[reblogged from 38 Caliber Reviews]

 

(Please note that when I searched for Friends this is the book that the data base provided)

 

“Belief is a powerful magic.

 

Valerie Diaz has a power that she can’t contain, and it’s killing her. Bounced between foster homes and the streets, she only has time to concentrate on staying alive. But a visit from the imaginary friend of her childhood opens a world of possibilities, including a new life half a universe away on a planet that is bursting with magic.

 

The Society of Imaginary Friends follows Valerie on a journey that straddles two worlds. In order to survive, she must travel many light years away to a realm where anything is possible. On the Globe, imaginary friends come to life, the last of the unicorns rules the realm, and magic seeps from the pores of all the Conjurors who live there. But choosing to embrace her potential will set Valerie on a treacherous course – one filled with true love, adventure and perilous danger.”- Amazon description

 

Doesn’t this sound like fun? Unfortunately what it sounds like and what it is are two very different things. I almost DNF’d it at 35% because it was boring, annoying, and not well thought out. One of the most annoying things in the first third of the book was the treatment of Valerie’s magic. Valerie finds out her imaginary friends that she’s had from childhood are really real and projecting from a planet, called the Globe, hidden in a black hole. They inform her she had strong magical abilities and if she stays on earth she will die because somehow living here stifles magic (for the most part). But before she leaves she has to go to England and undergo a test of her abilities. Whut?

 

First she is told she has too much magic to survive on earth then she has to travel from the US to England to take a test to prove she has all this magic she was just told she has? Then she has to go to Egypt to find the last transport from earth to the Globe. Not only didn’t this make a whole lot of sense, it was boring.

 

Valerie is that most over used type of heroine- the Mary Sue, or in Val’s case more like a Super Sue. Because Val not only is stuffed with all this magic and has these not so imaginary friends and enemies but she is Alone In The World. Yes, my friends, Val is alone, so alone. She is alone, aloner, alonest. No one, no where, no how, is more alone. On two different planets Val wins all three Olympic medals for being alone.

 

Except when she isn’t. No, really, it seems she keeps stumbling over another character that is alone for various reasons. This author desperately needs an editor or two because all this aloneness repeated endlessly just makes you want to throw something. Like Valerie. Out into space where she will be alone, so alone, no one will ever be… sorry, it’s hard to shake.

 

Like I said I almost gave up but I pushed on and it got marginally better. Val arrives at the Globe and meets her imaginary childhood friend, makes more friends, acquires a magical sword in the best sword-in-the-stone manner, and keeps putting herself in dangerous situations because asking for advice and/or help would be the smart thing to do and a Mary Super Sue like Val needs to be smarter than most everyone else but still dumb enough to get tied to the railroad tracks or the magical equivalent.

 

So Val and her friends stumble around the Globe doing their level best to put themselves in harm’s way and succeeding with tiresome frequency. She just can’t bring herself to wait for other more experienced characters to explore and investigate but that doesn’t matter because Val is a Super Sue and will prevail over all and manifest new powers or magics or whatever because that’s what Sues do.

 

In the end she triumphs over her not-so-imaginary enemy and does something that hasn’t been done in decades and good triumphs over evil and her magical power is awesome and rare and now she is the superset of Mary Super Sues. Except that evil isn’t destroyed just dented a little because this is a 4 book series.

 

Imaginary Friends sounded so good and ended up being just a not very good rehash of a Sue we’ve all read before

***This review has also been posted on The Social Potato

This is such a heartfelt book that is bound to make you feel all mushy and warm inside. If you, like me, were an avid watcher for Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, I think this book will be right up your alley and will probably have you flipping through the pages as fast as I was flipping through them. The only real disappointment I had while reading this book was that I read an e-arc so that meant I couldn’t experience the gorgeous drawings in this book in all their glory.

I haz so many feels from reading this book and I am not even sure where to start experessing them. For starters, you should know, this book can be surprisingly dark considering the fact that it’s meant for children.

This book is actually more focused on Rudger, the imaginary friend, than Amanda and I thought that was interesting. It’s about what happens when he gets separated from his human and the evil imaginary friend eating monster he has to deal with. I though Rudger was a fantastic character even if he did make that one incredibly questionable decision (which he owned up to a minute later so I couldn’t help but forgive him) and I just loved him so much. He is so sweet and adorable and you just want to hug him.

Amanda may have become a secondary character in this book but I still adored her. She may have been annoying at times but she was a child and children tend to be self centered. It’s funny because she never really acknowledges that she was wrong but you know that she knows and you know that she has grown by the end of the book and that’s enough. She is a funny, witty character and you can see why she and Rudger are best friends. 

This is the kind of book where there is a chance that the parent will be awful but Amanda’s mom aka Fridge’s Lizzie (you’ll get that reference when you read the book), is a great parent. She knows that Amanda has an imaginary friend but her first instinct isn’t to take her to the psychiatrist. When she was worried, she called her mom and she drew her own conclusions based on the fact that it didn’t seem to be affecting her daughter negatively and decided to play along (although Amanda does know that Rudger isn't real).

This book has it’s villain and boy was the villain a jerk faced jerk.  Mr. Bunting eats imaginary friends because that helps sustain him and now he’s after Rudger.  DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN. It’s not surprising how all of this turns out but at the same time, the author had me worried for a while there!

I absolutely adore this book and if you’re looking for a fun children’s book, I wouldn’t hesitate to push it at you *pushes the book at you* (I am a serial pusher). So go readdd this amazingness, it’s WORTH IT.

For a 1913 sequel, it's ok. Interesting that one plot line is close to a recent famous/infamous adaptation. Hmmmmm.....3 out of 5. As a reviewer of the book said on another platform, this one lacks any Austen wit. 

This is a short story about a young boy who learns that he has leukemia. Scared that he is going to die, Jack sneaks out to the woods at night to find a magical creature he met once years ago. Pick is the guardian of the Sinnissippi Woods and he is the only one that Jack feels can help him.

This story is one that has been long out of print, but when the webmaster for Terry Brooks' website discovered he had cancer, Terry Brooks re-released it and donated all proceeds to the medical care of his longtime friend. It is a very short story, but it's important in that it is our first foray into the world of the Word and the Void. I didn't think the story itself was anything special, but it was nice to read how this series got its start.