Book Review: Imaginary Girls

By Nova Ren Suma

Published by Dutton Books

Released on June 14th, 2011

Source- ARC for review from publisher

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.

Forgive me if this review does not make sense. Not only am I still trying to wrap my mind around what I've just read, but I can't talk about specific things in the story without giving anything away. One of the things that really drew to the book was it's cover. It's intriguing. It's one of those covers that has me wondering who the girl is, what her story is and what happened to her. Those same questions are what kept me turning the pages of Imaginary Girls. I had to know who Chloe really is, what happened to her and why she has such an unhealthy obsession over her sister Ruby. My answers came over the course of unraveling the complex plot. It wasn't until after I finished the book that I finally realized why the story was written the way it was.

Right off the bat I felt sympathy for Chloe, who over the course of the book ages from 14 to 17, and her older sister Ruby. They are such broken characters. They have a mother who's not around and for the most part neither of their father's are in the picture until the night of a party that sends Chloe living with a father she does't really know. The story begins when the girls are at a party at the reservoir, which no one is suppose to go swimming in, but Ruby tells everyone Chloe can swim it. Since Chloe lives to please her sister, she takes her up on her challenge to swim across the reservoir, which ends up changing her life. After that night Chloe finds herself living with a father she doesn't know in a different state and a way from Ruby. Things change again for Chloe when Ruby comes looking for her.

Being back with her sister, Chloe finds herself in a dark, twisted world and she begins to see her sister in a different light. I liked that both sisters have changed over the course of being apart, and this is where Nova's writing gets really twisted and unique, because not once was I able to figure out what direction the story was going to take. That is one of the things that kept me intrigued with the story. She slowly allowed me to see how everything around Ruby and Chloe starts to unravel. I'll admit, I was beyond frustrated with Ruby numerous times in the story, especially since she made such poor choices that effected Chloe. But, towards the end of the story I felt sympathy for her and I tried to understand why she did what she did. She really did the best she thought she could do. Chloe herself grows from an insecure girl who always wanted to please her older sister into a stronger character who slowly started to piece together things in her sisters life and wanted nothing more than to save her. Both sisters have a unique bond and would do anything for each other.

One of the things I liked about both sisters is how flawed they are. Well really all the characters are flawed, which in a way made them all feel realistic. There's also a lot of tension between characters that builds up through out story and ends up unraveling towards the end of the book.There are a lot of underlying themes that I liked in the story that made me think and wonder how on earth certain things just happened. Really this is a story about impossible things becoming possible. There were times I was frustrated with the story and confused with what exactly was going on, which was the point of the story. This was the first time I read a book where I literally had no idea what to except nor could I figure out what was going to happen next. I felt like I was just as trapped inside Ruby's world as Chloe was. I'm still trying to figure some things out, and Nova did a splendid job on writing a YA book unlike anything I've ever read before. I would recommend this for older teens and adults. This book has mentions of sex, scenes with under age drinking, smoking pot and very mild language in it.