Imaginary Friend

A young boy is haunted by a voice in his head in this acclaimed, bestselling epic of literary horror from the author of The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
One of The Year's Best Books (People, EW, Lithub, Vox, Washington Post, and more) We can swallow our fear or let our fear swallow us. 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 her child. 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 long 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 treehouse in the woods by Christmas, or his mother and everyone in the town will never be the same again. Twenty years ago, Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower made readers everywhere feel infinite. Now, Chbosky has returned with an epic work of literary horror, years in the making, whose grand scale and rich emotion redefine the genre. Read it with the lights on.
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736 pages

Average rating: 6

98 RATINGS

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14 REVIEWS

Community Reviews

Chethawleyz
Aug 04, 2024
9/10 stars
Loved it. BUT I can see where people were turned off by the twist at the end But I’m a sucker for twists and it went from a horror book to fantasy without me realizing it and it still held up, in my opinion.
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Readerholic28
Jul 07, 2024
7/10 stars
One of the more complex books I've read in a long time. I say the author does a good job of articulating his words that gave off a different perspective from the actual ending. It's a pretty long read , but I'd say it was worth it. There are definitely some filler pages that did not add anything beneficial to the story. The story centers around a single mom , and her son Christopher. Currently a widow (her husband killed himself due to the voices in his head) escaping her new abusive boyfriend, her and her son embark on finding a new place to live. A fresh start.They find a small community , and decide to settle there. Then Christopher gets lost in the woods for several days. It's after he's found , alive that his mom soon begins to notice he's different. Not appearance wise , but intellectually and emotionally. Having been a kid who was struggling with basic reading and math assignments , to now passing tests with perfect scores. Christopher has also noticed he's different as well. He also has a new "friend" that only he can see who goes by '" the nice man".
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mica88
Apr 01, 2024
4/10 stars
This book was so weird. It started pretty ok and then it just became derailed pretty quickly. Way too long for no reason and repetitive as well. I wouldn’t have been able to finish it without the audiobook.
It’s basically Christopher trying to kill satan.
Definitely not a horror book nonetheless.
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Anonymous
Aug 30, 2023
4/10 stars
This book really captured me at the start but started losing me halfway in. By 3/4 I was ready for it to hurry up and be over. The religious themes were too strong
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Phiarie7
Jun 10, 2023
8/10 stars
Such amazing and creepy details that I hope will be turned into a show or movie one day.
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