REVIEW: IMAGINARY GIRLS by Nova Ren Suma

Published by Penguin

www.penguin.com/teen

http://novaren.com/

In a lot of books you can see how the chapters will map out. Some writers use that as a sort of template. Certain things usually happen in the first chapter, others in the second, and the fourth chapter is where the story really moves. With IMAGINARY GIRLS the story kicks into high gear with the first word "Ruby" and as soon as you read the power the writer puts into the first  and every use of the word "sister" you are racing down hill out of control and all you can do is run faster and faster and hope the great feeling of being out of control never leaves you... and you don't die.

Imaginary Girls taps into those feelings when you get scared at an extreme height, the feelings just before a fight, how you feel loving someone so much that you could kill someone else just so they couldn't be loved by them. It deals with family, sisterhood, siblings, relationships, how futile our perceptions of someone else's reality is, and with me it tapped into that feeling that even if I could influence others, I could never influence away the "balance" of life. A "balance" life will not let you skirt.

I've had a lot of discussion recently with friends about the state of YA fiction. I think its in a very fragile state of bubble life. The publisher have gotten Money Eyes as they always do when something is hot. There are still so many great YA books coming out but I think YA is being harmed by publishers pushing some writers to produce books too quickly and publishers are dishing out a lot of books way too soon. Not bad books, just not fully cooked yet. Overall its doing a lot of harm. I had actually danced into a state of not wanting to read much YA fiction for a while before reading Imaginary Girls but the writer returned my faith so to speak.

Imaginary Girls is one of the few original writing voices I've come across in any form of storytelling in a very long time. I hope I never read a interview where the writer says this books was easy to write because I might just walk into the ocean. How this highly crafted work could have been anything except for a lot of very hard work would be hard to believe. 

I'm inspired as a writer and want to stand up or buy a drink.

Someone recently pointed out to me that one of the problems with being a writer is that sometimes when reading or watching a filmed stories you can see where the story is going. See the wires so to speak. All the nasty tricks and such. That's one of the reasons I almost never give 5 star reviews. With this book whenever you think "Oh, so this is how the story is going or I bet this is whats going to happen." This story mockingly laughs at you to say "You thought you were so smart, sorry, my writer worked her ass off to craft my tale."

IMAGINARY GIRLS

By Nova Ren Suma

5 out of 5 Stars

REVIEW: IMAGINARY GIRLS by Nova Ren Suma