Nova Ren Suma weaves a spell of words in her compelling book Imaginary Girls. I was immediately drawn into her richly detailed story. I will admit that a healthy dose of WTF escaped my lips as I turned the pages, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Imaginary Girls
Chloe and Ruby are sisters. Ruby is the type of girl who is dazzling in all that she does, drawing people in with just a grin. She exudes charisma and can get whatever she wants with just the tilt of her smile. Chloe is Ruby’s younger sister and a bit awkward. Imaginary Girls opens at a reservoir party in ‘upstate NY’, but more like the pretend upstate because everyone knows upstate is really Buffalo and beyond. Anyways, Ruby brags about Chloe and says she can swim so well she might as well be a fish, essentially challenging Chloe to swim across the reservoir. This leads to Chloe finding a drowned girl, and eventually moving away from Ruby and living with her estranged father. FYI Ruby and Chloe have the same mother, but different fathers.
Y’all something is ROTTEN in the state of Denmark. There are sinister happenings. As Chloe begins to unravel the truth of the reservoir party several years ago, she comes to some startling conclusions and questions her sanity.
Honestly, I found Chloe a bit flat, although it’s obvious that she is in awe of her sister Ruby, and quite frankly I am too. I wish I had the power to get people to do whatever I want just by tilting my head a certain way. Ruby is enigmatic and my attention was held hostage whenever she showed up. Chloe seems to just float along without too much of a backbone. And while she does exhibit growth, I’m not all that impressed with her.
What I will say is do not go into this expecting a run of the mill contemporary read about sisters. Imaginary Girls is more paranormal flavored, and thus you should adjust your expectations accordingly so you are not set up for disappointment.
Disclosure: Received for review via Library Thing’s Early Reviewers Program.
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Sounds like a good paranormal read…Great honest review! Sorry to hear the characters are sort of lacking in emotion…
Thanks for the honest review, April. I’m still looking forward to trying this one out, actually had it in my hands to buy today, but was trying to be good so I put it back. But I think maybe I will put it on reserve at the library before I decide to buy it now.
Hi April 🙂 Thanks for a great review! I stopped by to check what you thought about the book, since I have read and reviewed it not long ago myself. I loved the eerie feeling of this book, even tho I didn’t have any clue what was going on until the last 50 pages. Very unique YA novel.. (is it really YA?)
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
I found the book to be a haunting read, and had the hardest time writing my review for it! It is very difficult to describe this book – it defies categorization I guess.
I agree with you about the main character and feeling somewhat detached from her. The sister Ruby really does steal all her scenes.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on IG.
Nice refreshing review. I have always loved this cover. I have read many reviews on this book, none as frank and honest as yours. I didn’t know it had a paranormal slant to it. Thanks for the heads up.
I did think this one was a contemp so I’m glad you put in it’s more of a paranormal. (Nothing wrong with paranormals of course.) I’ve heard a lot of raving reviews on this one, but I still dunno if it’s my type of read. Thanks for the review!
And btw, I dunno why I hadn’t read your blog more often because I heart your reviews something fierce 🙂
I bought this book based solely on it’s cover (which I LOVE), so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. Thanks for the heads up! I’m looking forward to starting it.