Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma

Imaginary Girls
Nova Ren Suma
Publisher: Dutton
Released: June 14, 2011
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 352
Source: won at Teen Author Carnival

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.

I just featured this book last month in a Waiting on Wednesday post, and I admitted then to having no idea what it was about. Even after reading the synopsis for the first time then, and again just before reading, I was not at all prepared for what this novel had in store.

Chloe and her older sister Ruby are inseparable. Except when Chloe finds her classmate's body, she is forced to leave Ruby to live with her father. Ruby comes for her two years later and brings her home, where things are very much different, yet very much the same in a way that is very wrong. Chloe soon finds herself questioning everything she's ever known and the one person she's always loved the most.

From the very beginning of Imaginary Girls, I was pulled in by the writing. Every little thing was written with painstaking detail, making each character and every scene palpable. While the plot definitely made for a page-turner, I found myself struggling to slow down and savor each and every word. It was just beautiful and put new-to-me Nova Ren Suma on my auto-buy list (which, for the record, is not very long).

Chloe was a great main character. I loved being in her head and seeing the world through her eyes. She was perfectly flawed, and her transformation from young girl hiding in her sister's shadow to being her own person was painted vividly. I loved the way I was taken through this journey with her, as she began to understand the world around her and Ruby's true role in it. Throughout this novel, I felt like I was under Ruby's spell as well. I couldn't get through the pages fast enough - not for the end necessarily, but because I wanted needed more.

I was so excited when I found this novel in the goody bag I won at Teen Author Carnival. So excited, in fact, that it was the first book I picked up from my BEA haul. This book was so surprising - everything I thought it would be, it wasn't. It far exceeded my expectations. I sincerely hope you pick it up and feel the same way, too.