Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky

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 Christopher at her side. 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 awful 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 tree house in the woods by Christmas, or his mother and everyone in the town will never be the same again.

Soon Kate and Christopher find themselves in the fight of their lives, caught in the middle of a war playing out between good and evil, with their small town as the battleground.

 

 

At it's heart this is an epic tale of good versus evil.

"Make me hit a deer"

Something lies dormant in Mills Grove until Christopher and his mother arrive. Years ago, a terrified child went missing from his own home. Nobody believed him that the monsters were real. Now Christopher has gone missing too, but he is returned.. changed...seeing more...knowing more... wise beyond his years and paying the price for his new abilities.

"We'll all die on Christmas day!"

 

As Christopher becomes more aware of what's happening, something insidious is also aware of Christopher and it's infecting the town with evil. I loved the spooky atmosphere in this book, the way the characters were fleshed out and brought to life. I even at certain points had sympathy for the bullies.

4 out of 5 stars.

I received an advance copy for review.

 

 

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About the author

Stephen Chbosky grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and graduated from the University of Southern California's Filmic Writing Program. His first film, The Four Corners of Nowhere, premiered at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival and went on to win Best Narrative Feature honors at the Chicago Underground Film Festival.

He is the recipient of the Abraham Polonsky Screenwriting Award for his screenplay Everything Divided as well as a participant in the Sundance Institute's filmmakers' lab for his current project, Fingernails and Smooth Skin. Chbosky lives in New York.