A review by angus_mckeogh
Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky

1.0

This one was rough. It’s been a long time but I found The Perks of Being a Wallflower to have a quiet, underlying brilliance; therefore, I was constantly wondering what had happened to Chbosky and why he’d never published anything else. Now I know. I had massive expectations going into this and was amazed with a sprinkling of joy when I saw that not only was Chbosky publishing a new novel but it was also in the horror genre. I preordered immediately and waited patiently. Months later this brick is delivered to my door. It’s hulking. 720 pages. Reminds me of a King book. I’m excited to get started. The first 50 pages are intriguing. The remaining 670 pages are fatuous, uninteresting, and bloated with nonsense. A character named The Nice Man and another called The Hissing Lady. An immaculate conception. A treehouse to another world. Sound fascinating? Think again. This was an epic slog. The story goes on and on and gets more outlandish. You’d think a semi-cohesive novel at 720 pages would warrant perhaps two stars. But I just hated it. What a colossal disappointment. Ridiculous. But at least this answers my question: why hasn’t Chbosky published anything else? Case in point. Wow.