Review: Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky

Author: Stephen Chbosky
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Publication Date: October 2019

Christopher is seven years old. Christopher is the new kid in town. Christopher has an imaginary friend.

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.

I really wanted to love Imaginary Friend.  After reading the synopsis, I was expecting a scary read.  Instead, I got a strange, not completely clear, religious diatribe about the devil, angels and possibly the virgin Mary (?).  I'm not sure.  I mean I think the author was going for a good vs. evil theme.  However, it really failed to produce.  The book was way too long.  There were too many perspectives.    Don't get me wrong, the book started out great.  Very creepy and I wanted to know more.  But somewhere about the midway point, it lost momentum. 

I also want to comment on the age of the main character, Christopher, and his friends.  I really wish that authors would be more accurate with children's ages and behaviors.  There is no way a seven year old would be able to get away with or do the things that these kids did throughout this entire book.   There is a scene where the parents drop their second graders off at a hill for sledding and then leave them there for the day with no adult supervision.  What parents do that?  They all talked more like they were in middle school. Even right down to the way the two "mean" kids in their class acted.  Their insults were too mature for seven.  I probably would have bought into it more had they been in middle school. 

I'm not sure I would really recommend this one.  The synopsis really didn't prepare me for all of the religious symbolism.  Not that I am opposed to it, I just wasn't really sure what the author's goal was with the book.