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dliterate's review
3.0
Thank you to Thomas and Mercer for providing this ARC of Imaginary Strangers by Minka Kent for review on Netgalley.
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When Camille starts to notice her 6 year old daughter, Georgie, showing signs of disturbing behaviour - and even more disturbing knowledge about Camille's childhood - she finds herself reflecting on her own abusive childhood, and the scars that she's spent her adult life hiding behind the facade of being a perfect wife and mother. As it becomes clear that there's more to Georgie's behaviour than a vivid imagination, Camille begins to believe that her mother has found her, and is intent on following through with the threat she made the last time they saw each other: a threat to kill her.
I started this book late last night with the intent of reading the first chapter to get a feel for it before heading off to bed. It was a couple of hours later before I actually managed to put it down. Then again, throughout the day today, I just kept being drawn back to it again and again, caught up by both the engaging writing style and a story that kept ratcheting up the tension at a consistent rate.
There was a bit of a lull at about the 60% mark, where things became a bit repetitive, but even with this slight issue aside, I was fully on board with everything that was happening until about two-thirds of the way through the book, where - without going into spoilers - all I'll say is that a school administrator acts in a completely unbelievable way given the scenario they're presented with, and the book begins an ongoing slide into a more dramatic but, ultimately, less cohesive and engaging finale. I was surprised, but I wasn't fulfilled.
That said, there was the possibility of a sequel set up at the end of this book, and do I want to read that sequel? Absolutely. So, I guess I can't say that the final act turned me off completely.
Rating: 3/5
Imaginary Strangers is set to be released July 23, 2024.
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When Camille starts to notice her 6 year old daughter, Georgie, showing signs of disturbing behaviour - and even more disturbing knowledge about Camille's childhood - she finds herself reflecting on her own abusive childhood, and the scars that she's spent her adult life hiding behind the facade of being a perfect wife and mother. As it becomes clear that there's more to Georgie's behaviour than a vivid imagination, Camille begins to believe that her mother has found her, and is intent on following through with the threat she made the last time they saw each other: a threat to kill her.
I started this book late last night with the intent of reading the first chapter to get a feel for it before heading off to bed. It was a couple of hours later before I actually managed to put it down. Then again, throughout the day today, I just kept being drawn back to it again and again, caught up by both the engaging writing style and a story that kept ratcheting up the tension at a consistent rate.
There was a bit of a lull at about the 60% mark, where things became a bit repetitive, but even with this slight issue aside, I was fully on board with everything that was happening until about two-thirds of the way through the book, where - without going into spoilers - all I'll say is that a school administrator acts in a completely unbelievable way given the scenario they're presented with, and the book begins an ongoing slide into a more dramatic but, ultimately, less cohesive and engaging finale. I was surprised, but I wasn't fulfilled.
That said, there was the possibility of a sequel set up at the end of this book, and do I want to read that sequel? Absolutely. So, I guess I can't say that the final act turned me off completely.
Rating: 3/5
Imaginary Strangers is set to be released July 23, 2024.
jupiter__reads's review
4.0
Another great thriller from Minka! Had me captivated and curious the whole read with such an unxpected twist!
bookish_becka's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
A masterfully written psychological thriller.
Imaginary Strangers explores Camille's past and present experience of family. The stories shared during Camille's therapy sessions paint a harrowing picture of her childhood, as well as a complex portrait of Camille's psyche. When a seemingly imaginary force threatens the family Camille has created with her husband and two children, we learn even more about Camille - traumatized daughter, perfect wife, and dangerously protective mother.
I knew before finishing the second chapter that this would be a five star read! As a psychotherapist myself, I was captivated by how Minka Kent portrayed sociopathy. I appreciated her nuanced understanding of how individuals and families relate to this diagnosis. Profession aside, I was just plain hooked on this book! Completely hanging on tension and suspense leading up to major plot twists. Raises the bar on what is considered a psychological thriller.
Thank you to Net Galley, Thomas & Mercer, and Minka Kent for the opportunity to enjoy and review a digital advanced copy.
Imaginary Strangers explores Camille's past and present experience of family. The stories shared during Camille's therapy sessions paint a harrowing picture of her childhood, as well as a complex portrait of Camille's psyche. When a seemingly imaginary force threatens the family Camille has created with her husband and two children, we learn even more about Camille - traumatized daughter, perfect wife, and dangerously protective mother.
I knew before finishing the second chapter that this would be a five star read! As a psychotherapist myself, I was captivated by how Minka Kent portrayed sociopathy. I appreciated her nuanced understanding of how individuals and families relate to this diagnosis. Profession aside, I was just plain hooked on this book! Completely hanging on tension and suspense leading up to major plot twists. Raises the bar on what is considered a psychological thriller.
Thank you to Net Galley, Thomas & Mercer, and Minka Kent for the opportunity to enjoy and review a digital advanced copy.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Stalking, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, and Child abuse
minimicropup's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
I wanted to like it, I tried to like it. I just didn’t like it. However – you may like it! I’d file this as YMMV.
Energy: Distressed. Remiss. Twitchy.
Scene: 🇺🇸 An upper middle-class neighbourhood in San Diego, California.
Perspective: We follow a stay-at-home spouse and parent diagnosed with a psychological condition resulting from a traumatic childhood at the hands of an evil mother. As they manage that trauma, their six-year-old daughter starts bringing up things she should have no knowledge of.
🐺 Growls: The execution of the story through spoon-feeding, over-reminding, and psych textbook info-dumping. Weak dialogue (why did everyone speak like they were at a work conference?). An unnecessary villain monologue that conflicts with the villains own rationale.
🐕 Howls: Too ‘loud’ pointing out clues. Contradictory reactions and outcomes (even with suspended disbelief on). Unsatisfying, convenient ending. Subplots ending abruptly or disappearing entirely.
🐩 Tail Wags: The concept of the story. The mystery.
🤔 Random Thoughts Rants:
- This book felt like me in creative writing classes. Even when the teacher loves the idea, they'll go through two red pens marking me 😳. It was randomly switching directions, taking a firm stance then backing off. We start with a deep dive exploration of how Camille is determined to avoid becoming a stereotype after her diagnosis. Suddenly we switch to everyone is an over-the-top stereotype 💀.
- The ending was cartoony. For it to work there had to be a sudden flip in other characters' personalities, and our ‘big bad’ had to be psychic with the ability to control outcomes they’d have no influence over. It was so silly and ‘scheme-y’ when it didn’t have to be.
- Camille didn’t experience her condition convincingly, she just kept telling us what the criteria are and that she has them.
- There’s some romanticization of personality disorders and normalizing of toxic parenting traits, both in the story and in the metaphors used.
- I wish we could have gotten an outside perspective from the ‘villain’, or read the therapists notes directly. It would give us relevant insight for the rest of the story and replace being in Camille’s head for her therapy sessions followed by her reminding us of what she learned (we were just there, we remember!),
- If you want a simple, dark, campy unhinged domestic thriller mom trope that starts off as a literary suspense character study, and are ready to suspend disbelief and go-with-the-flow-no-analyzing-allowed, I can see enjoying this. I think if I went in knowing that, it would have been less frustrating.
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🎬 Tale-Telling: Simple, direct, a little cheesy, hand-holding to highlight the plot and character traits.
👥 Characters: Flawed but inconsistent and one-dimensional. If you want to believe a character is unhinged and unreliable, then it’s true. Misdiagnosed and mistreated? Also true. Evil and abusive? That works too.
🤓 Reader Role: Deep in Camille’s head (first-person POV) with lots of reflecting, introspection, and inner monologue ranting.
🗺️ World-Building: Sparse, but not really that important for the story. The reader can fill in the blanks.
🔥 Fuel: Cliff-hangers, twists, and escalating stakes. How is the daughter finding out snippets of her mom’s childhood? Who or what is this imaginary friend? Is the family in danger? Will Camille have to reveal all? It was intriguing but stalled out a little near the end and ultimately fizzled out.
📖 Cred: Suspension of disbelief, head-empty-no-thoughts, with moments of idealization
🚙 Journey: Needs repairs. A friend hypes up their fireworks and bonfire party. Stand by while they set it up, describing how spectacular it will be. A few sparks and puffs of smoke later I’m cold and disappointed. And find out they forgot to bring enough wood for a fire. Also, no snacks.
Mood Reading Match-Up:
- Idling cars. School bell ringing. Children playing. Carpeted footsteps. Sunny days. Shopping carts. Washing dishes.
- Psychological duels, manipulations and lies, traitor among us mystery
- Simplistic, morally grey antihero monologues
Content Heads-Up: Suicide (recall, graphic; brief). Abusive parent (physical, emotional, mental; descriptive recall). Stalking. Complex post-traumatic stress disorder. Personality disorder. Drugging. Threats (veiled; implied). Forced institutionalization (brief, discussed).
Rep: Cisgender. Heterosexual. White, ambiguous, and undescribed Americans. C-PTSD.
👀 Format: Advance Reader’s Copy from Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley
My musings 💖 powered by puppy snuggles 🐶
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse
Moderate: Murder, Mental illness, Suicide, and Stalking
Minor: Forced institutionalization
cherihy808's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
3.5 ⭐️ (rounded up to 4 on Goodreads). Where to start with this one? Ok, in all honestly this was a 4-5 start right from the start. It was hard to put done. Camille (the main character), I surprisingly liked even though her character was diagnosed early on as a sociopath. The story line was disturbing but written in such a way that you just wanted to keep reading to find out what was going to happen. “Bestie” and “Imaginary” added a creepy factor to the book, although I will say that Bestie kinda just disappeared randomly so not quite sure that she even needed to be in the book.
So why would I drop to 3.5 if I said it was 4-5 throughout….well, it was the ending. It was kind of predictable and even though it ended okay, I just kept waiting for a huge “wow” moment and I don’t feel like I ever got it. The epilogue was worth rounding it back up to the 4 stars because it ended with the possibility of a sequel. Sequels are a hit or miss for me but I would absolutely check it out if there ever is one because I’d be curious to see what else is in store for these characters!
Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
So why would I drop to 3.5 if I said it was 4-5 throughout….well, it was the ending. It was kind of predictable and even though it ended okay, I just kept waiting for a huge “wow” moment and I don’t feel like I ever got it. The epilogue was worth rounding it back up to the 4 stars because it ended with the possibility of a sequel. Sequels are a hit or miss for me but I would absolutely check it out if there ever is one because I’d be curious to see what else is in store for these characters!
Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
robynensolis's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
beesreadingshelf's review
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
mstall_'s review
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I read this book in seven hours!!
Okay, I have not read a story so twisty and compelling in SUCH a long time. I was riveted from the first page, and all day I have been reading this book at any opportunity that came my way.
Imaginary Strangers is a twisty, mysterious, psychological thriller centered on Camille Prescott and her picture perfect family. She lives in a wealthy neighborhood in San Diego, her kids go to the best school, she has an amazingly perfect husband, oh and she is a diagnosed sociopath.
Camille has curated the perfect facade to keep anyone and everyone from looking too closely at her life and her upbringing. The book time jumps between Camille in the present and Camille in therapy a few years prior. Current day Camille has graduated from therapy and is enjoying sunny California when her young daughter starts playing with an imaginary friend who turns out to be not so imaginary. As Camille's past threatens to implode her present, she must come to terms with what it means to be a mother hell bent on protecting her children, and also a sociopath.
I LOVED this book, probably because as a therapist it is not often that I read very accurate descriptions of therapy/therapists. I thought her flashbacks to her time in therapy were so well written and portrayed accurately. There is a line where she wonders if therapists take so long getting to their point because they spend so much time not being able to talk. That made me laugh out loud (it's true). I also so deeply appreciate how Minka explores what sociopathy means and how our perceptions of people with sociopathy are grossly lacking. Minka flawlessly explores how the circumstances of our life do not have to dictate the rest of our future, even when we are handed difficult diagnoses.
This is book one in a series, and I hope to god I am able to get an ARC of the next book because I don't want to wait a second longer than I have to. A huge thanks to NetGalley for letting me read an ARC for an honest review!
Okay, I have not read a story so twisty and compelling in SUCH a long time. I was riveted from the first page, and all day I have been reading this book at any opportunity that came my way.
Imaginary Strangers is a twisty, mysterious, psychological thriller centered on Camille Prescott and her picture perfect family. She lives in a wealthy neighborhood in San Diego, her kids go to the best school, she has an amazingly perfect husband, oh and she is a diagnosed sociopath.
Camille has curated the perfect facade to keep anyone and everyone from looking too closely at her life and her upbringing. The book time jumps between Camille in the present and Camille in therapy a few years prior. Current day Camille has graduated from therapy and is enjoying sunny California when her young daughter starts playing with an imaginary friend who turns out to be not so imaginary. As Camille's past threatens to implode her present, she must come to terms with what it means to be a mother hell bent on protecting her children, and also a sociopath.
I LOVED this book, probably because as a therapist it is not often that I read very accurate descriptions of therapy/therapists. I thought her flashbacks to her time in therapy were so well written and portrayed accurately. There is a line where she wonders if therapists take so long getting to their point because they spend so much time not being able to talk. That made me laugh out loud (it's true). I also so deeply appreciate how Minka explores what sociopathy means and how our perceptions of people with sociopathy are grossly lacking. Minka flawlessly explores how the circumstances of our life do not have to dictate the rest of our future, even when we are handed difficult diagnoses.
This is book one in a series, and I hope to god I am able to get an ARC of the next book because I don't want to wait a second longer than I have to. A huge thanks to NetGalley for letting me read an ARC for an honest review!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, and Stalking
raikowlreads's review
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for granting me an advanced readers copy.
I would say that about 70-80% you get a bit info dumped about Camille's past and PTSD triggers. It sometimes got so much, that I started skimming over the too descriptive parts of the book.
However, Camille was definitely an interesting person to follow as a main character. More because Sociopaths are often seen in media as killers, not people who are very protective over the people they do care about.
I didn't expect the ending, but everything did click together once I started thinking more about it. I thought the ending part was more exciting to read, the reveal was great. Not everyone seems like they way they are.
I would say that about 70-80% you get a bit info dumped about Camille's past and PTSD triggers. It sometimes got so much, that I started skimming over the too descriptive parts of the book.
However, Camille was definitely an interesting person to follow as a main character. More because Sociopaths are often seen in media as killers, not people who are very protective over the people they do care about.
I didn't expect the ending, but everything did click together once I started thinking more about it. I thought the ending part was more exciting to read, the reveal was great. Not everyone seems like they way they are.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Mental illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Medical trauma, Child abuse, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Stalking, and Kidnapping
Minor: Murder
jesscozyreads's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0