“Imaginary Friend” by Stephen Chbosky: just published, second novel of successful author, director, and screenwriter

So far, I have read the prologue and first sixty-five pages of this 700-page novel, which appears to be a heart-warming horror story about a seven-year-old boy, Christopher, and the frightening, supernatural, “hissing woman,” who lives in the forrest adjacent to the small Pennsylvania town where he and his mother have taken refuge after fleeing from her abusive boyfriend.

Fortunately, the forest also has “the nice man,” who might be the little boy, David, described the prologue, who had entered the forrest fifty years ago (also fleeing abuse).

Christopher has psychological symptoms that are common in multiple personality (aka dissociative identity), which include hearing voices and having visions (in a basically nonpsychotic person); a dissociative fugue (Christopher has a memory gap for the six days he has just been lost in the forest, except he recalls having been saved by “the nice man”); and he sometimes has momentary difficulty distinguishing between dreaming and being awake (the opening line of Chapter One is “Am I dreaming”).

The third-person narration is in easy-to-understand language, sometimes, but not always, from young Christopher’s perspective. Is the author’s narrative voice a child-aged alternate personality, or is the book merely written to be understood by the largest possible number of readers?

The front flap describes this as an “epic work of literary horror.” It says you should “Read it with the lights on.” So I’m not sure whether the author meant to raise psychological issues. 

1. Stephen Chbosky. Imaginary Friend. New York, Grand Central Publishing/Hachette, 2019.