Mundie Moms

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Book Review: Imaginary Girls

By Nova Ren Suma
Published by Dutton Books
Released on June 14th, 2011
Source- ARC for review from publisher

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.

Forgive me if this review does not make sense. Not only am I still trying to wrap my mind around what I've just read, but I can't talk about specific things in the story without giving anything away. One of the things that really drew to the book was it's cover. It's intriguing. It's one of those covers that has me wondering who the girl is, what her story is and what happened to her. Those same questions are what kept me turning the pages of Imaginary Girls. I had to know who Chloe really is, what happened to her and why she has such an unhealthy obsession over her sister Ruby. My answers came over the course of unraveling the complex plot. It wasn't until after I finished the book that I finally realized why the story was written the way it was.

Right off the bat I felt sympathy for Chloe, who over the course of the book ages from 14 to 17, and her older sister Ruby. They are such broken characters. They have a mother who's not around and for the most part neither of their father's are in the picture until the night of a party that sends Chloe living with a father she does't really know. The story begins when the girls are at a party at the reservoir, which no one is suppose to go swimming in, but Ruby tells everyone Chloe can swim it. Since Chloe lives to please her sister, she takes her up on her challenge to swim across the reservoir, which ends up changing her life. After that night Chloe finds herself living with a father she doesn't know in a different state and a way from Ruby. Things change again for Chloe when Ruby comes looking for her.

Being back with her sister, Chloe finds herself in a dark, twisted world and she begins to see her sister in a different light. I liked that both sisters have changed over the course of being apart, and this is where Nova's writing gets really twisted and unique, because not once was I able to figure out what direction the story was going to take. That is one of the things that kept me intrigued with the story. She slowly allowed me to see how everything around Ruby and Chloe starts to unravel. I'll admit, I was beyond frustrated with Ruby numerous times in the story, especially since she made such poor choices that effected Chloe. But, towards the end of the story I felt sympathy for her and I tried to understand why she did what she did. She really did the best she thought she could do. Chloe herself grows from an insecure girl who always wanted to please her older sister into a stronger character who slowly started to piece together things in her sisters life and wanted nothing more than to save her. Both sisters have a unique bond and would do anything for each other.

One of the things I liked about both sisters is how flawed they are. Well really all the characters are flawed, which in a way made them all feel realistic. There's also a lot of tension between characters that builds up through out story and ends up unraveling towards the end of the book.There are a lot of underlying themes that I liked in the story that made me think and wonder how on earth certain things just happened. Really this is a story about impossible things becoming possible. There were times I was frustrated with the story and confused with what exactly was going on, which was the point of the story. This was the first time I read a book where I literally had no idea what to except nor could I figure out what was going to happen next. I felt like I was just as trapped inside Ruby's world as Chloe was. I'm still trying to figure some things out, and Nova did a splendid job on writing a YA book unlike anything I've ever read before. I would recommend this for older teens and adults. This book has mentions of sex, scenes with under age drinking, smoking pot and very mild language in it.

Imaginary Girls Blog Tour: Guest Post & Giveaway

We're really excited to be the next stop in Penguin's Imaginary Girls blog tour. Today we have author Nova Ren Suma stopping by to talk about her book. First, here's a little about Imaginary Girls:

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.

I’m here spilling secrets about my book Imaginary Girls. As the cover says, “Secrets never stay below the surface.” I guess not, because here’s another one bubbling up now…

Secret #7: The path to Olive is one I’ve walked before. And the rowboat is one I’ve been in.

It’s funny how real-world things slip into fiction as you’re writing—at least they do for me, often subconsciously. In Imaginary Girls, the narrator, Chloe, talks about how her older sister, Ruby, carved out her own private path through the trees to reach the rocky shore of the reservoir, where she said the drowned town of Olive used to be found. That was just another one of Ruby’s stories, Chloe tells herself, but what is not one of Ruby’s stories is the path itself to reach the reservoir. I actually did have a friend who found a secret way in to the reservoir, an unmarked entrance leading into the woods that he could somehow find even in the dark without a flashlight. This path led to the water, and I don’t know anyone else apart from him and our friends who knew about it. When I was writing, I followed this path in my memory. Or tried to. I always did have a hard time figuring out where it was, even with the help of a flashlight.

Since I moved away, I’ve heard security has gotten much more serious around the reservoir, as the Ashokan contains the water supply for New York City and is now under threat of terrorist attacks. I’m pretty sure the hole in the fence must have been fixed. So I doubt the path exists anymore—except in this book.

Another piece of real life that found its way into Imaginary Girls is the rowboat that Chloe bumps into while swimming in the reservoir one fateful night. I won’t say more for those who haven’t read the book yet, but I will say that I’ve seen this rusted old rowboat before. It was floating in the water one summer night during a party. We didn’t know who it belonged to or where it came from, but a bunch of us climbed aboard. There was some maneuvering, some splashing, and then the boat tipped over and guess who fell in?
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Be sure to follow Nova on her website and Twitter to keep up with all of her latest news.

You can read a sample of Imaginary Girls here.

After you watch the book trailer be sure to enter to win a copy of Imaginary Girls!

Thank you to Penguin, we have 1 SIGNED copy of Imaginary Girls to giveaway! To enter, please read the guidelines and fill out the form below:

* This is open to residents of the US only
* You must be 13 yrs & older to enter
* 1 entry per person/per email (more than 1 will result in all your entries being deleted)
* This giveaway will end on July 5th, 2011


Thank you to Nova for visiting with us today and to Penguin for the giveaway and our tour stop. Be sure to stop back by later today, as I'll be posting my review for Imaginary Girls.

Twitter Tuesday - Lauren Oliver

I was checking twitter throughout the day yesterday when this tweet caught my eye:

Amazon released a list of Best Books of 2011 (so far), really? Well, guess what book was no. 1? Lauren's DELIRIUM and I remembered how much I loved it all over again.

And then I hopped over to her blog and discovered a couple of exciting things. Lauren's releasing a middle grade book, Liesl and Po, on October 1, 2011. Here's the synopsis from goodreads:
We meet Liesl the night after the day her young father has died. That same day she is visited by a ghost, Po, an eight year old boy who lives on the other side, the territory between life and death that runs parallel to the living world. Po has come to tell her that her father is stuck on the other side, and that she is the only one who can help him cross over. A couple of wooden boxes. Some ashes. Some magic dust. A ghost, its pet, and a boy who forgot to wear a hat in the cold. From these seemingly odd, random characters Oliver weaves the enchanting story of how, with the aid of Liesl, these elements come together over the course of one week to restore love and luster to a world gone grey and heartless.
I am so excited that Lauren wrote a book which I can read with my soon-to-be third grader. My younger two are always curious about my favorite authors but at the ages of 6 and 8.5, they're not ready for YA stories. I'm looking forward to reading it. Now that summer's in full swing it makes me think -- which authors do you love to share with your kids?

Happy Book Release Day To:

































































* Fins Are Forever by Tera Lynn Childs (you can read my review here)
* Griffin Rising by Darby Karchut (you can read my review here)
* Luminous by Dawn Metcalf (you can read my review here)
* The Day Before by Lisa Schroeder
* Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma

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