October pick of the month: “Imaginary Friend” by Stephen Chbosky

• By WITF Staff

WITF is partnering with Midtown Scholar Bookstore on a Pick of the Month. Read along with us and discover books we think you’ll like.

Twenty years ago, Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower made readers everywhere feel infinite, selling millions of copies worldwide. Now, Chbosky has returned with an epic work of literary horror, years in the making, whose grand scale and rich emotion redefine the genre. Set in Central Pennsylvania, Chbosky delivers a haunting and thrilling novel pulsing with the radical empathy — one that would make Stephen King proud.

In Imaginary Friend, 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 awful 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 tree house in the woods by Christmas, or his mother and everyone in the town will never be the same again.

Read it with the lights on.

The Pick of the Month is available at local libraries and at Midtown Scholar Bookstore in Harrisburg.