Imaginary Friends
Stephen Chbosky, 2019
Grand Central Publishing
720 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781538731338
Summary
A young boy is haunted by a voice in his head in this acclaimed epic of literary horror from the 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 long 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 treehouse 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 readers 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. Read it with the lights on. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—January 25, 1970
• Where—Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
• Education—B.A., University of Southern California
• Currently—lives in Los Angeles, California
Chbosky was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and raised in the Pittsburgh suburb of Upper St. Clair, Pennsylvania. He is the son of Lea (nee Meyer), a tax preparer, and Fred G. Chbosky, a steel company executive and consultant to CFOs. He was raised Catholic, and has a sister, Stacy. As a teenager, Chbosky "enjoyed a good blend of the classics, horror, and fantasy." He was heavily influenced by J. D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye and the writing of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Tennessee Williams.
Chbosky graduated from Upper St. Clair High School in 1988, around which time he met Stewart Stern, screenwriter of the 1955 James Dean film Rebel Without a Cause. Stern became Chbosky's a friend and mentor, and proved a major influence on Chbosky's career.
Career
In 1992, Chbosky graduated from the University of Southern California's screenwriting program. He wrote, directed, and acted in the 1995 independent film The Four Corners of Nowhere, which got Chbosky his first agent, was accepted by the Sundance Film Festival, and became one of the first films shown on the Sundance Channel. In the late 1990s, Chbosky wrote several unproduced screenplays, including ones titled Audrey Hepburn's Neck and Schoolhouse Rock.
In 1994, Chbosky was working on a "very different type of book" than The Perks of Being a Wallflower when he wrote the line, "I guess that's just one of the perks of being a wallflower." Chbosky recalled that he "wrote that line. And stopped. And realized that somewhere in that [sentence] was the kid I was really trying to find." After several years of gestation, Chbosky began researching and writing The Perks of Being a Wallflower, an epistolary novel that follows the intellectual and emotional maturation of a teenager who uses the alias Charlie over the course of his freshman year of high school. The book is semi-autobiographical; Chbosky has said that he "relate[s] to Charlie[...] But my life in high school was in many ways different."
The book, Chbosky's first novel, was published by MTV Books in 1999, and was an immediate popular success with teenage readers; by 2000, the novel was MTV Books' best-selling title, and The New York Times noted in 2007 that it had sold more than 700,000 copies and "is passed from adolescent to adolescent like a hot potato." Wallflower also stirred up controversy due to Chbosky's portrayal of teen sexuality and drug use. The book has been banned in several schools and appeared on the American Library Association's 2006 and 2008 lists of the 10 most frequently challenged books.
In 2000, Chbosky edited Pieces, an anthology of short stories. The same year, he worked with director Jon Sherman on a film adaptation of Michael Chabon's novel The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, though the project fell apart by August 2000. Chbosky wrote the screenplay for the 2005 film adaptation of the Broadway rock musical Rent, which received mixed reviews. In late 2005, Chbosky said that he was writing a film adaptation of The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
In the mid-2000s, Chbosky decided, on the advice of his agent, to begin looking for work in television in addition to film. Finding he "enjoyed the people [he met who were working] in television," Chbosky agreed to serve as co-creator, executive producer, and writer of the CBS serial television drama Jericho, which premiered in September 2006. The series revolves around the inhabitants of the fictional small town of Jericho, Kansas, in the aftermath of several nuclear attacks. Chbosky has said the relationship between Jake Green, the main character, and his mother, reflected "me and my mother in a lot of ways." The first season of Jericho received lackluster ratings, and CBS canceled the show in May 2007. A grassroots campaign to revive the series convinced CBS to renew the series for a second season, which premiered on February 12, 2008, before being canceled once more in March 2008.
It has been announced that Chbosky has written the screenplay for the movie The Perks of Being a Wallflower and will also direct it. Production of the film adaptation took place in Spring 2011, and is now completed. The film stars Logan Lerman and Emma Watson, and was released in September, 2012. Chbosky resides in Los Angeles, California. (From Wikipedia.)
Book Reviews
Twenty years after his smash hit novel, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky returns… [with] an ambitious tale narrated through multiple perspectives, mashing together horror, fairy tales and the (rewritten) Bible.… But Chbosky's true skill is in turning a book of absolute horrors—both fantastical and real—into an uplifting yarn. [This is] a book about so much—fate, destiny, redemption, power.… Chbosky has his eye firmly on humanity.
New York Times Book Review
Imaginary Friend is an all-out, not-for-the-fainthearted horror novel, one of the most effective and ambitious of recent years.… Perhaps its most impressive aspect is the confidence with which Chbosky deploys the more fantastical elements of his complex narrative.… A very human story with universal implications.
Washington Post
Chbosky's horror writing stands on its own… a gleeful meditation.… [T]he nine years Chbosky reportedly spent writing the book shows in his well-crafted scares, snappy pacing and finely turned plot. Imaginary Friend is well worth the time for those who dare.
Time
An epic work of horror.… Ambitious and compulsively readable… a Grand Guignol exploration of what it means to have faith, even in the face of absolute hopelessness.… His willingness to pursue and present answers to such meaningful queries is what elevates Imaginary Friend from a more than competent attempt at the horror genre to a formidable work…. Imaginary Friend is a book that far outstrips the expectations of his chosen genre.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
[Y]ou won't want to miss this spooky, surreal thriller.… You'll feel locked in the battle between good and evil as Kate and Christopher fight for their lives.
Good Housekeeping
[A] tale of good vs. evil that never gels.… Chbosky brings deep humanity to his characters and creates genuinely unsettling tableaux,… but… repetition extends the narrative while diminishing its impact.… This doorstopper is long on words but short on execution.
Publishers Weekly
This doorstopper literary horror novel is thematically rich and feels cinematic.… [T]he last third of the book feels overly drawn out… a bit long-winded but still impressive in scope and truly scary.
Library Journal
A creepy horror yarn that would do Stephen King proud.… The reader will want to be sure that no one is hiding behind the chair…. That's the nature of a good scary story—and this one is excellent. A pleasing book for those who like to scare themselves silly.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. "I will protect you," Christopher silently resolves to his mother at the end of Chapter 1 of Imaginary Friend. Discuss the various ways that Christopher protects his mother over the course of the novel, as well as the ways Kate protects Christopher. What does it mean to protect those you love? From what should one’s loved ones be protected? Does this impulse ultimately do more harm or good, whether in your own personal experience or in Chbosky’s novel?
2. Imaginary Friend is a different genre than Chbosky’s celebrated debut novel, The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Have you read both books? If so, in what ways are the novels similar? In what ways are they different? If you haven’t read The Perks of Being a Wallflower, do you think you’ll now be seeking it out after reading Imaginary Friend? If you’ve already read Perks, do you think you’ll be rereading it after reading Chbosky’s second novel, or will you think of his debut in a different light?
3. What other novels, TV shows, or movies do you feel share a kinship with Imaginary Friend? Where in the canon of horror and contemporary literary fables does Chbosky’s novel fall, in your estimation?
4. What or who do you think was the cloud with the smiling face that first led Christopher into the Mission Street Woods?
5. Kate chooses to raise her son Catholic, so he can grow up the same way his father had grown up; Mary Katherine, who plays an important role in the story, is also religious. Discuss the role of religion and spirituality in the novel.
6. Discuss the phrase "To think it is to do it," which Chbosky uses to explore a handful of different themes in the novel. What does the phrase mean to Mary Katherine? What does it mean to Christopher?
7. Discuss the role that nightmares play in Imaginary Friend. What does Chbosky’s novel seem to suggest about the things that haunt us, whether during our waking hours or when we’re asleep?
8. What conclusions can you make about the nature of evil as Chbosky describes it? Of good as Chbosky describes it?
9. Imaginary Friend takes places in the months leading up to Christmas. Why do you think Chbosky chose to set this story then? What effect does the countdown to Christmas lend to the overall mood and tone of the read?
10. The Perks of Being a Wallflower is, in part, famous for a handful of quotable lines like "I feel infinite" and "We accept the love we think we deserve." If Imaginary Friend becomes, like Chbosky’s debut, a novel that readers continue to discuss for years to come, what lines from his newest seem most likely to you to stand the test of time? What about this novel might readers remember long after finishing it?
11. How does this book help you to better understand people with mental and/or social disabilities? Does it make you think differently about the young or old people, or see them in a different light?
12. What do you think is the scariest part of Imaginary Friend? Explain why.
13. What was your favorite part of Imaginary Friend? Explain why.
(Questions issued by the publisher.)