Imaginary Friend

By: Stephen Chbosky

Narrated by: Christine Lakin

A young boy is haunted by a voice in his head in this "haunting and thrilling" (John Green) epic of literary horror from the number-one New York Times best-selling author of The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

Christopher is seven years old.

Christopher is the new kid in town.

Christopher has an imaginary friend.

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 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.

Twenty years ago, Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower made audiences 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. Listent to it with the lights on.

©2019 Stephen Chbosky (P)2019 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"Imaginary Friend has been a long time coming. And like a fine Bordeaux, it rewards that wait in countless ways. This is a fearsome, remarkably ambitious novel that breaks through the boundaries of the horror genre to become epic - in all the best senses of the word." (Lincoln Child, number-one New York Times best-selling coauthor of Verses for the Dead and City of Endless Night)

"If you aren't blown away by the first fifty pages of Imaginary Friend, you need to get your sense of wonder checked." (Joe Hill, number-one New York Times best-selling author of The Fireman and NOS4A2)

"Imaginary Friend is a sprawling epic horror novel that hearkens back to the classics of the 1970s Golden Age, but, like Stranger Things, with a twinkle in its malevolent eye. Enormous, scary fun." (Dan Chaon, best-selling author of Ill Will)

A Literary Hub Most Anticipated Books of 2019

WHOA! HANG ON!

This work is a wild adventure and worth every penny. Every character in this novel is defined, dynamic, and very much alive. Apart from that, this story can be described as: "I thought I saw where this was going and I was right - but I had NO IDEA how awesome it would look."

It’s called a climax for a reason.

I teach literature as a profession. I teach the flow of plot structure and how a story naturally progresses from exposition to completion. This book nailed its introduction to character, setting, and built the conflict so beautifully. Then the climax hit with 700 pages left, and it kept on going until the end. I get the desire to make it exciting, but make it that exciting for too long and you make your readers numb. So by the time I reached the conclusion I had lost all care. This story had so much promise, but was executed poorly.

Long.

So. Long. It's OK. Narrator lady does the best she can given the circumstances.

It became redundant and wordy....

This book started with promise. At a certain point, it was like."oh come on alreeady". This book could have been at least 20-25 chapters shorter.

Wonderfully creepy!

Wow! I was completely blow away by this story! Amazing listen! Kudos to the author!

WHY IS THIS NOT A MOVIE?!

This book was absolutely crazy. Great story. Made you say, "what the hell is going on?!" so many times! why is this not a horror flick?! Gives you all the goods of a great story, a thriller, a horror story, and includes love and sacrifice. Always pay attention or you'll miss important details! Amazing book!

very long

good story but dragged on. was hard to finish. it was like the energizer bunny, it kept going and going.

Christine’s talent was incredible!

This book was pretty great! I wanted to explore more books outside the genres I usually read and I was blown away at not just the story but at Christine Lakin’s talent as she read! Holy smokes! Like the ranges of voices she pulled off were truly astounding and it made the story that much more immersive!

Long and drawn out

Struggled to finish this book, it was a bizarre story line and the end was very drawn out.

I had no idea what I was in for.

Honestly the less you know going in the better. I definitely would not recommend this book as horror, it didn't scare me at all but it did have somewhat creepy imagery that some might find scary. I enjoyed it immensely and do highly recommend.