Imaginary Friends

The Perks of Being a Wallflower deserves all the acclaim it has received. Between that and my love of the horror genre, I was really excited when Imaginary Friend was announced. My excitement went even higher when I found out that Chbosky\’s first book in 20 years was being touted as a literary horror novel. All of these things should have combined into a fantastic reading experience. Unfortunately, it\’s didn\’t. At all. As some would say, I just can\’t even with this book. The first 50 pages or so were actually quite good and interesting. So, if you\’ve seen the reviews from notable authors, Joe Hill didn\’t lie. But you may have also noticed that Hill specifically spoke just about the first 50 pages. Want to know why? Because the story veers hard after that, and not in a good way. If I was reviewing just the first 50 pages, this would be a 5-star book. The rest of it plummets it hard to 1-star territory, though. We spend the next 670 pages inside a Christian story that\’s so on the nose that it\’s actually overly kind to call any of it an allegory. After all, by the end there\’s absolutely no hidden meanings inside Imaginary Friend. And that\’s one of the most disappointing things of all because the term literary horror typically denotes a much more deeply layered experience that requires contemplation. There\’s nothing to contemplate here other than Chbosky\’s apparently skewed view of women, along with the question of why he felt the need to spend 650 pages basically preaching and moralizing. If you\’re not into Christian horror dressed up as horror, this book probably won\’t be for you. Even if you are into Christian horror, this book still might not be for you because it contains a lot of profanity and sexual content that seems to be turning off many reviewers who should have been the book\’s primary target audience. For the record, I have no issues with the profanity and sexual content, although it sure would have been nice if women weren\’t portrayed as corrupt entities unable to control their sexuality. There\’s actually a scene where a virgin teen\’s sex drive causes her to \”corrupt\” her Christian, virgin boyfriend by giving him oral sex. ::rolls eyes:: The constant biblical references quickly became annoying and repetitious, as did the rest of the story. Everything was tied into the bible after the first 50 pages or so, and I mean everything. In one section, Chobsky writes that \”the children scattered like the parting of the Red Sea\” (or something to that effect). This is a prime example of everything being a biblical reference, and these things happen again and again and again, ad nauseam. I\’m pretty sure Chbosky has never met any 7-year-old kids based on the way he portrays them. And it\’s quite frankly disgusting that he insisted on writing the bully\’s nickname of one character, \”Special Ed,\” almost every single time the character came up throughout the entire book. And it\’s not like that was just when people were taunting him. Nope. It comes up when people think about him, when the character is talking (\”blah, blah, blah,\” Special Ed said), etc. SPOILER ALERT . . . . . Okay, here\’s the thing — this book pretends to be something else for a long time, but it\’s nothing more than the typical good vs. evil, heaven vs. hell story that\’s been told and retold for centuries. Chobsky does mess with Christian mythology a lot to create his own version of Hell, so at least there\’s a bit of originality there. But the idea of the Devil trying to escape Hell (every 50 years, apparently… sigh… can we please cancel the trope of \’X bad thing happens every X years?\’) by finding a dyslexic child and making him smart (as if dyslexia means you\’re automatically unintelligent) was just ridiculous. Oh, and of course the Devil chooses a kid who has been maligned by society because they basically have to choose whether or not to become Jesus by taking tons of abuse and then dying for everyone else\’s sins. ::rolls eyes yet again:: The imaginary world is Hell. The hissing lady who is portrayed as the bad guy is actually Eve, and she needs to keep the Devil in Hell. Because, as always, women are punished for their \”sins\” and are also tasked with keeping men in line. Here\’s an idea, hissing lady Eve — instead of scaring kids half to death and tormenting them, how about revealing what\’s actually happening to get them on your side? Ugh. I had to force myself to keep reading. Many times, I stopped and thought, \”I just can\’t.\” And you probably shouldn\’t either. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC.

I was super excited to receive this book. I loved The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Stephen Chbosky is a good writer. However, this book… I think if it was 450 instead of 700 pages it would be better. I am all for appropriate endings as I hate when a book is long and then the whole thing wraps in 20 pages. However, the climax of this book (no spoilers) takes at least 200 pages. It was exhausting and completely unnecessary. The pros: The characters created by Chbosky are wonderful. His idea for this book is great. I was on the edge of my seat for the first 400 pages…then it started to lag. The cons: As I have said, the book is WAY TOO LONG. I also felt like I had read some of this premise before. This book totally smacks of Stephen King\’s masterpiece, The Stand and one of his lesser known books that scared the beejeepers out of me, Needful Things. However, both of those books were much better than this book. Yes, the Stand is a good 1500 pages but it was so good I never felt like it dragged. Also, the theology thing got a little muddy and kind of weird. I think this book could be offensive to some in that regard. I wanted to love this book. I was so excited to get it. I just can\’t get over how disappointed I was that the story essentially collapsed and became tedious instead of terrifying. Hard pass on slogging through this again.

Okay, there were things I liked about this book. First, the author is a good writer. Second, there were several characters I liked: Christopher, Kate, The Sheriff (Bobby); Ambrose, Mary Katherine, even Jerry in the end. They all were very well fleshed out. Third, I did want to see how the story ended even while I didn\’t enjoy reading most of the book. Okay, what I didn\’t like about this book and why I am not recommending it to people I love (I do admit that this book may really speak to some but its flaws stopped it from speaking to me): First, the author\’s theology is totally screwed up. I appreciate the \”imaginary world\” as being the spiritual realm, but it is so messed up theologically that I can\’t really get into it. I mean there is only ONE immaculate conception. And God did not have a daughter like Jesus is His Son. When you start messing with theology it just invalidates the whole book. I appreciate a great spiritual warfare/unseen realm book, but if you\’re going to incorporate Jesus and prayer and church into it, it better line up with scripture. This doesn\’t at all. Second, there is so much bad language. How many people have to use the \”F\” word to express themselves? Third, some of the sexual details just didn\’t have to be included. I was excited to read this book, but I was very much disappointed. Obviously the author is a talented writer. And so some people may end up loving this book. I am not one of these people.

I literally cannot remember the last time a book grabbed me from the first word and didn\’t let me go, until the last word. This book was so intense and well written, I couldn\’t put it down. I had to rearrange my schedule, cancel appointments, all because I needed to know what was going to happen next. It was such a mesmerizing, scary book, with characters that get into your mind and won\’t let go. The last time I became this entranced with a novel, was when I was 12 and read my first horror novel. Yes it was an S.K. novel! Suspending belief was so easy to do with the expert authors incredible skills. There is definitely a strong message in the story, that will remain with me forever. As will the characters. Beware, there are some very scary moments that will make you want to leave the lights on all night. I could not recommend this book more. Except for young children or people who are easily scared. Thank you so much Mr. Chbosky. I haven\’t had this much fun being scared, Maybe ever. Also, My new favorite horror, thriller, writer ever. I\’m not sure what I\’m going to do with myself now that I finished it. I guess I\’ll have to keep appointments and keep my schedule. Sigh……

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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