(ARC review) Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma

Genre:	Young Adult, Paranormal
Publication.Date	June 14th 2011
Pages:	352
Published By:	Philomel (Penguin)
Website	Nova Ren Suma
	Imaginary Girls - Goodreads
My review copy:	ARC provided by the publisher *Thank you!!*
Where to get:	Barnes and Noble | Amazon | Book Depository

     Chloe's older sister, Ruby, is the girl everyone looks to and longs for, who can't be captured or caged. When a night with Ruby's friends goes horribly wrong and Chloe discovers the dead body of her classmate London Hayes left floating in the reservoir, Chloe is sent away from town and away from Ruby.

But Ruby will do anything to get her sister back, and when Chloe returns to town two years later, deadly surprises await. As Chloe flirts with the truth that Ruby has hidden deeply away, the fragile line between life and death is redrawn by the complex bonds of sisterhood.

With palpable drama and delicious craft, Nova Ren Suma bursts onto the YA scene with the story that everyone will be talking about.

(goodreads.com)

"When you forget how bad it hurts, you feel so free"

     "This is how I know blood is meaningless; family connections are a lot like old gum -- you don't have to keep chewing. You can always spit it out and stick it under the table. You can walk away."

     "She was acting like she could forbid me from having an emotion. She could shove a hand down my throat and wiggle her fingers as far as they'd go, plucking out stuff she didn't want in there, like she did when we got up the courage to clean out last season's moldy takeout containers from the fridge. She'd do it fast, and didn't even hold her nose."

 

A sister can be seen as someone who is both ourselves and very much not ourselves - a special kind of double.  ~Toni Morrison

  

      Wow, what a mesmerizing, ominous and eerie read that was! Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma is definitely not your typical Young Adult novel. It’s dark and disquieting, and it will leave you deeply disturbed. Reading this book is like being stuck in a bad dream. Doesn’t matter how hard you try, you can’t make yourself wake up. And even when you finally do wake up, you still won’t be able to shake off the reminiscence of it.

     The story revolves around Chloe and her older half-sister, Ruby, and is told from Chloe’s first-person’s perspective. Ruby is the most popular girl in their small hometown. Everyone loves her, admires her, follows her and grants her every wish. It seems like she has the whole town magically wrapped around her finger. She’s a free spirit that can’t be caged or held down by anything or anyone. She knows what she wants from life and exactly which strings to pull to get it. The only thing Ruby truly cares about is Chloe. Being the older sister, Ruby feels responsible for Chloe and will do everything in her power to protect her.  And when I say everything, I mean more than you can imagine.

     Chloe looks up to her big sis.  Thanks to Ruby, she gets to attend cool parties and hang out with cool people. The two girls are inseparable. Ruby is always there for Chloe, she knows exactly what to do to encourage her and make her feel happy. It seems like nothing bad could ever happen to Chloe at Ruby’s watch.  

     One night, at a party at the local reservoir, something goes terribly wrong. Chloe, encouraged by her sister, tries swimming all the way to the other shore and back. Somewhere in the middle of the deep, dark water she comes across a floating boat. She grabs onto the edge of it, grateful that she can catch her breath and rest a bit, and then she feels something very cold.. something with fingers… It turns out it was her classmate's dead body. This discovery will change Chloe’s life forever and it will be the beginning of a series of bizarre and horrifying events.

     The truth is, many authors can set up suspenseful and mystifying situations, but there are very few of them whose prose and dialogue is simplistic and absolutely beautiful at the same time. This intersection between vaguely supernatural and the fantastically enthralling is what makes Nova Ren Suma’s book so masterful. It’s a spectacular page turner that you won’t be able to cast aside. It’s truly a magnificent example of craftsmanship and storytelling that will keep you frantically turning the pages long past bedtime. 

     For about 250 pages or so you won’t even begin to understand what’s going on. Yes, you will probably get frustrated and the never-ending “Ruby this, Ruby that” might annoy you, but trust me when I say, every word of this book accounts for something. The last 100 pages are truly frightening and the conclusion of the story left me shivering. All of a sudden I lost any enthusiasm for swimming in deep, dark lakes and other bodies of water. Throughout most of the story I was totally clueless and baffled. I couldn’t tell where the story was going and it only added to the overall eerie atmosphere of the book. I don’t think I ever read a novel that would keep me guessing for so long.

     The exceptionally strong bond between Ruby and Chloe was deeply touching and perhaps even slightly disturbing at times.  Their love so powerful, it could bend the reality and reach beyond the borders of this world. Beautiful, touching, magical.

     Nova Ren Suma has a sharp eye for detail. Thanks to her smooth storytelling you can visualize the creepy setting of the novel and almost taste the surreal world she created.  Chloe’s narrative voice was very genuine and real. I could almost imagine her sitting very close to me and whispering her secrets in my ear, in a monotone, creepy voice.  And honestly, I get goose bumps just thinking about it! The characters were weird, but I guess that’s exactly how they were meant to be, because they blend really well with this story.

     Overall, I had a blast reading this book. In a genre where everything has been done a thousand times already, it’s really nice to see original ideas surface. I’m a huge fan of everything dark and twisted, and this book was just a perfect treat for me. I loved it. I simply loved it.