a movie or TV series. I don’t think that I could handle it and I seriously can’t imagine how any visual could match or be worse than what I was creating in my mind. The action, especially in the last half of the story, is virtually non-stop and at a break-neck pace. I kept catching myself holding my breath from the intensity. There are several great plot twists that I did not see coming.

Imaginary Friend is one of the most unexpected books that I have ever read. It’s a roller coaster ride. I think I was caught off-guard primarily because it is so vastly different than Chbosky’s best-selling novel, The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I loved The Perks of Being a Wallflower and was excited to see his much-anticipated follow-up. I’m sure many readers will pick up Imaginary Friend, based on their love for The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and they may be left disappointed. The books are so dissimilar and horror, especially this level of horror, is not going to be everyone’s cup-of-tea. However, it’s awesome that Chbosky wrote a wildly different type of story. He took a risk. He wrote the story that he needed to tell. I have so much respect for him.

My only criticism is that the story felt long. It is long, coming in at around seven-hundred pages. The pacing wasn’t slow, but it was too long to live in that particular story world. It’s a stressful read and I wanted out. It also suffers from a glut of action at the end of the story, pushing Imaginary Friend to continue beyond the point of where it felt like the story should have ended. It was along the lines of an action movie that has one too many explosions or car wrecks, or the horror film when the villain rises from the dead, but in this case, it was several resurrections too many.

This criticism aside, I found Imaginary Friend to be a highly memorable read. Chbosky has a unique voice and a crazy brain for horror writing. You’ll never look at deer the same way. It will also make you reevaluate any imaginary friends that your kids might have at the moment.

It was so darn creepy, that I have the chills just writing this review!

4 Stars!

I am not sure what it was that called my attention to Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky but something about the book just called out to me. I was hoping to find an entertaining and scary read and was quick to find out that I would not be disappointed.

The move was a new start for Christopher and his mother. She had finally found the courage to leave an abusive relationship after the death of her husband. Something good needed to happen for her and, more importantly, for her son. Then came the ultimate in horror for a mother when Christopher went missing. The horror ended six days later when Christopher stumbled out of the woods. Or so it seemed. In the end, however, the terror had only just begun.

The truth of the matter is that something had entered Christopher. At first, things seemed to have turned around for the family as they won the lottery and were able to move into a new house. Little did they know that Christopher had become a pawn in the battle between heaven and hell. The devil was determined to be set free on Earth and the town was set to become the final battlefield in a war that would determine the future of mankind forever.

The novel instantly sunk its teeth in me. I was quickly drawn into the world of the book and lost myself in the events. I found the characters to be fairly well formed if a little formulaic at times but I still found myself sympathizing with Christopher and his mother. There was enough of a backstory to give some depth to what was happening in the present and I started to care about the events. It reminded me a lot of some of Stephen King’s novels in that there are a lot of characters and their personal narratives weave together throughout the novel. This did slow things down a little bit at times but that did not stop me at all through the first half of the novel. I was ready and eager to find out what was going to happen next. Then the second half of the novel came around and it was time to build up to the climax of the novel.

The main criticism I saw of this novel is that it is too long and there is some validity to this criticism. While I enjoyed the novel in its entirety, it did tend to bog down at times in the second half as the various storylines of the different characters began to draw together. There is a little bit of work needed to get through the second half of the book that could have been cut down. I understand what Chbosky was going but it was slightly tedious at times and the urgency of the story strayed from the main narrative. In all, though, this is a very good novel that presents an entertaining and unique look at the apocalypse that may or may not be averted. It is apparent that Chbosky has a strong sense of character and that is what carried the story for me even when the narrative bogged down a bit. This novel is not going to be for everyone but it worked for me in the end.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for this review copy. Imaginary Friend is available now.

Wow! This book blew my expectations out of the water. Make no mistake, this book really was a behemoth. I’m typically not a fan of horror novels, but I had to force myself to put this one down at night. It drew me in and wouldn’t let me go! Imaginary Friends reminded me of Stranger Things and IT — in the very best ways possible. I could even see some traces of C. S. Lewis in these pages.

Be warned, too, that this story contains content that could be triggers for many readers. Abuse, violence, missing children, and religious themes run strong. There was a lot of profanity, and some of the scenes reminded me of nightmares. Readers are sure to feel twinges from the emotional pain and suffering that characters endured. There are so many feel good moments, though. I loved the main characters Christopher and his mom, Kate. The side characters played important roles, too.

Some of the reviews for this book were less than stellar, but I decided to give it a try anyway. So glad I did! It ranks as one of my favorites. This story makes me think about the world differently.

Thank you for the ARC #netgalley!
This book surprised me in many different ways. I didn't expect the creepy vibe at all, and went into it with zero knowledge of the plot or themes of the book.
It captured my attention right away, but that slowly tapered off toward the end and I had a hard time finishing it. I finally did, and I'm satisfied.
Don't go into this book expecting it to be anything at all like POBAW, because it's nothing like that.
If you are a creepy/thriller/strange reader- this one is for you!

overall I give this book a 3.5 star rating.,

This was a long awaited book from Chbosky and it does not disappoint. It follows the famous debut Perks of a Wallflower but is a completely different genre and experience. This has some difficulties with the writing, in that the story probably could be told in about 2/3 of the pages. With that said, I would still say it is worth the read anyway!
The story is engaging and spooky/creepy. It definitely scratches the itch for this genre if you are inclined to read something with these vibes.
Highly recommend to those that love Stephen King or Tremblay.
#ImaginaryFriend #Netgalley #GrandCentralPublishing #StephenChbosky

This chilling book needs to be on your shelves. If you love King than this is one you should get. I'm not typically one for crazy full horror stories, but this one whilst 720 or something pages, was worth every page turn and dilated eye. You all should be on the lookout for this author because his writing and storytelling needs more attention and hype than from what I've heard. this was spectacular and intriguing. Page gripping from the start.

What a creepy book! It did get a little too religious/preachy for my personal preferences. I don’t like it when stories like this become nothing more than a sermon about heaven and hell, but that is me. Still, I did enjoy it until they revealed the forces behind the disappearances, and it gave me strange dreams while reading it. That is what you hope to experience in any horror story.

I've never read Chbosky before but this one intrigued me because I had heard it was a horror. The beginning was intriguing but this book just dragged a lot. I think I wouldn't enjoyed it more if it had been pared back in the last half.

It's long, it's very long, but that is really necessary. This is one creepy horror book that keeps creeping up on you while you read it. Great writing, loved it

The first 3/4 of this book were brilliant! I couldn't put it down, then things went down hill. The plot seemed to do a complete 180 and veered off in a direction that was unexpected and not in a good way.

I have to admit when I saw that this book was 700+ pages, I was kind of intimidated. I generally am not a fan of long books because they tend to be long for the sake of being long. However, one of my favorite things about this book was the journey. The order in which information was given to the baby took me as the reader on a ride from start to finish and I was constantly trying to figure out what would happen next.

I thought the story was extremely unique. A boy goes missing for 6 days and when he reemerges strange things start to happen in the town. But it took me forever to figure out what the strange things had to do with each other, which held my attention.

I will say that toward the end, the story started to get a little too weird and convoluted for my taste, and I did have some unanswered questions in the end that I wish I had more clear cut answers to. I would say that the first half of the book was a 5 star read but the second half ended up being closer to a 3 star read. So I'll split the difference and give the book 4 stars overall.

-I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Stephen Chbosky, and Grand Central Publishing for the opportunity to review.-

If you are a Stephen King fan then this one will tickle your fancy! Written so much like a vintage King novel that you'll feel nostalgic.
Chbosky balances the fight between good and evil with enough twists and turns that you can't tell who is good and who may be the epitomy of evil! I enjoyed his true to life characters. He brings the neighbor next door or the little boy down the lane from a normal person to one who has powers beyond control and to a world hidden from our daily lives.
Horror at it's best, the last few chapters could be easier watched played out on a screen! High action and suspense!

Imaginary Friend was one of my most anticipated horror reads of 2019. For the first half or so, this novel was a 5 star read for me. I felt like there were parts of the second half that were a bit repetitive and loose. There were times that I just wanted it to move along. I was satisfied with the ending and overall thought it was a great read. The horror aspect is quite terrifying. I have some lingering nightmarish images!

Holy moly! What did I just read?!? This book is creepy & a little (A LOT) terrifying and I feel like it went off the rails halfway through the novel. If you're a fan of Stephen King or Joe Hill, this story is for you.

I tried so hard to finish this book when I was sent a finished copy by the publishers. I have been trying to read this book ever since I got it in October. When I first read the summary of this book I was super excited to read it. I thought it was going to be so interesting. A book that follows a child as he comes back changed. But let me tell you this. The book is too slow. It drags on and on. Things in this book a repeated so many times that it just got to the point where I was skimming to find something new and interesting that added to the plot. There wasnt a whole lot. When I stopped read the book I decided that this book could have been cut in half the ammount of pages if they got rid of everything they repeat chapter after chapter. I'm still interested in the idea of the book but it was done poorly. I fear I'm also not a fan of the authors writing style. I wasn't connecting well with any of the characters and I wasn't really creeped out either.