Imaginary Friend Audiobook By Stephen Chbosky cover art

Imaginary Friend

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Imaginary Friend

By: Stephen Chbosky
Narrated by: Christine Lakin
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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
Coming of Age Fiction Genre Fiction Ghosts Gothic Horror Literary Fiction Psychological Small Town & Rural Supernatural Thriller & Suspense Haunted Scary Paranormal Exciting Psychological Horror

Critic reviews

"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
Intriguing Premise • Creative Concept • Exceptional Voice Acting • Well-developed Characters • Immersive Atmosphere

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loved this just got done reading the institute by king so my expectations were high for another great book and this did not disappoint. pulled me in right off the bat and never let go!

Amazing

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I was totally enthralled with this story and production. You will have to be able to set aside hours to listen.

WOW!

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When I first heard of this book I was immensely excited, the Perks of Being a Wallflower is my favorite book and I absolutely love horror! However now that I’ve finished the book I just feel drained. The book is easily twice as long as it needed to be, and I felt like it was that length out of a desire to make a TV show on a streaming service out of it. Speaking of streaming service tv shows I feel like this book is very heavily indebted to Stranger Things almost to the point of being derivative for reasons I won’t get into due to spoilers. Lastly my biggest complaint was that this novel doesn’t sell itself or label itself as religious fiction, but especially in the last third or fourth it most definitely is, which for me was a little bit off putting to be mislead like that by the writer and publisher. It pains me to say that in good conscious I cannot recommend this book to horror fans or fans of Stephen Chbosky past work.

I really wanted to love this book

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narrator moved seamlessly between characters.story is fun..well written and easy to follow..engaging..sometimes ling..but ultimately satisfying

very well done..interesting..very very long lol

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It's like The Stand, but with a kid. It's a good story, but about 7 hours too long

This is a loooong one

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