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A review by tishreads
Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend by Matthew Dicks
2.0
The concept of this book really intrigued me when I came across it at the library book sale. Told from the perspective of an Imaginary friend, I was looking forward to a unique novel about growing up with autism.
However, the novel ends up caught in this weird place. I found it with adult fiction, and am reviewing it as such. Because the MC is an Imaginary friend to a 3rd grader, he speaks about things in an extremely child like way. He never used contractions (except that he does a few times, and then it just annoyed me even more that he didn't the rest of the time) and describes items the way you would to a child. As I started the book, I thought perhaps it was a Young Adult novel instead. As the novel progressed, and the themes became darker, I grew more confused on the intended audience. I was quickly annoyed by the simplistic and repetitive style of the narrator and more than once considered just stopping and googling the ending.
SPOILERS BEYOND HERE
What really irked me is that it had the chance to be a novel about a child learning to be independent and solve problems. Max did, in a lot of ways, save himself from his situation, but it wouldn't have happened without Oswald. I also hated how much time was spent arguing about if Budo should save Max or save himself and describing the Imaginary friends "dying". That didn't need to be done with Graham AND Oswald.
Basically, if you took out the cursing, did some major editing, and left everything else alone I think this would have made an amazing Middle Grades novel. As it stands, it's a frustrating adult novel.
However, the novel ends up caught in this weird place. I found it with adult fiction, and am reviewing it as such. Because the MC is an Imaginary friend to a 3rd grader, he speaks about things in an extremely child like way. He never used contractions (except that he does a few times, and then it just annoyed me even more that he didn't the rest of the time) and describes items the way you would to a child. As I started the book, I thought perhaps it was a Young Adult novel instead. As the novel progressed, and the themes became darker, I grew more confused on the intended audience. I was quickly annoyed by the simplistic and repetitive style of the narrator and more than once considered just stopping and googling the ending.
SPOILERS BEYOND HERE
What really irked me is that it had the chance to be a novel about a child learning to be independent and solve problems. Max did, in a lot of ways, save himself from his situation, but it wouldn't have happened without Oswald. I also hated how much time was spent arguing about if Budo should save Max or save himself and describing the Imaginary friends "dying". That didn't need to be done with Graham AND Oswald.
Basically, if you took out the cursing, did some major editing, and left everything else alone I think this would have made an amazing Middle Grades novel. As it stands, it's a frustrating adult novel.