An otherwise good story's poor execution downgrades Imaginary Friend from interesting to average, with not enough moments to make up for choppy writing and chapter bloat. Sure, the protagonist Christopher is kind of likable as a typecast nerd suffering from bullies and dyslexia. But his rapid Flowers for Algernon transformation after seeing a face in the clouds feels a bit monotonous when it leads to a world filled with hissing ladies and mailbox people, mouths and eyes sewn or zippered shut.

While there are moments in the book that brush up against frightening, other mechanisms fall flat. For example, it's challenging to see deer as terrifying entities, especially when they are more disturbing background characters that could have been used, like the clown in the bushes or the couple kissing themselves to death. Then again, after revisiting these scenes several dozen times, the overuse of three-word sentence fragments become more frightening: "That's when the snake jumped out. It was a rattler. Coiled. Hissing. Hissss. Hissss."

Throughout most of the novel, I intended to give Imaginary Friend three stars. But as I neared the end of the story, I realized I wasn't cheering for Christopher anymore. I was cheering for the book to be over so I could read something with better writing. What's more problematic is that this book could have been so much better with a bit more polish and far fewer pages.