A small town horror mystery that doesn’t let up.

As a disclaimer for this review, I’ve not read Chbosky’s most well known work, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, nor have I seen the entire movie. However my knowledge of it being a sort of coming of age teenage story of friendship certainly threw me off guard when starting Imaginary Friend. I got the book on a whim and went in completely blind upon seeing the praise on on the cover and recognising the author’s name. I was not prepared for what I got.

Imaginary friend is a horror story and this is clear from the opening pages. It starts with a short chapter that takes place fifty years prior to the main story. From this short passage alone, I knew I was in for something that I’d not expected. We are introduced to a ‘Hissing Lady’ who pursues a young boy, threatening to kill him and his brother as the boy heads for the local woods.

The novel takes place in a present day fictional small American town. I dare say It’s very Stephen King and I’m sure many others have made this comparison. The story starts slow but once it picks up it really gets going, the short chapter length meant that despite the books length, I was steaming through it. There’s a nice set of characters here, Christopher, the main character is a very self aware seven year old living with his single mother. She’s strong, independent and pretty badass, but Chbosky has a talent of showing these characters from all sides and vulnerabilities are quickly revealed. There’s a whole town’s worth of characters who all have a part to play in the events that take place.

Storywise, without spoilers, Christopher disappears into the woods for six days and comes back different. He now has an imaginary friend who won’t let him sleep or do anything without getting intense headaches unless he does what it says. There’s plenty of creepy imagery from animals acting strange, cartoons on TV talking directly to the viewer, people with their eyes and mouths sewn shut. 

The trouble with it being over 600 pages is that there are quite a few bumps in pacing. There’s a lot of climaxes then slowing down, until about the final 200 pages where things go a little off the rails in an all out conclusion. That being said, I’m not sure how else the story could have ended with Chbosky revving things up and winding them down, he had to make sure the final parts were explosive enough for them to truly be the end. I was left fairly satisfied with his choices here but feel that it probably could have ended around the five hundred page mark.

I do recommend this book if you’re looking for a well written horror story. The vulnerability of having a child as the main character makes it particularly tense. I am sure this book will inevitably make for a great film or TV show one day, but until then you’ll breeze through this page turner.

Good   – Full of twists and turns right up until the end

            – Keeps you guessing and doesn’t let up
            – Excellent use of a large cast of characters

Bad.    – Goes on for longer than it needs to
           – Winds up and down too many times
           – Scarier than I expected!

3.5/5