TITLE: Imaginary Girls
AUTHOR: Nova Ren Suma
FORMAT: hardcover, 348 pages
Ruby is the one all the girls want to be and all the boys want to be with. Rooms light up when she walks in, with her effervescent personality and irresistible smile. The world seems to revolve around her. For her younger sister Chloe, Ruby is the world. The sisters grew up with an alcoholic mother and nonexistent fathers, their bond strengthened by how much they had to rely on one another to make it through. Ruby’s word is gospel to Chloe; if she says it’s true, it’s true. If she wills something to happen, it can go from being impossible to possible just like that. It is this childlike adoration, this undying belief in her sister, that spurs Chloe to jump into the reservoir one dark night. After all, Ruby wouldn’t say that she could make it all the way across if it wasn’t true. But Chloe never reaches the other side. Instead, her life is altered forever when she finds another girl floating in the water — dead. Chloe is sent away, far from Ruby. But Ruby will do anything to get her sister back.
I think I felt this book more keenly because I have a sister myself. In fact, the difference in our ages is only a year more than the difference between Chloe and Ruby. I know just how close sisters can be, but I also know how difficult that relationship can become sometimes. It’s even harder when the age difference starts to blur and she’s no longer the little sister tagging after you with her security blanket. Suddenly, she’s the same height, borrowing your clothes, and coming with you for a pedicure. The thing is, this moment is bittersweet for any older sister. At some point very soon, this girl will stop believing everything you say — she’ll start to question your wisdom, straying down a path of her own choosing. And I think this is what Ruby struggles with so intensely in the novel: not being able to let Chloe go.
I mean, from the get-go you’ll see that Ruby has some real control freak issues going on. She micro-manages every small detail while managing to look completely casual all the while. She’s more than a little bit psycho at times. But even as you feel weirded out by her hovering, you see why Chloe loves her. Ruby is one of the most complex anti-heroes I’ve ever encountered. She’s equal parts Holly Golightly and Scarlett O’Hara — charming, magnetic, cruel. This girl is a stone cold bitch sometimes. But you can’t stop gravitating towards her, any more than Chloe or the rest of the town. And even as she’s wrecking lives or dancing along making you feel completely disturbed, you know without a doubt that Ruby loves Chloe beyond words. This is, among all the lies, the one solid truth. Which is fascinating to me, because a character with this much capacity for evil only gets more intriguing when she also has a high capacity to love.
You will want to read faster and faster, just to unravel the story winding through this book. The pacing was excellent. All the small mysteries, the questions piling up on one another, left me unwilling to put it down. And what really won me over was that this book wasn’t predictable for me at all. A lot of books are — and I’m not saying that in arrogance or anything. Unraveling literature is one of my geeky hobbies. I pride myself on gathering clues, picking up on small details, and putting all those pieces together. But Imaginary Girls knocked me for a loop several times. The ending, I confess, absolutely crept up on me. And even though the ending itself was a bit too anticlimactic for my taste, I still can’t deny that I was totally absorbed by the story. You will want to know all the secrets, and the author does a ridiculously good job of leading you on, expertly weaving Chloe’s memories of the past with the discoveries she makes in the present.
This is the kind of YA fiction I wish teenagers would choose. The writing is well crafted, the characters well drawn. Ruby in particular is a masterpiece, easily outshining the variable non-entity that is Chloe. But then, Chloe is only meant to be our eyes into a world of Ruby’s making. In this sense, they complement each other perfectly. You have no choice but to let Ruby take center stage, anyway. She must have burst out of the author’s head like Athena out of Zeus’s skull, this is how strong her character is. I recommend this book to anyone wanting something fresh and compelling, with a little bit of the surreal thrown in.
RATING: 4.5/5
About Paola
Paola is a teacher, blogger, and book devourer currently living in Las Vegas, NV. She has an unhealthy obsession with popcorn, office supplies, and Target.
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