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Imaginary Friend cover art

Imaginary Friend

Written by: Stephen Chbosky
Narrated by: Christine Lakin
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Publisher's Summary

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

What the critics say

"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

What listeners say about Imaginary Friend

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

A horror that takes forever.

The narration was excellent. Christine Lakin was engaging and her performance for each character was diverse. Although, the adult males did blend a bit for me, I don't believe anyone could have done a better job potraying the opposite gender.
Here is a run down of the book.
Length: The book is a 22 hour book, and that's fine, but it felt 22 hours long. Half way through the book, it feels as though the story is coming to an end, and that ending continues on for 11 more hours.
Writing: Stephen Chbosky is a good writer, though his metaphors aren't particularly insightful or deep, his imagery is adequate and his writing style is smooth and flows well.
Content: I live for horror, I love everything scary and horror related, and while this book had some good horror elements to it, it felt more like a Christian using horror to spread Christianity. I am not opposed to text exploring or using religious ideas, I'm a huge fan of work from the 18th and 19th century and plenty of that work dealt with religion, but this comes across as preachy. Once you see where Chbosky is taking you, it's so obvious and forced that it's hard to continue.
Overall the horror is good, but not good enough to give this book a read. I mainly sat through it because of Christine Lakin and her engaging narration.

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Couldn't finish it, too many similes!

I tried really hard to finish this book. I got about halfway through before the amount of similes that the author kept using got the best of me. I just couldn't bear another 10 hours of simile overuse. I'm pretty sure the book would be only about half the length if all of the similes were removed. The storyline itself was quite interesting, I think that's what kept me going for so long.

The narrator was wonderful though, she did such a fantastic job of all the different characters and her voice was absolutely a pleasure to listen to.

I wish that whoever edited this story had cautioned the author against the overuse of similes. It really would have made the book so much better and much more enjoyable. As it was I was just too irritated to finish it and had to return it.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent, pulled me right in!

Loved this book right from the start. The narrator does an amazing job! This is a definite must listen!

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Very long and boring

Struggled to finish, had to skip several chapters as it got too tedious and boring

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Story was drawn out, started strong but wavered

The story was good but I thought it was a watered down Stephen King novel.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

What a slog

Started off fairly strong but the third act just dragged and dragged. It was a chore to get through and the addition of religious themes was wholly unnecessary. Overall not a great listen.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Too Long

I was going to give it 4-5 stars but then it kept going and going ad nauseum. The story could have been told in half the length.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Christopher Christopher Christopher

If I have to hear that name one more time I might go mad. Fine idea but execution left a bad taste. I would like to know how many times the name Christopher was used. Also what is Christopher's mother's name? This book was so dry and repetitive even the plot couldn't save it.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Narrator makes the story

The best part of this book by far is the narrator. Like other reviewers have said, this entire book could easily have been half the length and be stronger for it. The author seems to be immensely proud of his comparisons, because once one is made you will hear it at least once every chapter, which ends up being over 100 times (blue moon, frogs boiling, two-by-fours like baby teeth, floods, father son holy ghost,etc, etc). It has heavy Christian themes throughout, and in the final chapters leaves gaping plotholes in order to fully embrace the religion theme. I'm glad I bought this, just so that I can find more by the narrator, but I'll be skipping works by this author.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

I liked that it was longer

I downloaded this book because it was long and I wanted it to get me through a few days at work. I really enjoyed the story and it was exciting more often than not. I recommend it to anyone that is working in an office or going on a trip.

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1 person found this helpful