#BookSamplerReview-‘Imaginary Friend’ by Stephen Chbosky

About the book…

My biggest of thanks to Netgalley and Orion for approving me to read this sampler of upcoming release, ‘Imaginary Friend’ by Stephen Chbosky

This will be released in October in hardback,ebook and audiobook editions (OCTOBER!!! Dear heavens how will I cope?!)

An epic literary event twenty years in the making: the new novel from Stephen Chbosky – author of multi-million copy sensation The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

Kate Reese is a single mother fleeing an abusive relationship by starting over in a new town, with her young son Christopher. But Mill Grove, Pennsylvania, is not the safe place they thought it would be…

Their world begins to unravel after Christopher vanishes into the Mission Street Woods – where 50 years earlier an eerily similar disappearance occurred. When he emerges six days later, unharmed but not unchanged, he brings with him a secret: a voice only he can hear and a warning of tragedy to come.

What follows is a moving, thrilling, chilling modern masterpiece – a work of towering imagination and emotional depth which unfolds on an epic canvas.

Ok, there are SO many feelings and points to raise with this sampler of upcoming release ‘Imaginary Friend’ by Stephen Chbosky!
Firstly, as with Adrian McKinty’s ‘The Chain’ I am now teetering on a knife edge of suspense willing the days to pass until I can get myself a copy and also haunted by both David and  Christopher’s stories.

There are 2 parts, the first about a little boy named David who is clearly terrified of something he has done or is thought to have done so he sneaks out of his house and runs away. As a parent this absolutely went through me, his journey across the streets, at night, on his own…all the shivers in the world were at my beck and call despite last night being too hot to sleep!

What made the first little boy,David, run away from home and is the hissing lady real or imaginary? What happened to that little boy after he went into the Mission Street Woods?
Why did Christopher’s mum start running and keep on running?
Was Christopher’s father crazy or did something more sinister happen to him?
Is the imaginary friend going to be a friend or foe….

Skipping forward from then  to now, we are introduced to Christopher, another young boy who has ended up in Mill Grove with his mother following the death of his father.

My heart absolutely went out to Chris, he appears to have dyslexia from what he says about reading and letters, his struggles to make sense of things in and out of school are just heart wrenching and brutally honest..I am so hopeful that his mum who is absolutely trying to do her best for both of them and Chris get out of this situation that they are in,and that they hve someone who will help them!

What happened and is still happening in the Mission Street Woods is going to gnaw away at me for months, the realness with which Stephen Chbosky writes is so vivid, so clear that in only a few chapters he has nailed my attention and I want to keep going-but I can’t, it’s a sampler, it ended way too soon! But also at the perfect sweet spot between agony and anticipation with time to catch up on other things that this author has written.

Thanks so much for letting me read this!

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.

Links-https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/columns-and-blogs/openbook/article/79893-has-stephen-chbosky-written-another-generation-defining-novel.html

Twitter @StephenChbosky

@OrionBooks