Imaginary Girls Review

Imaginary Girls - Nova Ren Suma
*June 14th, 2011 Dutton Juvenile

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.

With palpable drama and delicious craft, Nova Ren Suma bursts onto the YA scene with the story that everyone will be talking about.

Nova Ren Suma's Imaginary Girls is as mysterious as the depths of a water resevoir.

In a nutshell, Imginary Girls chronicles the relationship between two sisters, Ruby and Chloe. And what a relationship it is! Magnetic and convoluted, repelling and distorted, attractive and almost magical, their connection is like no other.

Imginary Girls is certainly a very interesting novel, you could say. It's very difficult to categorize - mostly a contemporary coming-of-age story, it has elements of urban paranormalcy and while it's not a mystery, per se, there are definitely mysterious elements to it.

There are long, lavishly looping descriptions and miniature stories within the larger framework of the present day story. For people like intricate descriptions and flowly language, Imaginary Girls may very well be a fulfilling read. (Personally, some passages got somewhat repetitive and unnecessary - ended up skim-reading a couple of paragraphs in a couple of the chapters.) In some ways, Imaginary Girls has YA content and length, but seems to be almost an MG novel stretched to fit the mold. The end of the novel felt unresolved and open-ended. Which does make it haunting, to some degree, though.

For those who are into mysterious reads with flowy descriptive writing, Imaginary Girls would definitely be one to check out.