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3.28 AVERAGE
3.28 AVERAGE
Imaginary Girls is author Nova Ren Suma’s powerful and eerie young adult debut. It is a contemporary book about the bond between sisters, but it’s also a paranormal mystery. It takes place in a town with a dark past where magical things happen. This is a creepy book with a dark, fairytale quality. It’s an atmospheric, rather than a thrill a minute type book. Even so, the story hooked me and I was eagerly turning pages. And this is certainly one of the most striking covers of the year so far. Imaginary Girls is an original and impressive debut.
The main characters, sisters Chloe and Ruby, live in a small town in upstate New York. Fourteen-year-old Chloe has always been looked after by her older sister Ruby. Ruby is beautiful and wild and seems to have hypnotized the people of the town into giving her anything she wants. Without seeming to try, people bend over backwards to try to please her. Chloe lives in Ruby’s shadow, but she is the apple of Ruby’s eye. The sister bond is challenged, however, when the death of a classmate occurs at their reservoir hangout. Chloe leaves to go live with her father and after two years Ruby comes to claim her. When Chloe returns, she finds that her classmate is alive, and everyone is behaving as if the death at the reservoir never happened. Their powerful sister bond is tested when Chloe starts diving for answers to explain these strange events.
The book portrays the close, complex relationship of sisters. Well, a very intense portrayal of sisterly bonds anyway. They have always had to rely on only each other due to absentee parents so Ruby is everything to Chloe. Ruby is larger than life and her character dominates her sister’s life as well as the town. Chloe disappears when Ruby is around, but is able to connect with people more when she is on her own. I was wondering what the mystery is behind her power.
The story has a nightmarish and suspenseful quality that reads like a horror film. There are secrets and gossip and strange occurrences in the town that make it seem like a creepy place to live. The people that live there and even the sisters can come off as remote, unsympathetic and unlikable at times. This gave me an uneasy feeling throughout the book as I tried to find that connection to the characters.
Imaginary Girls is beautifully written and is creepy and unique. It should appeal to those that like ghost stories and mysteries. This haunting book is dark and intense, with a pace that may be too slow for some readers. Recommended for older teens due to the subject matter and adult content. Looking forward to reading more from this author.
The main characters, sisters Chloe and Ruby, live in a small town in upstate New York. Fourteen-year-old Chloe has always been looked after by her older sister Ruby. Ruby is beautiful and wild and seems to have hypnotized the people of the town into giving her anything she wants. Without seeming to try, people bend over backwards to try to please her. Chloe lives in Ruby’s shadow, but she is the apple of Ruby’s eye. The sister bond is challenged, however, when the death of a classmate occurs at their reservoir hangout. Chloe leaves to go live with her father and after two years Ruby comes to claim her. When Chloe returns, she finds that her classmate is alive, and everyone is behaving as if the death at the reservoir never happened. Their powerful sister bond is tested when Chloe starts diving for answers to explain these strange events.
The book portrays the close, complex relationship of sisters. Well, a very intense portrayal of sisterly bonds anyway. They have always had to rely on only each other due to absentee parents so Ruby is everything to Chloe. Ruby is larger than life and her character dominates her sister’s life as well as the town. Chloe disappears when Ruby is around, but is able to connect with people more when she is on her own. I was wondering what the mystery is behind her power.
The story has a nightmarish and suspenseful quality that reads like a horror film. There are secrets and gossip and strange occurrences in the town that make it seem like a creepy place to live. The people that live there and even the sisters can come off as remote, unsympathetic and unlikable at times. This gave me an uneasy feeling throughout the book as I tried to find that connection to the characters.
Imaginary Girls is beautifully written and is creepy and unique. It should appeal to those that like ghost stories and mysteries. This haunting book is dark and intense, with a pace that may be too slow for some readers. Recommended for older teens due to the subject matter and adult content. Looking forward to reading more from this author.
I didn't like it. I really didn't know what was going on. That might be the point, but I wasn't down with it...
"Imaginary Girls" by Nova Rem Suma is eery enough to make the hairs on your arms stand on end with it's vivid descriptions of standing along the edge of the town's reservoir deep into the night as you listen to big sister Ruby's tale of the drowned people from the lost towns laying beneath the water's dark depths. One night as Chloe, the little sister, is out with Ruby and her friend's at the reservoir, things go drastically long, and Chloe is torn from her sister's side pleading that everything go back to normal. But what is normal in a town where older sister Ruby has some complete but unnatural control over everyone within the town limits, possibly even the dead who have been claimed by the lost souls deep within their watery graves of the reservoir? Unbelievable you say; not once your are lured in to the tale's murky depths as well. Keep the lights on because you won't sleep well after this tale. Mwah ha ha!
Nova Ren Suma weaves a spell of words in her compelling book Imaginary Girls. I was immediately drawn into her richly detailed story. I will admit that a healthy dose of WTF escaped my lips as I turned the pages, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Read the rest of my review here
Read the rest of my review here
This was an extremely weird book, and my feelings are quite divided on it. On one hand it was a beautiful description of the trust and love between to sisters. The writing has so much personality and is so personal and honest- I felt like I /was/ Chloe. On the other hand it was totally nuts. Throughout the book I was unable to discern between imagination and reality, and the ending left no clarification. I couldn't tell if the main character was slowly going insane, or if there was magic involved.
So if you're willing to be thoroughly confused but thoroughly entertained, Imaginary Girls is for you.
So if you're willing to be thoroughly confused but thoroughly entertained, Imaginary Girls is for you.
During the first part of the book, I started to lose interest, then the confusion set in. Chloe's Ruby fascination was overbearing. However, all these points aside, I didn't put it down.
I liked the writing at some points, even though I felt stumped and bored at parts. Also, I didn't fully grasp the magical realism or "ghost story" style, or maybe I didn't feel confident that I knew for sure what was happening or what was intended stylistically by Suma. If a Teen picks this up and asks my opinion, I would recommend with a little critique about Chloe's fixation with her sister. Not my favorite YA, but I was able to get through it.
I liked the writing at some points, even though I felt stumped and bored at parts. Also, I didn't fully grasp the magical realism or "ghost story" style, or maybe I didn't feel confident that I knew for sure what was happening or what was intended stylistically by Suma. If a Teen picks this up and asks my opinion, I would recommend with a little critique about Chloe's fixation with her sister. Not my favorite YA, but I was able to get through it.
Oh dear. I may have connected with this a little too much. How strange that a story about girls coming back from the dead and wishes granted via pink balloons would feel so real to me. Something about Chloe's listless wonder, about how the only thing she gives a damn about is this beautiful woman who happens to be her sister, felt really familiar.
I don't have an older sister. But I've known some beautiful women that just ruin your life. One I knew in college was in fact an actress, so I found myself supplanting Ruby's face with hers. Who knows, maybe if Imaginary Girls is made into a movie it'll be her big break. So I get the elements here of longing and thrall, about being close to someone or something that is so untouchable. Chloe is so close to Ruby yet she doesn't share her secrets, and she is so close, even living just a few feet away, from what's buried in the reservoir and yet she can't know what it's hiding from her.
I love the way this book captures being a teenager, and the almost random relationships one has with the world at that age. How the guy you liked suddenly doesn't like you because you're too much like someone that creeps him out, even though you haven't been doing anything any differently its just that his sight is suddenly different and yours is too. So much growing and changing happens in a very short amount of time and I kind of think that's what this book is about when you get down to it. It's also about what doesn't change, and how those things are what we remember as magical.
This book is creepy and unsettling and sweet, I don't think I've read anything else like it, except perhaps The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart, as they both balance those elements of whimsy and suffering in the same way. I almost want to dock stars from it a tad vindictively, because finishing this book was like waking up from a dream before its done. It leaves you exhilirated, but a little uneasy.
I don't have an older sister. But I've known some beautiful women that just ruin your life. One I knew in college was in fact an actress, so I found myself supplanting Ruby's face with hers. Who knows, maybe if Imaginary Girls is made into a movie it'll be her big break. So I get the elements here of longing and thrall, about being close to someone or something that is so untouchable. Chloe is so close to Ruby yet she doesn't share her secrets, and she is so close, even living just a few feet away, from what's buried in the reservoir and yet she can't know what it's hiding from her.
I love the way this book captures being a teenager, and the almost random relationships one has with the world at that age. How the guy you liked suddenly doesn't like you because you're too much like someone that creeps him out, even though you haven't been doing anything any differently its just that his sight is suddenly different and yours is too. So much growing and changing happens in a very short amount of time and I kind of think that's what this book is about when you get down to it. It's also about what doesn't change, and how those things are what we remember as magical.
This book is creepy and unsettling and sweet, I don't think I've read anything else like it, except perhaps The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart, as they both balance those elements of whimsy and suffering in the same way. I almost want to dock stars from it a tad vindictively, because finishing this book was like waking up from a dream before its done. It leaves you exhilirated, but a little uneasy.
Graded By: Jenny
Cover Story: Floatalicious
BFF Charm: Nay
Swoonworthy Scale: 4
Talky Talk: Haunting
Bonus Factors: Sisters, Ghost Stories
Relationship Status: This book is from Venus...
Read the full book report here.
Cover Story: Floatalicious
BFF Charm: Nay
Swoonworthy Scale: 4
Talky Talk: Haunting
Bonus Factors: Sisters, Ghost Stories
Relationship Status: This book is from Venus...
Read the full book report here.
Eh. Language here is lovely, but I think that it circumvented the plot on many occasions. And while I understand that Ruby was the be all, end all of life or something, I got annoyed by the never ending chatter about her. When things were actually moving, the story was intriguing and I enjoyed it; that said, I feel like there was only real plot movement for about the last 3rd of the book.
Full review soon.
Full review soon.