Imaginary Girls

Written by Nova Ren Suma

Narrated by Emma Galvin

Nova Ren Suma bursts onto the young adult scene with this tantalizing debut novel. During a drunken party-hosted by her beloved sister Ruby-14-year-old Chloe discovers a dead body floating in the reservoir. Sent away for two years, Chloe returns to face unsettling surprises, including a disturbing truth that Ruby has been suppressing. "Eerie and gripping and told with lush and inviting scenes, Imaginary Girls will haunt its readers."-Aimee Bender, best-selling author

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jun 13, 2014
• ISBN: 9781490639314

Nova Ren Suma

Nova Ren Suma was a fellow in fiction with the New York Foundation for the Arts and received an MFA in fiction from Columbia University. She is the author of Imaginary Girls and she lives in New York. Find out more at novaren.com or follow her on Twitter at @novaren.

Reviews for Imaginary Girls

[leirali · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is one of my "library regrets," because I borrowed it and now I wish I own it. (I'll have it on my shelf someday!)This is a very gorgeous, strange book that I can't seem to wrap my mind around enough to formulate it into a review. I loved it. Nova Ren Suma's writing is so fantastic and it speaks to me in a very special way. In most places, the writing soars above the plot. And as a word enthusiast, I appreciate that A LOT - though plot and characters are important, too. Something felt a little bit . . . missing towards the end, which is why I can't award this a solid five star rating. But this book was very special, very ethereal, very vibrant, and I enjoyed every glittering moment.

[libheroine · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

During the first part of the book, I started to lose interest, then the confusion set in. Chloe's Ruby fascination was overbearing. However, all these points aside, I didn't put it down.

I liked the writing at some points, even though I felt stumped and bored at parts. Also, I didn't fully grasp the magical realism or "ghost story" style, or maybe I didn't feel confident that I knew for sure what was happening or what was intended stylistically by Suma. If a Teen picks this up and asks my opinion, I would recommend with a little critique about Chloe's fixation with her sister. Not my favorite YA, but I was able to get through it.

[pmlyayakkers · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Chloe lives with her sister Ruby in a small Hudson Valley, NY town. One night, swimming in the reservoir, Chloe finds a dead girl in a rowboat. Her father takes her to live with him, but two years later, Ruby comes to get her. Upon returning to her home town, Chloe finds the dead girl alive, and nobody thinks it strange.

[readerspeak_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

SUCH a strange, strange story! It starts in a really normal way, with younger sister Chloe looking up to her older sister Ruby, at her charisma and beauty, and feeling in awe of her. Ruby takes care of Chloe since their mother is an absent alcoholic and Chloe's father lives several states away. The bond between the sisters is set up in great detail. After a girl shows up dead in the reservoir--itself personified in creepy detail--where the girls party and swim, Chloe is sent to live with her father. From there, the story turns strange, and without giving too much away, I kept waiting for the author to reveal what was REALLY happening. What was REAL? I kept trying to categorize this book in my mind - was it a mystery? horror? supernatural? psychological? I found myself losing interest as the story progressed and felt ambivalent about the end.

[larissabookgirl_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

When Ruby said something I may not have always listened to her, but I always believed her. When Rudy said it was impossible for me to ever drown, I believed her. When Ruby said she would never leave me, I believed her. When Ruby said the impossible, I believed her. I had no reason not too. Everything she said always had a way of coming true. That was the magic of Ruby.Being Ruby's little sister meant always being seen as Ruby's little sister, but I never really minded. Although everyone loved Ruby, would do anything for Ruby, in the end she only loved me. My sister practically raised me; she was the only one who ever cared for me. But after that night at the reservoir, the attempted swim across, I realised just how far she was willing to go to save me.Imaginary Girls is a tale of love, sacrifice and the bond shared between two sisters. While the captivating and magical Ruby is the centre of Chloe's world, it is the reserved and awkward Chloe who is the centre of this story. A poignant, raw and fantastic story where girls rise from the dead, people live in underwater towns, balloons bring midnight messages of love and one sister will never stop believing.

[reader1009-863136 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Teen/adult fiction. Mesmerizing suspense, brilliant and very dark at the same time. Awesome.

[banoczi_henrietta · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

it's not really my thing so i don't think i was able to appreciate it as much as it deserved, but it was still good.

[carol420 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The story is, in a nutshell, a mystery. It's difficult for me to give you a synopsis of the plot, but suffice it to say it involves a mysterious reservoir, two sisters morbidly obsessed with one another, a dead girl in a rowboat and a series of unexplained events.

This is one of the most distressing books I have read this year or, probably, ever and all I feel is that I just did not get it. The long awaited climax was, in the end, so anticlimactic that it really distressed me. For about 80% of the book I could not figure out, for the life of me, what was happening and why. I was expecting some paranormal element to give an explanation to all my questions but, in the end, it didn't happen. It was just all surreal. The fact that I could not find one likable character in this book though, really detracted from my enjoyment. Not only could I not justify the absurdity of some of the actions of the characters, but I could never, not even at the end, sympathize with any of them. Least of all Ruby.

[heatherlinc · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This book was just plain weird. I ended up skimming through the last half just to see if there were any resolutions - there weren't!! Not for me.

[aliceoddcabinet · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Stunning, poetic, mysterious. No easy answers to strange and difficult questions. Just beautiful.

[bonniemarjorie · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

“…down in what was once Olive, you could still find the townspeople who never left. They looked up into their murky sky, waiting to catch sight of our boat bottoms and our fishing lines, counting our trespassing feet.”Ruby and Chloe are sisters that live in upstate New York together. Their mother is forever absent and the two have learned to only rely on one another. The town they live in is located near a massive reservoir that is reported to have submerged a town called Olive, and older sister Ruby tells the story of the town as if the people are still down their living their daily lives. One night at a party taking place at the reservoir, Ruby boasts that her sister could swim across the reservoir and if so inclined even go down and get a souvenir from Olive. The only thing she brings back from her swim is a lone rowboat in the middle of the reservoir where the body of a dead girl lies.After the rowboat incident, Chloe moves to Pennsylvania to live with her dad and step-mother, leaving Ruby behind. A random text every now and then is the only communication Chloe has with her sister, but two years go by and her sister has appeared suddenly in town to coerce her to return, insisting that things are back to normal. Chloe does return and finds that things are in fact back to the way they were, but they aren’t truly. Something eerie and mysterious is at work and Chloe knows that Ruby’s the reason for it all. The strange stories her sister tells about the town of Olive, and of the reservoir, and of the dead girl named London are all connected somehow and Chloe’s curiosity is overpowering. She trusts her sister implicitly despite the strangeness that her hometown now exudes.Imaginary Girls is a mesmerizing tale that will leave you contemplating the magic that threads itself through this novel. It’s a strangely horrific tale with a subtle delivery causing the eeriness to come upon you slowly. The story of the town of Olive and the people that still live down there. Imagining their eyes following you as you swim in the reservoir. Ruby’s enthralling power and influence she holds over the town and its inhabitants is intriguing until she begins to take it too far.Suma’s writing will captivate you with its skillful blend of magical realism but the focal point of the story, the unbreakable bond between two sisters, makes a powerful statement.

[sunset_x_cocktail · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The chill factor in this is worth five stars alone. Review to come.

[n.t.embe · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was such a weird book.

I still don't really know what to make of it. I'm sitting here, and I don't know how I feel about this book. I don't know how I feel about the characters, or all that happened... or... anything. I think I'm a little dumbfounded, actually. Or maybe just in some kind of lingering, soft shock of a sort I've never had before.

I guess it's because I'm confused, because there's so much to this story, these characters, and this entire book that isn't tangible. When you first pick it up it strikes you almost within the first few pages. You think it's a normal teenage story, and the weird thing is that it is for all intents and purposes. But then there's this oddness to it that you can't quite put your finger on. The longer you read, the more it creeps up inside of you and wraps around you, like a fog, until you can't see anything beyond the space that you're in right now. Like there's no world that exists outside of that spot right there that you're in. And all that exists in the entire world is you and what comes into that fog. Only you have no control over what comes in there with you, into that space where you can see something--a bench or chair--or someone, someone who doesn't talk about anything outside of the fog, because nothing else exists outside of the fog, where you can't see. Outside in the fog, there is nothing else.

That's what reading this book is like. And it creeps up on you and steals over your heart and mind until you start to forget that anything else exists outside of this town in the book, outside of what happens there, outside of Ruby. Nothing else matters. Nothing else does matter. Ruby is all.

Ruby is.

Nothing else in all the world matters. She is everything.

And the scariest and best part about this book is that the author has the power to make you believe this. Not believe in it. You don't question it. It is. As sure as you live, breathe, hear, smell, feel, see, and exist, you believe.

My younger sister read this book and didn't like it. And I can't say I'm in love with it either. But holy cow is this a book that will take you on a trip. It's almost like you were on a trip. And I mean--take whatever hallucinatory drug and Insert Here--this was a trip. The amazing part is that Nova Ren Suma, the author, made it real while you read it. Her voice in his book is astounding, unlike almost any other author I've ever read. It's one thing to have a concept for a book and tell a story to someone. It's another thing entirely to pull a reader right into your story and make them feel what's going on. And Nova Ren Suma makes you feel it like no one else could. I guarantee you: No one else could ever have written this book better. No one.

This is a book that doesn't deserve to be written off as another teen story. There is sufficient material here that it borders on even a thriller or suspense title, and I'm tempted to make a new shelf just for it to place it under "Eerie" or "Creepy" because that's literally how it makes you feel. There's a sensation that is sometimes overpowering when you read this book, and it pulled me in so many directions.

I both admired and disliked certain things about the characters, but I could never peg a single one as a character I fully liked or disliked. It's almost impossible for me to make up my mind on this one, which is weird. I think I have some definite end choices tending towards the dislike of characters after a certain point, but the word "Hatred" never comes outright for me. And I can't say I downright "Loved" anyone as well.

I think the most fascinating character in this entire book was Ruby herself. This enigmatic, immensely powerful being that I actually find myself questioning the existence of at all sometimes. And other times, I wonder, much like some people ask in the book, just "What the hell is she?" Because for the life of me I can't figure it out still, and the book politely ends on a note where you half wonder if you've been mad the entire time and are mad if you believe anything that just happened.

Contrary to what I set out to expect, I think this book is stunningly stupendous and should be a book you check out and read at some point. It's creepy, and mysterious, and borders on some real psychological weight at the end that's going to make you talk about this one for a whiiiile after you've put it down and stepped away from it. For anyone that loves mild-fright, psychological books, supernatural stories and more along those lines, you should definitely check this book out. It's well worth your time. And read it all the way to the end, especially if you're a psychological lover or someone looking for a creepy new story to tell. The ending makes it especially worth it for you guys.

Happy reading!

[edgoldberg · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Imaginary Girls is Nova Ren Suma’s (Dani Noir) second novel. I’m finding it hard to explain what it’s about, so I’ll give you the beginning and maybe a few comments from the book flap. Fourteen year old Chloe idolizes her nineteen year old sister Ruby, as well she should. Ruby practically raised her. Ruby would do anything to protect her and is also proud of her. Swimming with friends one night down at the reservoir created to provide water for New York City, Ruby brags that Chloe can swim the width of the reservoir and come back with a souvenir from Olive, the town that was drowned in order to create the reservoir. Halfway across, Chloe tires and as she loses strength, a rowboat magically appears. She grabs on and as she feels around the boat, she realizes there’s a body in it…a classmate, London.That’s as much as I’m going to tell you.On the back of the book jacket, Nancy Werlin calls is “A surreal little nightmare in book form.” Aimee Bender calls it “eerie and gripping…” The book flap says “…a masterfully distorted vision of family…” If this doesn’t have you totally confused…Suffice it to say, Suma does a masterful job. I like the way she writes. It’s descriptive and literary. You can visualize the characters, the setting, the action. You constantly wonder what’s going to happen next. Yes, it is surreal. It is eerie. But I had to keep on reading.For an out of the ordinary book, it’s Imaginary Girls.

[sarahblackstock-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

IMAGINARY GIRLS is beautifully written. I usually read an entire book in one or two sittings, but I found myself becoming exhausted after a few chapters of this one and it ended up taking me over a week, reading some each day. I wanted to love it. I sort of do, but it’s hard for me to express… Each sentence is like molasses rolling over the town, piece by piece, as Chloe tells her story.

The relationship between Chloe and her older sister, Ruby, is extraordinary. Stripped down, in a real life setting, it is exactly my experience of being an older sister. However, within the story, with its otherworldly plot and constant mystery, the relationship between the sisters reaches a whole new level of what it is to love and be devoted. Too much, even, but that’s what the story is about. It’s disturbing, but beautiful.

For over 200, you won’t even begin to understand what’s happening. If you’re me, you’ll turn to your husband and worry that the girls you’re reading about don’t exist and the whole story is in the imagination of someone you’ve never met. (Then, he’ll taunt you every time he sees you reading the book and remind you that those girls are going to disappear off the page at some point and you’ll worry.) Keep reading…

IMAGINARY GIRLS is full of stunning writing and a storyline that will keep you guessing (okay, confused, if you’re me.) until the very end. Are the sisters crazy? Is one of them some sort of powerful non-human? WHAT IS HAPPENING? Nothing is obvious or handed to you. Every page, every word, is leading you somewhere. Possibly to heartbreak. It’s magical, and touching, and like nothing I’ve ever read.

[a_reader_of_fictions · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Nova Ren Suma has been on my absolutely-must-read list since her debut, but I've only just gotten around to reading one of her books. With any new author so beloved in the blogosphere, there's the fear that the books won't live up to the hype. Well, Nova Ren Suma did. Imaginary Girls wasn't what I expected, but it was so much better than that. Suma's debut is a gloriously dark magical realism mindfuck of a novel that kept me curious through every page.On the surface, Imaginary Girls is a contemporary mystery, the story of two sisters, relatively calm and placid, like the surface of a reservoir. Underneath those waters, though, is another story, a whole town of issues, buried beneath the waters. Suma plumbs these depths, leaving the reader questioning what is real and what is insanity. Imaginary Girls walks the line between realistic fiction, magical realism and flat-out paranormal in such a way that I'm still not sure precisely how I should categorize it.Chloe, the narrator, is hardly the heroine of her own story. She lives in the orbit of her older sister, Ruby, like everyone else in their town. Ruby is a sun, and everyone within the pull of her personality moves according to her whims. All the boys want her, all the girls want to be her, and she will never love anyone as much as she loves Chloe. Whatever Ruby wants, Ruby gets; no one can deny her anything, so long as they remain in their little town. Everything else is like our world, but Ruby exerts a pull that is truly out of this world.When Ruby orders Chloe to swim across the reservoir and back at night, and to dive down at the center to grab a souvenir from Olive, the town underwater, Chloe does it. She believes Ruby's assertions that she can do it; Ruby will protect her from anything, absolutely anything. As she swims, cold water and fear engulf her, the sounds of the partiers watching her attempt this feat quieting behind her. Just when she feels she can't swim anymore, she encounters a boat with a dead girl inside, London, a girl from her class.After this, her father, different from Ruby's, takes her away with him, away from Ruby's influence and their alcoholic mother, away from the reservoir, away from the tragedy. Ruby comes for her, though, finally, two years later. When Chloe arrives back in town, she learns something surprising: London's there and alive. Everyone says she swam across the reservoir that night and that London had gone away to rehab, not that she died. Needless to say, the mystery deepens.Of course, Chloe could just be crazy, her mind splintering from the tragic events of that night. As in Ian McEwen's Atonement, this whole story could be some sort of creation of her own mind to explain what happened that night or her delusional dream in the institution where she's living out her life. In no way do I think Chloe's a reliable narrator, which adds layers to the already complicated narrative. Nothing is ever certain, which leaves the reader thinking and desperate to unravel the truth.Suma's writing style is one that I would not ordinarily love, but it worked perfectly for this tale. There's a poetic element to it, and a sort of watery uncertainty, as through the truth is a moving target, bobbing on the ripples. The entirety of Imaginary Girls is dreamy and thought-provoking. Also, dark. Suma does not shy away from drug use, sex, violence, or other tough topics.At its core, Imaginary Girls focuses on the relationship between Ruby and Chloe. The love between the two is powerful, but also a burden. It's so rare to find YA that focuses on sisterhood over romance, but Suma barely touches on romance. Boys matter so much less to both Ruby and Chloe than sisterhood does.On a lot of levels, I'm still not sure what went down in this novel and that's really the beauty of it. If you liked your novels wrapped up in a bow with a moral and clear resolution, Imaginary Girls is not the read for you. However, if you love to open your mind up to new ideas and the puzzle of trying to figure out a mindfuck, go read this ASAP.

[joyce.leung · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I got a bit misty-eyed at the end when I read that Ruby sacrificed herself to help save Chloe. I mean, I know that technically it was Ruby's fault that Chloe got sucked to Olive in the first place, but she could have left Chloe and moved on. Except she didn't. She sacrificed another girl in Chloe's stead, and when Chloe left because of her, Ruby raised the girl from the dead again.

All I can say that it the book was really sweet, and that I wish the author had written a more... unambiguous ending, so that I won't have to spend hours and hours debating with myself over whether Ruby would come back in the end.

This book was an amazing read, though. And the fact that I gave it 5 stars speaks for itself, I think, because I can count on one hand the number of books I've given 5 stars AND written a review. :)

[emily1s · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

So, the entire time I'm reading this book, I felt like I was Chloe. I was finding things out at the same time she would. There would be no guessing ahead, because I could never be sure how Ruby would change it. I didn't necessarily like Ruby at first. She was way to controlling, and her weird obsession with her sister was uncomfortable. But what kept me going was the mystery. The sunken town of Olive. The words, for the love of God, these are some of the most beautiful cryptically crafted words I have ever read. This could have been a book with just random lines, and I would have fallen in the same trance I did when they were put into a story. Nova Ren Suma can write! Let me show ya:

“Ruby’s stories didn’t have morals. They meant one thing in the light and one thing in the dark and another thing entirely when she was wearing sunglasses.”

“There was something to be said for the bodiless feeling that came after the cold. Something I would always remember. When you forget how bad it hurts, you feel so free.”

And there's many more beautifully haunting passages in Imaginary Girls. I'll just let you find out on your own.

[v.s.ware · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Imaginary Girls has one of the best opening sentences, paragraphs, pages, scenes, chapters (I think that's everything :P) I've ever read. From the cover alone, I knew I was going to love this book (and rarely can a book live up to such an exquisite cover).

I honestly don't know what to say about Imaginary Girls. The characters and the pacing were both pitch perfect in my opinion. And the plot... well, it left me in a dream state that I don't think I woke from until several days after finishing the novel. But the thing that drew me in more than anything else was the writing. It was, at times, transcendent and ethereal... and then relatable (which, apparently, is not a real word) and authentic.

I guess all I can really say is that 'Imaginary Girls' is a stirring novel about sisterly love from an author with just about the best name ever.

[librarybrandy · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Okay, so there's a lot happening here. There was a story idea in my head in college, about a girl who had some kind of power to bend people to her will, and I'm glad I eventually scrapped it because this does it way better than I could have. (To be fair, I was not very good, but I also could never wrap my head around my own idea enough to turn it into something that wasn't terrible.)

Anyway, Imaginary Girls. Is it fair to say this is an Unreliable Narrator book when Chloe isn't the unreliable one? She honestly believes what she's telling; it's Ruby who is all over the place, but even Ruby never really lies. But there's still so much fact to tease out from fiction.

Buuuuuuuut... I dunno. I liked this a lot but had a lot of problems with it, too. Like, why is Chloe so caught up in Ruby? Why did we never get back to the jammed cell phone and the messages from Chloe's dad? And really, what is the deal with Ruby? and her ties to Olive? There were parts that I found a little predictable and things that came out of left field, and it's possible that some things seemed like they jumped through unanswered because I was, like, avoiding a pothole while driving and stopped paying attention for a minute, but some things didn't hold together for me.

Which is, I guess, kind of the point of the whole book--that some things just don't hold up and instead fall apart in spite of our best, and flawed, efforts.

[periwinklejane_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

For a while I was thinking of this as the book that killed magical realism for me. There just wasn't enough "real" there to hang on to. The story is told by Chloe, and the action revolves around her older sister Ruby. Ruby is the kind of pretty girl that everyone falls all over themselves for. The thing is, I never really got why. Yeah, she's pretty ... but ... does she have powers? Is she a witch? Then there's this whole deal with a town that was flooded for a reservoir. Sigh. It was just too much.

The writing was good. I wanted to like this story, but in the end I was just annoyed with it.

[68papyrus · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Imaginary Girls is a haunting novel one that keeps you on your toes. The writing is lush and well done. The book explores the complicated relationship between Chloe and her older sister Ruby. There seems to be a supernatural element to their relationship that is hinted at in the book but not fully revealed. Great book! I recommend this to fans of young adult novels and character driven books.

[lauramoore_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Let me start this by saying, I really really wanted to love this book, and I really thought it would blow me away... I always love books that are weird and psychologically stimulating, but for me this was just a bit too weird, and I couldn't get a grasp on the story enough to really connect to it.From reading other people's reviews I think this book had a lot of underlying meaning and was really deep, which I would agree but I think maybe a lot of things I may have missed/looked over, and I think I need to re-read this before I really overly-critque this story. I want to give this book, as I give all books, and normally if I didn't absolutely love a book I wouldn't re-read it (in fact I hardly ever re-read books) but I feel like there may have been things I missed out on so I want to give this another chance.I don't know when I'm going to be able to get to this again to read, but this review may eventually change. If your not in the mood for a really deep book that needs 110% of your focus then I would wait on this book!!

[melanie_mccullough_4 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Nova Ren Suma may well be one of the best writers I've ever encountered. She's definitely on my list of favorites. And Imaginary Girls may be one of the most interesting stories I've ever read. It's so quietly powerful. You think you're reading something slow-moving and laidback until you realize you've been holding your breath and maniacally flipping through pages.Every word Nova Ren Suma writes serves a purpose. It reads like a literary novel, with these strange paranormal elements thrown in. It's so hard to classify because I'm reluctant to call it just one thing. It's many things all at once. It's haunting and compelling and beautiful but never overdone. You can feel the force of the writer's voice, the way she strings everything together, even as Chloe's voice is pulling us along, telling us her tale. I've honestly not read much like it in the YA realm. Highly recommended. It's like a perfectly executed magic trick--it will intrigue you and surprise you and, ultimately, leave you wondering how the author managed to pull it off. One of my favorite reads of the year. Also, while I loved the first cover--the one with the girl in the water--there is something eerie and provocative about the new paperback cover. I'm surprised at myself, but I really like it.

[euronerdlibrarian · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I had my doubts about this book when I started it. Then I read chapter 4 and I was hooked. Suma created such vivid characters and images, I sometimes felt like I could see them standing in front of me. There was a fluidity and eeriness and strangeness and moodiness to it that I really liked.

[pocketmermaid · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is one of my "library regrets," because I borrowed it and now I wish I own it. (I'll have it on my shelf someday!)This is a very gorgeous, strange book that I can't seem to wrap my mind around enough to formulate it into a review. I loved it. Nova Ren Suma's writing is so fantastic and it speaks to me in a very special way. In most places, the writing soars above the plot. And as a word enthusiast, I appreciate that A LOT - though plot and characters are important, too. Something felt a little bit . . . missing towards the end, which is why I can't award this a solid five star rating. But this book was very special, very ethereal, very vibrant, and I enjoyed every glittering moment.

[andreablythe · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Reading Imaginary Girls is like walking through the halls of a haunted house. Everything on the outside is normal, but strange things happen from time to time and you can't be sure whether the ghosts are real or if its just your imagination. Events in the book are subtly strange in this way, and the surreal tone of the tale is entirely appropriate, because hauntings abound. The lost town Olive haunts the bottom of the reservoir, Chloe is haunted by the memory of the dead girl, Ruby is haunted by the secrets she tries to hide. The title is also wonderfully appropriate, as the uncertainty of what is imagined and what isn't unfolds throughout the story. Not to mention, what makes a girl imaginary? Is Chloe imaginary because she isn't entirely her own, because she's possessed by Ruby, and willingly so, as she offers her devotion wholeheartedly to her sister? Is Ruby imaginary, because how can that kind of girl, the kind of girl that gets everything and anything she wants really exist? Or is the imaginary part of Ruby based on how Chloe sees her, how Chloe idolizes her and in a way shapes her with that idolatry that no person can live up to? And London? Oh, there are many, many ways that London could be imaginary, if she exists at all. Imaginary Girls is a book that is multidimensional and achingly beautiful, one that leaves questions to sit with on rainy Sunday while outside the water swirls. It's a book I want to hold in the hollows of my heart and never, ever let go.On my blog, I also talked about how I would adapt Imaginary Girls into a movie (if I could).

[strongpieces · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I'm still struggling to decide how I feel about Imaginary Girls. I enjoyed it. I liked the story, the mystery was engaging enough that I had to know how it all ended, and the writing was very...let's say...poetic. It never quite reached that other P-word, but it got close.The relationship between the sisters is an entirely different animal, despite it being central to the novel. Ruby and Chloe have the sort of co-dependent relationship that doesn't make me happy the way it does in Rob Thurman's Cal Leandros series, or in the television show Supernatural. It's the sort that made me uncomfortable, made me squirm as I read. It's unhealthy despite the love the sisters had for each other, and ultimately, my personal feelings on that matter are what's so conflicting for me about this book. I also sort of hated Ruby at times. I'm still not sure whether that was intentional or not, because despite the really shitty things Ruby does to other people (except her sister, of course) and despite Chloe being aware of them, Ruby is still a goddess in her sister's eyes. It's one thing I have to credit the author for; seeing Ruby through the eyes of a worshipful younger sister and still being incredibly uncomfortable about her (as I think was the intention) is impressive.Impressive. That's the word I wanted. Imaginary Girls is an impressive novel. It might not have the same impression on everyone, but it does leave one.

[saplin_2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I really like the first few chapters of this book. I love YA lit, especially stories involving sisters, so this one appealed to me. The relationship between Chloe and Ruby is set up in a realistic way - the inequality, Ruby's popularity, Chloe's adoration of Ruby. But Once I got to the part with the reappearance of London, I wasn't sure what direction the author was going in and I hard time wanting to continue. I didn't know if we were going in a mystical direction or a psychological one. Eventually I enjoyed it more, but not enough to give it more than 3 stars (because of the middle). Still an interesting read and unlike other books I've read.

[wrighty_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I was impressed with the author's writing style for this book but it wasn't an easy read for me. I started and stopped it a few times because I wasn't paying enough attention to the details, and there were a lot of them. Chloe is a young girl who looks up to her popular, wild, older sister Ruby. When they are involved in finding the body of a classmate, Ruby is seen as a bad influence and Chloe is taken to live with her father. The girls are haunted by the death, by their loneliness and by the mysterious stories of their town and it's reservoir. But the stories aren't what they seem and it's unclear what's truth and what's imagination. Although the words were often lyrical they were also confusing. I enjoy a good mystery but I also like it to come together and give me answers. This was up to the reader to draw their own conclusions. I wasn't crazy about this book in particular but I do look forward to more from this author. Thank you to LibraryThing Early Reviewers for an arc to review.