Scan barcode
A review by cousinrachel
Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma
3.0
It's a sight better than most teen fiction, one reason being the unique premise. I loved that the central relationship wasn't about the heroine and her smoldering-eyes boyfriend. I actually bought this one, too: instead of stating mindlessly over and over that the sisters were close, the author showed it as well as told with instances of how Ruby instead of the mother raised Chloe, and the "traditions" they had like watching movies on Wednesdays that made the bond special.
Creepy descriptions of the sea people, too. I won't spoil them for you by quoting here, but it built some atmosphere without drowning (ha) in prose that tried too hard with nonsensical or stretched metaphors. Occasionally there was some overstatement that reduced the impact, like describing death as a "swirling, sinking fate" - come on, it's only dying, nobody's going to the ninth level of hell. But at least the author didn't sound like she was going for the purple prize.
I give Suma props, because I HATED Ruby. Absolutely wanted to punch her eyeballs, and quite often felt that some of her attitude had rubbed off on Chloe, who can be a spoiled brat. It wasn't announced all at once the way Ruby is (or maybe not explicitly stated at all, since it's coming from Chloe's perspective), but more inched out slowly. In spite of all that, I still found the sisterhood thing sweet in a twisted, overly-attached way, ; I'm sort of impressed that I ended up despising Ruby but caring about her, more or less, in the context of her relationship to Chloe.
This Ruby-hatred made me hope for a certain ending, which didn't happen and that was especially disappointing because an earlier event had seemed to hint that it would. I didn't like the ending, actually. I did not think it fit well with Ruby's character, which I will explain below under the word "SPOILERS" for those of us who have finished the book.
Imaginary Girls was engaging in a creepy-twins way: spooky feel to it, characters are intriguing from a distance more than in an up-close way that makes what happens to them matter personally. But probably caring about them personally would have ruined the spooky effect. It was a competent effort a step above most shelf-littering rubbish, even if the conclusion did turn out to be a bit flat.
SPOILERS:
After Ruby released the balloons with directives on them, Chloe said she wondered how far Ruby's power went and if she would have to stop her one day. This made me think that Chloe and Ruby would conflict over Ruby's manipulativeness and selfishness (taking people's money, making them love her, etc.). That would have been an interesting problem for Chloe, who idolized Ruby but also would have had to prevent her from harming people, while also harming Ruby herself in the process by making her wither physically, as she seemed to do when she was drained or challenged. I wanted to see Chloe go along up to a point, but then decide that Ruby had gone too far and have to deal with the emotional strain of opposing her sister.
The real ending where Ruby dies was a bummer, not because she drowned, but because I did not care about her enough to feel bad, as I apparently was supposed to do. I know I said I liked the relationship, but not that much. Ruby being a monster who felt the world existed to serve her and her sister, there should have been a follow-up on that instead of "oh poor Ruby, she sacrificed herself". I DON'T CARE. Drowning was too good for that [unprintable tirade].
Creepy descriptions of the sea people, too. I won't spoil them for you by quoting here, but it built some atmosphere without drowning (ha) in prose that tried too hard with nonsensical or stretched metaphors. Occasionally there was some overstatement that reduced the impact, like describing death as a "swirling, sinking fate" - come on, it's only dying, nobody's going to the ninth level of hell. But at least the author didn't sound like she was going for the purple prize.
I give Suma props, because I HATED Ruby. Absolutely wanted to punch her eyeballs, and quite often felt that some of her attitude had rubbed off on Chloe, who can be a spoiled brat. It wasn't announced all at once the way Ruby is (or maybe not explicitly stated at all, since it's coming from Chloe's perspective), but more inched out slowly. In spite of all that, I still found the sisterhood thing sweet in a twisted, overly-attached way, ; I'm sort of impressed that I ended up despising Ruby but caring about her, more or less, in the context of her relationship to Chloe.
This Ruby-hatred made me hope for a certain ending, which didn't happen and that was especially disappointing because an earlier event had seemed to hint that it would. I didn't like the ending, actually. I did not think it fit well with Ruby's character, which I will explain below under the word "SPOILERS" for those of us who have finished the book.
Imaginary Girls was engaging in a creepy-twins way: spooky feel to it, characters are intriguing from a distance more than in an up-close way that makes what happens to them matter personally. But probably caring about them personally would have ruined the spooky effect. It was a competent effort a step above most shelf-littering rubbish, even if the conclusion did turn out to be a bit flat.
SPOILERS:
After Ruby released the balloons with directives on them, Chloe said she wondered how far Ruby's power went and if she would have to stop her one day. This made me think that Chloe and Ruby would conflict over Ruby's manipulativeness and selfishness (taking people's money, making them love her, etc.). That would have been an interesting problem for Chloe, who idolized Ruby but also would have had to prevent her from harming people, while also harming Ruby herself in the process by making her wither physically, as she seemed to do when she was drained or challenged. I wanted to see Chloe go along up to a point, but then decide that Ruby had gone too far and have to deal with the emotional strain of opposing her sister.
The real ending where Ruby dies was a bummer, not because she drowned, but because I did not care about her enough to feel bad, as I apparently was supposed to do. I know I said I liked the relationship, but not that much. Ruby being a monster who felt the world existed to serve her and her sister, there should have been a follow-up on that instead of "oh poor Ruby, she sacrificed herself". I DON'T CARE. Drowning was too good for that [unprintable tirade].