Imaginary friend by Stephen Chbosky
Orion Books, 2019. ISBN: 9781409184812. 704 pp.
(Age: Adult) Fans of horror stories and who have the constitution to
read this massive volume of 704 pages will find a different story to
Chbosky's famous The Perks of Being a Wallflower. After Kate
leaves an abusive relationship she hides in the small community of
Mill Grove, where she hopes she and her 7 year old son Christopher
will be safe. Christopher makes friends with a boy named Special Ed.
He and a group of boys spend a lot of time in the Mission Street
Woods where they build a tree house, given instructions by a strange
man that only Christopher can hear. Christopher appears to access a
strange world through this treehouse and disappears for six days,
reappearing with his learning disability gone. Then the town goes
into meltdown.
There is a sense of menace hanging over the narrative that is quite
frightening as Christopher gets headaches and a hissing lady
whispers into people's ears. Fear is the overarching theme of the
book and this pervasive fear may keep some readers reading to the
conclusion, with its overtones of Christianity. Verdict: Horror fans
will enjoy this, but other readers may find the repetition, strange
spelling and length of the story a problem.
Pat Pledger