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I Will Kill Your Imaginary Friend for $200
To bright and anxious eight-year-old Kay Washington, the worst thing in the world is being alone with the quiet. That’s why Eddie Video makes the perfect imaginary He’s smart, he’s loud, he loves pulling pranks, and he’s always there to chase away the silence.
To mid-forties, down-on-his-luck Ivan, the worst thing in the world happened when he lost his imaginary friend. Now cursed with the ability to see everyone else’s, Ivan makes a living by killing the imaginary friends of adults who couldn’t let go. But when one of Eddie Video’s “pranks” goes too far, Ivan agrees to make an exception and help Kay.
Only Ivan will soon learn that Eddie Video is nothing like the talking ostriches, star bears, and goblin princesses he’s encountered in the past, and it’s going to take a lot more than clumsy haymakers and steak knives to bring him down. A balance of comedy and catharsis, this dual-narrative tackles both the fear of growing up and the scars our childhood leaves behind.
To mid-forties, down-on-his-luck Ivan, the worst thing in the world happened when he lost his imaginary friend. Now cursed with the ability to see everyone else’s, Ivan makes a living by killing the imaginary friends of adults who couldn’t let go. But when one of Eddie Video’s “pranks” goes too far, Ivan agrees to make an exception and help Kay.
Only Ivan will soon learn that Eddie Video is nothing like the talking ostriches, star bears, and goblin princesses he’s encountered in the past, and it’s going to take a lot more than clumsy haymakers and steak knives to bring him down. A balance of comedy and catharsis, this dual-narrative tackles both the fear of growing up and the scars our childhood leaves behind.
353 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 27, 2026
229 people are currently reading
14854 people want to read
About the author
Robert Brockway
13 books545 followersRobert Brockway is an author, screenwriter, podcaster and comedian from Portland, Oregon. He is the co-founder of the comedy site 1900HOTDOG, as well as co-host of podcasts BIGFEETS and The Dogg Zzone 9000. Please update this to read "shooting star gone too soon RIP" when Robert Brockway dies doing jetski stunts.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 184 reviews
February 10, 2026
Drop dead Fred meets The Exorcist meets Coraline? Walk with me here. Because I liked this one.
I think it’s slower start worked for this book, because I was wondering how dark the author was gonna get, and surprised when he surpassed what I expected. Things got really messed up.
We’re taken into an 8 year old Kay’s and broke adult Ivan’s lonely worlds. Kay’s loneliness is a childhood loneliness, which is really its own monster. The inability to understand and help how you feel. Trapped. Ivan’s is a bitter adult loneliness, where you’re aware of the choices you’d made to get here but you’re also just busy trying to survive. And you’re still trapped, too. Plus Ivan is still carrying all that childhood loneliness around with him, literally.
They’re brought together by the infamous little freak Eddie Video. He creeped me out bad. Having him be this kid’s obnoxious youtube puppet character was smart and his intro and humor felt really familiar to things I know kids watch. Blegh.
I enjoyed the chapter’s of Ivan going around preforming hits on adult’s imaginary friends, I’d read a whole book of that and be satisfied I think. Robert Brockway builds on that strong concept and gives us an interesting story on coping mechanisms and childhood. How the ways we escape can run us over if left unchecked. And none of this feels cliche or wrapped in a neat bow. This book left me thinking about how much it sucks to let go, but we all gotta do it. Hopefully we’re better for it. 4 1/2 stars.
I think it’s slower start worked for this book, because I was wondering how dark the author was gonna get, and surprised when he surpassed what I expected. Things got really messed up.
We’re taken into an 8 year old Kay’s and broke adult Ivan’s lonely worlds. Kay’s loneliness is a childhood loneliness, which is really its own monster. The inability to understand and help how you feel. Trapped. Ivan’s is a bitter adult loneliness, where you’re aware of the choices you’d made to get here but you’re also just busy trying to survive. And you’re still trapped, too. Plus Ivan is still carrying all that childhood loneliness around with him, literally.
They’re brought together by the infamous little freak Eddie Video. He creeped me out bad. Having him be this kid’s obnoxious youtube puppet character was smart and his intro and humor felt really familiar to things I know kids watch. Blegh.
I enjoyed the chapter’s of Ivan going around preforming hits on adult’s imaginary friends, I’d read a whole book of that and be satisfied I think. Robert Brockway builds on that strong concept and gives us an interesting story on coping mechanisms and childhood. How the ways we escape can run us over if left unchecked. And none of this feels cliche or wrapped in a neat bow. This book left me thinking about how much it sucks to let go, but we all gotta do it. Hopefully we’re better for it. 4 1/2 stars.
January 17, 2026
Don’t let the subject matter of this one mislead you. This is a book for adults. And it is indeed horror, even if it doesn’t feel like it at first. Many parts of it were funny, but this novel also tore my heart out and stomped on it. Quite the variety pack!
I loved so many of the creative ideas in this book, and it was fun to see the pop culture references. (Beakman’s World!) All the different imaginary friends were so weird and interesting. I looked forward to finding out what each one would be like. Brockway came up with very specific rules for how things worked for Ivan and his ability, but there were plenty of surprises for both the character and the reader.
For a while I was like, “This book is dark, but it’s not THAT dark.” But then I reached a certain point in the plot and I thought, “OH.” Just be aware going in that parts of this made me do a double take.
The children with the imaginary friends are generally good kids, but there’s something a bit ominous about the characters they’ve dreamed up…and then you gradually uncover the truth. At first I felt vibes similar to the movie “Drop Dead Fred,” a personal favorite. But it’s a scarier, deeper version of that.
The character Kay, a little girl struggling with loneliness, relating to other kids, and lots of other things, was written SO WELL. I felt so bad for her and found her dynamic with the demented Eddie Video both fascinating and heartbreaking. Especially when I realized just how manipulative and abusive the situation really was. (And I admired just how bizarre Eddie’s dialogue was.)
My only complaint is that the story eventually felt a little bit dragged out, to the point where the whole shtick started to feel old and I was ready to move on.
But then the ending completely won me over again. 5 stars! I love content about imaginary friends, and this was such a fresh take! Brockway sort of left room for a possible sequel, and I really hope he continues the story.
Thank you to Netgalley and to the Publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review! All opinions are my own.
Biggest TW: Racism, *Self-harm, Depression, Suicide, Substance abuse/OD, *Harm to children
I loved so many of the creative ideas in this book, and it was fun to see the pop culture references. (Beakman’s World!) All the different imaginary friends were so weird and interesting. I looked forward to finding out what each one would be like. Brockway came up with very specific rules for how things worked for Ivan and his ability, but there were plenty of surprises for both the character and the reader.
For a while I was like, “This book is dark, but it’s not THAT dark.” But then I reached a certain point in the plot and I thought, “OH.” Just be aware going in that parts of this made me do a double take.
The children with the imaginary friends are generally good kids, but there’s something a bit ominous about the characters they’ve dreamed up…and then you gradually uncover the truth. At first I felt vibes similar to the movie “Drop Dead Fred,” a personal favorite. But it’s a scarier, deeper version of that.
The character Kay, a little girl struggling with loneliness, relating to other kids, and lots of other things, was written SO WELL. I felt so bad for her and found her dynamic with the demented Eddie Video both fascinating and heartbreaking. Especially when I realized just how manipulative and abusive the situation really was. (And I admired just how bizarre Eddie’s dialogue was.)
My only complaint is that the story eventually felt a little bit dragged out, to the point where the whole shtick started to feel old and I was ready to move on.
But then the ending completely won me over again. 5 stars! I love content about imaginary friends, and this was such a fresh take! Brockway sort of left room for a possible sequel, and I really hope he continues the story.
Thank you to Netgalley and to the Publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review! All opinions are my own.
Biggest TW: Racism, *Self-harm, Depression, Suicide, Substance abuse/OD, *Harm to children
January 20, 2026
This is a funny, imaginative novel that blends humor with light horror while exploring loneliness, growing up, and the lasting impact of childhood. The story follows two perspectives: Ivan, a broke forty-something who makes a living killing adults’ lingering imaginary friends, and Kay, an eight-year-old whose imaginary friend, Eddie Video, is born from online videos and becomes dangerously real.
While it plays with horror concepts, the book stays light on actual scares, making it an accessible entry point for those who prefer humor/absurdity over dread. Beneath the jokes is a familiar modern anxiety - kids raising themselves, technology shaping identity, and adults fighting invisible systems they barely understand, much like the imaginary enemies at the center of the story. The imaginary characters are a big highlight! Ivan’s straightforward ass-kicking approach was hilarious, and I especially loved the fairy goblin princess who farts confetti. Then there’s Eddie Video, who starts off silly but then increasingly grows more and more manipulative. There’s one scene in particular that stepped into uncomfortable territory (TW for self-harm). He made a great antagonist, though the scenes with him playing out “episodes” were a bit too lengthy at times. The pacing felt uneven, certain plot points were repetitive, and the characters lacked deeper emotional development for me. It’s very plot-driven, which works for the concept, but it created a bit of emotional detachment for me.
Overall, I enjoyed this book. It could have benefited from tighter editing, but its originality, humor, and underlying message shine through.
Many thanks to Page Street Horror for an early copy of this book! 𝐎𝐮𝐭: 𝟏/𝟐𝟕/𝟐𝟔.
3.5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
While it plays with horror concepts, the book stays light on actual scares, making it an accessible entry point for those who prefer humor/absurdity over dread. Beneath the jokes is a familiar modern anxiety - kids raising themselves, technology shaping identity, and adults fighting invisible systems they barely understand, much like the imaginary enemies at the center of the story. The imaginary characters are a big highlight! Ivan’s straightforward ass-kicking approach was hilarious, and I especially loved the fairy goblin princess who farts confetti. Then there’s Eddie Video, who starts off silly but then increasingly grows more and more manipulative. There’s one scene in particular that stepped into uncomfortable territory (TW for self-harm). He made a great antagonist, though the scenes with him playing out “episodes” were a bit too lengthy at times. The pacing felt uneven, certain plot points were repetitive, and the characters lacked deeper emotional development for me. It’s very plot-driven, which works for the concept, but it created a bit of emotional detachment for me.
Overall, I enjoyed this book. It could have benefited from tighter editing, but its originality, humor, and underlying message shine through.
Many thanks to Page Street Horror for an early copy of this book! 𝐎𝐮𝐭: 𝟏/𝟐𝟕/𝟐𝟔.
3.5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
February 6, 2026
BWAF Score: 7/10
TL;DR: A gig-economy horror gut-punch where “imaginary friend” mythology gets weaponized into a full predator ecosystem of cords, bonds, and hunger that feels freakishly specific. It’s inventive, grotesque, and mean in the smart way, taking a bar-joke premise and turning it into a filthy little nightmare that sticks to your ribs.
This book opens with the kind of premise that sounds like a joke you tell at a bar and then you realize you are laughing because you are scared. A broke adult in a rain-soaked city takes gigs killing the imaginary friends that never properly died. Not exorcising, not therapizing, not “helping you make peace.” Killing. For two hundred bucks. It is the perfect gig-economy nightmare, a service economy for the things we used to survive childhood, now grown teeth and predatory instincts and a Yelp-ready business model.
And Brockway actually commits. He does not turn it into a cute high-concept romp where the imaginary friend is a wacky mascot who learns a lesson. He makes the IF ecosystem feel like a food chain, and he keeps dragging it back to the same ugly truth: loneliness is a resource, and something is harvesting it.
The story’s main spine runs through Ivan, a man who looks like trouble because he is trouble, and because being visibly “unsafe” is part of how he stays safe. His work puts him in proximity to children without ever letting you forget why that is terrifying. He is careful, paranoid, and deeply uninterested in hero narratives. He is also, crucially, not a blank cool-guy. He carries his own history, his own internal cord to something he cannot quite release, and Brockway uses that to keep Ivan’s chapters from becoming procedural monster-of-the-week. You feel the moral corrosion. You feel the hunger for cash. You feel the fatigue of doing one more job because rent is not a metaphor.
Running counterpoint is Kay, eight years old, mothered by Mack in a world where money is always the third person in the room. Kay’s imaginary friend, Eddie Video, is a loud, prank-happy answer to silence, and the book is smart about how “silence” is not neutral for a kid. It is a threat. Eddie arrives like relief, like noise you can hold onto, and Brockway lets that sweetness exist long enough to hurt when it curdles.
Kay’s home life and Ivan’s gig-work start as separate tracks, then converge as the reality of imaginary friends is revealed to be bigger and older and meaner than either of them understands. Along the way, the novel braids in other voices and timeframes that show how IFs form, how they attach, and what happens when attachment becomes a weapon. The endgame pivots into a full world story, with rules around cords and bonds, and a predator logic that treats children as both home and pantry.
Brockway builds tension by letting the reader learn the rules one bruise at a time. Imaginary friends are not generic ghosts. They are born from a particular recipe of need, and once they exist, they obey a physical-emotional infrastructure: cords, bonds, proximity, hunger, and the terrible fact that love is not always protective. The horror is often choreographed through pursuit and containment. An IF can be tethered and furious, stuck at the end of its cord like an animal on a chain. Or it can be unbound, moving through spaces it should not be able to move through, and that’s when the story gets genuinely fucked. The best sequences feel like watching a children’s TV character sprint across the edge of your vision in a mall window, except the joke is that it is not for children anymore.
Voice and POV are one of the book’s gambles. It is not a single clean lane. You get close third that hugs Kay and Ivan, but you also get other perspectives and timeframes that function like myth fragments and case studies. When it works, it makes the world feel deep, like IFs are not one weird thing happening to one family, but a shadow industry embedded in decades of lonely kids. When it wobbles, it is because the book is juggling a lot of tonal ingredients: grim gig-economy realism, childlike whimsy, and late-stage grotesque violation. There are moments that flirt with “this could be a slick streaming pitch,” then Brockway yanks the camera back into the muck and reminds you he is not trying to sell you a fun ride. He is trying to make you uncomfortable.
Chapters have momentum. Scenes end with pressure still in the room. The reveals are timed so that you get enough information to worry, then just enough to realize you were worrying about the wrong part. There is some structural looseness in the middle where the braid of voices can feel like it is widening rather than tightening, and a few beats repeat the same emotional note (desperation, panic, scramble, repeat). But the later material earns it by turning that sprawl into a larger map. The book becomes, very deliberately, about systems of predation, not just one scary friend.
Character work stays grounded in motive. Kay’s need for noise, for attention, for a buffer between her and adult stress, is painfully believable. Mack reads like a parent trying to do math with a broken pencil while the room is on fire. Ivan is the standout because he is both predator-adjacent and protective, capable of violence and also capable of care that costs him something. Dialogue lands because it is not trying to be charming. It is transactional, defensive, occasionally funny in the way people are funny when they are trying not to cry.
Robert Brockway came up writing in comedy and internet culture, including as a senior editor and columnist at Cracked, and you can feel that background in the book’s willingness to take an absurd premise seriously without sanding off the bite. He has also written across genre lanes, including horror and punk-rock urban fantasy, with titles like Carrier Wave and the “Vicious Circuit” novels (The Unnoticeables, The Empty Ones, Kill All Angels). That genre elasticity shows up here as a confidence with tonal collision: childhood whimsy beside bodily violation, jokes beside dread.
Imagery and setting do a lot of heavy lifting. Portland’s rain becomes texture and pressure, a constant reminder that the world is wet and cold and not interested in your problems. The book also nails the visual language of children’s media, not as comfort but as camouflage. Bright characters, simple shapes, a smile that is too wide. Brockway keeps returning to the body as a site of horror, not just gore, but the idea of the self as something that can be invaded, rewired, corded, harvested. The late-stage stuff is where the novel becomes truly mean in a smart way, with body and psyche violations that feel bespoke to this mythology, not generic “things get gross because horror.”
The novel is about exploitation, but not in the abstract. It is about how desperation creates markets, how loneliness gets monetized, how childhood coping mechanisms can become adult liabilities, and how predators love a system that lets them call hunger “need.” It is also, quietly, about parenting under capitalism: the way a kid’s imagination becomes both refuge and target when adults are too exhausted to be present.
If you want a perfectly elegant, single-voice novel that never risks tonal collision, this might feel messy. If you hate the idea of childhood iconography being used for grotesque horror, hard pass. But if you like high-concept horror that actually follows through, that takes a ridiculous hook and turns it into a specific, nasty ecosystem with rules, consequences, and a moral hangover, this one fucking rocks.
Read if the phrase “gig-economy exorcist for imaginary friends” makes you laugh and then immediately feel worse, in a good way.
Skip if you prefer dread that’s subtle and atmospheric over “late-stage grotesque” endgame mechanics.
TL;DR: A gig-economy horror gut-punch where “imaginary friend” mythology gets weaponized into a full predator ecosystem of cords, bonds, and hunger that feels freakishly specific. It’s inventive, grotesque, and mean in the smart way, taking a bar-joke premise and turning it into a filthy little nightmare that sticks to your ribs.
This book opens with the kind of premise that sounds like a joke you tell at a bar and then you realize you are laughing because you are scared. A broke adult in a rain-soaked city takes gigs killing the imaginary friends that never properly died. Not exorcising, not therapizing, not “helping you make peace.” Killing. For two hundred bucks. It is the perfect gig-economy nightmare, a service economy for the things we used to survive childhood, now grown teeth and predatory instincts and a Yelp-ready business model.
And Brockway actually commits. He does not turn it into a cute high-concept romp where the imaginary friend is a wacky mascot who learns a lesson. He makes the IF ecosystem feel like a food chain, and he keeps dragging it back to the same ugly truth: loneliness is a resource, and something is harvesting it.
The story’s main spine runs through Ivan, a man who looks like trouble because he is trouble, and because being visibly “unsafe” is part of how he stays safe. His work puts him in proximity to children without ever letting you forget why that is terrifying. He is careful, paranoid, and deeply uninterested in hero narratives. He is also, crucially, not a blank cool-guy. He carries his own history, his own internal cord to something he cannot quite release, and Brockway uses that to keep Ivan’s chapters from becoming procedural monster-of-the-week. You feel the moral corrosion. You feel the hunger for cash. You feel the fatigue of doing one more job because rent is not a metaphor.
Running counterpoint is Kay, eight years old, mothered by Mack in a world where money is always the third person in the room. Kay’s imaginary friend, Eddie Video, is a loud, prank-happy answer to silence, and the book is smart about how “silence” is not neutral for a kid. It is a threat. Eddie arrives like relief, like noise you can hold onto, and Brockway lets that sweetness exist long enough to hurt when it curdles.
Kay’s home life and Ivan’s gig-work start as separate tracks, then converge as the reality of imaginary friends is revealed to be bigger and older and meaner than either of them understands. Along the way, the novel braids in other voices and timeframes that show how IFs form, how they attach, and what happens when attachment becomes a weapon. The endgame pivots into a full world story, with rules around cords and bonds, and a predator logic that treats children as both home and pantry.
Brockway builds tension by letting the reader learn the rules one bruise at a time. Imaginary friends are not generic ghosts. They are born from a particular recipe of need, and once they exist, they obey a physical-emotional infrastructure: cords, bonds, proximity, hunger, and the terrible fact that love is not always protective. The horror is often choreographed through pursuit and containment. An IF can be tethered and furious, stuck at the end of its cord like an animal on a chain. Or it can be unbound, moving through spaces it should not be able to move through, and that’s when the story gets genuinely fucked. The best sequences feel like watching a children’s TV character sprint across the edge of your vision in a mall window, except the joke is that it is not for children anymore.
Voice and POV are one of the book’s gambles. It is not a single clean lane. You get close third that hugs Kay and Ivan, but you also get other perspectives and timeframes that function like myth fragments and case studies. When it works, it makes the world feel deep, like IFs are not one weird thing happening to one family, but a shadow industry embedded in decades of lonely kids. When it wobbles, it is because the book is juggling a lot of tonal ingredients: grim gig-economy realism, childlike whimsy, and late-stage grotesque violation. There are moments that flirt with “this could be a slick streaming pitch,” then Brockway yanks the camera back into the muck and reminds you he is not trying to sell you a fun ride. He is trying to make you uncomfortable.
Chapters have momentum. Scenes end with pressure still in the room. The reveals are timed so that you get enough information to worry, then just enough to realize you were worrying about the wrong part. There is some structural looseness in the middle where the braid of voices can feel like it is widening rather than tightening, and a few beats repeat the same emotional note (desperation, panic, scramble, repeat). But the later material earns it by turning that sprawl into a larger map. The book becomes, very deliberately, about systems of predation, not just one scary friend.
Character work stays grounded in motive. Kay’s need for noise, for attention, for a buffer between her and adult stress, is painfully believable. Mack reads like a parent trying to do math with a broken pencil while the room is on fire. Ivan is the standout because he is both predator-adjacent and protective, capable of violence and also capable of care that costs him something. Dialogue lands because it is not trying to be charming. It is transactional, defensive, occasionally funny in the way people are funny when they are trying not to cry.
Robert Brockway came up writing in comedy and internet culture, including as a senior editor and columnist at Cracked, and you can feel that background in the book’s willingness to take an absurd premise seriously without sanding off the bite. He has also written across genre lanes, including horror and punk-rock urban fantasy, with titles like Carrier Wave and the “Vicious Circuit” novels (The Unnoticeables, The Empty Ones, Kill All Angels). That genre elasticity shows up here as a confidence with tonal collision: childhood whimsy beside bodily violation, jokes beside dread.
Imagery and setting do a lot of heavy lifting. Portland’s rain becomes texture and pressure, a constant reminder that the world is wet and cold and not interested in your problems. The book also nails the visual language of children’s media, not as comfort but as camouflage. Bright characters, simple shapes, a smile that is too wide. Brockway keeps returning to the body as a site of horror, not just gore, but the idea of the self as something that can be invaded, rewired, corded, harvested. The late-stage stuff is where the novel becomes truly mean in a smart way, with body and psyche violations that feel bespoke to this mythology, not generic “things get gross because horror.”
The novel is about exploitation, but not in the abstract. It is about how desperation creates markets, how loneliness gets monetized, how childhood coping mechanisms can become adult liabilities, and how predators love a system that lets them call hunger “need.” It is also, quietly, about parenting under capitalism: the way a kid’s imagination becomes both refuge and target when adults are too exhausted to be present.
If you want a perfectly elegant, single-voice novel that never risks tonal collision, this might feel messy. If you hate the idea of childhood iconography being used for grotesque horror, hard pass. But if you like high-concept horror that actually follows through, that takes a ridiculous hook and turns it into a specific, nasty ecosystem with rules, consequences, and a moral hangover, this one fucking rocks.
Read if the phrase “gig-economy exorcist for imaginary friends” makes you laugh and then immediately feel worse, in a good way.
Skip if you prefer dread that’s subtle and atmospheric over “late-stage grotesque” endgame mechanics.
January 31, 2026
6⭐️
This is a horror straight from the deepest recesses of your mind where your childhood nightmares still live.
"There's a secret to being alone, and it's to never let the quiet in. If you let it in for even one minute, it might stay forever. It might creep into your brain and trap you there, and then it's quiet even when it's loud around you, and then that's it. You're done."
This book has the vibes of the movies Monkeybones (Brendan Fraser) mixed with Death To Smoochy. ( Robin Williams) it's incredibly well done, with edge of my seat writing.
Horror yet heartwarming. Fantasy based in reality. Childhood and adulthood are vying for possession.
What if your imaginary friends were real? What if you forgot to outgrow them? What if they were actually very, very dangerous???
"It's simple, really. The key to happiness. Here it is: Don't pay your crushing medical bills."
Also, check out Supernatural season 11 episode 8 if you want more of dead Imaginary Friends madness
This is a horror straight from the deepest recesses of your mind where your childhood nightmares still live.
"There's a secret to being alone, and it's to never let the quiet in. If you let it in for even one minute, it might stay forever. It might creep into your brain and trap you there, and then it's quiet even when it's loud around you, and then that's it. You're done."
This book has the vibes of the movies Monkeybones (Brendan Fraser) mixed with Death To Smoochy. ( Robin Williams) it's incredibly well done, with edge of my seat writing.
Horror yet heartwarming. Fantasy based in reality. Childhood and adulthood are vying for possession.
What if your imaginary friends were real? What if you forgot to outgrow them? What if they were actually very, very dangerous???
"It's simple, really. The key to happiness. Here it is: Don't pay your crushing medical bills."
Also, check out Supernatural season 11 episode 8 if you want more of dead Imaginary Friends madness
February 2, 2026
Don't let that silly title and adorable cover and the humor tag fool you, this book is fucked. I feel so many emotions right now, I don't even know what to do.
February 7, 2026
Really unique concept that pulled me in for the first half, but it dragged on a little too much in the second half and got a little too weird and abstract for my personal preference
March 18, 2026
It’s weird how sometimes, to stop being afraid of something, you just need to be afraid of something else.
When I was 8 years old, I used to tell my classmates the cookies and lemonade packed by my mom for snack time were actually made by a zombie that lived at the end of my street. Years and years later, it took less than one chapter of this book for the zombie to materialize again in my mind.
I wish there was a way to describe how this book made me feel. Every chapter, specifically the ones narrated by 8 year old Kay, is so utterly unnerving, the prose sneaking under your skin and poking at things in your mind long forgotten—a thought, an experience, a feeling. It’s not a light read. It gets progressively darker, the things that at first seem innocent and adorable taking a twisted and dangerous turn the longer it goes.
It’s so tiring belonging to everyone who’s ever met you.
It might start slow but once our two main characters meet, you’ll be glued to the book and won’t be able to put it down until its end. Don’t let the horror tag push you away, as the scares are kept low, with the real fright being something we are all familiar with: family anxiety, single parent households, kids having no one but the vast terror of the internet raising them, the fragile state of mind product of a lonely childhood. Eddie Video might be this book’s bad guy, but he’s a paper drawing of a real and present issue affecting so many these days. Also, he’s just downright creepy.
How was that place ever magical to you? Why did it change? Because you went away.
Robert Brockway achieved something here, and that was making I’ll Kill Your Imaginary Friend for $200 one of my favorite books before I was even done with it. I’ll probably be thinking about it for a very long time. And maybe in between that, during the moments of lonely silence, I’ll think of the zombie at the end of my street, and what treats he’d give me today.
When I was 8 years old, I used to tell my classmates the cookies and lemonade packed by my mom for snack time were actually made by a zombie that lived at the end of my street. Years and years later, it took less than one chapter of this book for the zombie to materialize again in my mind.
I wish there was a way to describe how this book made me feel. Every chapter, specifically the ones narrated by 8 year old Kay, is so utterly unnerving, the prose sneaking under your skin and poking at things in your mind long forgotten—a thought, an experience, a feeling. It’s not a light read. It gets progressively darker, the things that at first seem innocent and adorable taking a twisted and dangerous turn the longer it goes.
It’s so tiring belonging to everyone who’s ever met you.
It might start slow but once our two main characters meet, you’ll be glued to the book and won’t be able to put it down until its end. Don’t let the horror tag push you away, as the scares are kept low, with the real fright being something we are all familiar with: family anxiety, single parent households, kids having no one but the vast terror of the internet raising them, the fragile state of mind product of a lonely childhood. Eddie Video might be this book’s bad guy, but he’s a paper drawing of a real and present issue affecting so many these days. Also, he’s just downright creepy.
How was that place ever magical to you? Why did it change? Because you went away.
Robert Brockway achieved something here, and that was making I’ll Kill Your Imaginary Friend for $200 one of my favorite books before I was even done with it. I’ll probably be thinking about it for a very long time. And maybe in between that, during the moments of lonely silence, I’ll think of the zombie at the end of my street, and what treats he’d give me today.
February 28, 2026
5⭐️ When a horror book is so deep it brings tears to my eyes, I call that a success. This book was so good 😭 Children shouldn’t have to deal with mental health struggles, but this story brought the topic to light in such a gentle, moving way. I found myself rooting for every single hero and holding onto hope for them the entire time.
If this ever makes it to the big screen, it’s going to be scary af.
Ivan is a man who claims he can eliminate adults imaginary friends, for a fee. He’s always sworn he’d never target children’s imaginary friends because they need them. But when a child begins displaying possession-like behavior, he finds himself tempted to break that rule. Childhood trauma can look a hell of a lot like a real monster…and for Ivan, that turns out to be exactly the case.
If this ever makes it to the big screen, it’s going to be scary af.
Ivan is a man who claims he can eliminate adults imaginary friends, for a fee. He’s always sworn he’d never target children’s imaginary friends because they need them. But when a child begins displaying possession-like behavior, he finds himself tempted to break that rule. Childhood trauma can look a hell of a lot like a real monster…and for Ivan, that turns out to be exactly the case.
February 26, 2026
Whimsical, yet chilling. Sinister, while still being touching. An uncomfortable read about what how lonely it can be to be a child and how that loneliness can follow you into adulthood with moments of laughter and brightness sprinkled throughout. It’s horrifying and people definitely die in this one, but I couldn’t put it down. Exactly what I needed for this slump. I’m sure it’ll drop to a 4-4.5 if I think on it a few months from now, but for now it gets a 5 from this wave of serotonin.
December 22, 2025
I Will Kill Your Imaginary Friend for $200 — 3.75 ⭐️
Ivan is a middle-aged man just trying to make ends meet when he becomes a contract assassin for adults’ childhood imaginary friends.
Rich kids tend to create (harmless and usually forgettable) imaginary friends out of boredom. Poor kids, though, often create monsters born from darker places, meant to protect them through harder times. Those are the imaginary friends Ivan has to worry about.
And Ivan has one strict rule: no children. Kids need their imaginary friends. It’s the ones that refuse to leave as we grow up that tend to become real problems. As long as he stays outside the typical fifty-foot boundary that imaginary friends surround their humans with, the job is usually manageable.
So when Ivan is contacted about an eight-year-old girl named Kay, whose imaginary friend may be genuinely dangerous and threatening her safety, he makes an exception.
The concept is so creative, original, and an absolutely hilariously wild time.
I personally just had somewhat of an issue with the pacing. I love that the story gets straight to the point and moves very quickly, but sometimes it was just too quickly. It felt very plot-driven, and I wish there had been more space for character interaction and relationship development. Because I loved these characters and I wanted to feel everything that happened in this story rather than like I was being told.
That said, I still thought this story was great, and I’m sure a lot of readers will absolutely love it. I just didn’t connect quite as deeply as I hoped, which lands it just under four stars for me at 3.75.
Thank you to NetGalley and Page Street Horror for the opportunity to read this early copy. I will not forget this one anytime soon.
Ivan is a middle-aged man just trying to make ends meet when he becomes a contract assassin for adults’ childhood imaginary friends.
Rich kids tend to create (harmless and usually forgettable) imaginary friends out of boredom. Poor kids, though, often create monsters born from darker places, meant to protect them through harder times. Those are the imaginary friends Ivan has to worry about.
And Ivan has one strict rule: no children. Kids need their imaginary friends. It’s the ones that refuse to leave as we grow up that tend to become real problems. As long as he stays outside the typical fifty-foot boundary that imaginary friends surround their humans with, the job is usually manageable.
So when Ivan is contacted about an eight-year-old girl named Kay, whose imaginary friend may be genuinely dangerous and threatening her safety, he makes an exception.
The concept is so creative, original, and an absolutely hilariously wild time.
I personally just had somewhat of an issue with the pacing. I love that the story gets straight to the point and moves very quickly, but sometimes it was just too quickly. It felt very plot-driven, and I wish there had been more space for character interaction and relationship development. Because I loved these characters and I wanted to feel everything that happened in this story rather than like I was being told.
That said, I still thought this story was great, and I’m sure a lot of readers will absolutely love it. I just didn’t connect quite as deeply as I hoped, which lands it just under four stars for me at 3.75.
Thank you to NetGalley and Page Street Horror for the opportunity to read this early copy. I will not forget this one anytime soon.
January 27, 2026
🔪 I Will Kill Your Imaginary Friend For $200 by Robert Buckley 🔪
Happy Publication Day to this wonky yet heartfelt book! A special thank you to @pagestreethorror for the #gifted Arc copy!
Page count: 352
Comps: Incidents Around The House, Drop Dead Fred, Fosters Home For Imaginary Friends
Vibes: Letting go, Imaginary Friends, Possession, Single Mother
Thoughts: This one was wild. It follows two different POVs. Ivan, a man who can see other people’s imaginary friends and will take care of them if they over stay their welcome. Kay, a little girl who doesn’t fit in well. Her imaginary friend Eddie Video begins putting her in dangerous situations. Will Ivan break his own rule of leaving the imaginary friends of children alone to help save Kay?
This one does an excellent job of blending comedy and horror. While this book is not “horrifying,” it definitely plays into the fears of what’s real vs the imaginary. Some of the creations the kids came up with in this one were WILD. Overall, I enjoyed this one! Just wish it was a tad bit shorter!
Get it here 👉🏻 https://bookshop.org/a/79577/97988900...
Happy Publication Day to this wonky yet heartfelt book! A special thank you to @pagestreethorror for the #gifted Arc copy!
Page count: 352
Comps: Incidents Around The House, Drop Dead Fred, Fosters Home For Imaginary Friends
Vibes: Letting go, Imaginary Friends, Possession, Single Mother
Thoughts: This one was wild. It follows two different POVs. Ivan, a man who can see other people’s imaginary friends and will take care of them if they over stay their welcome. Kay, a little girl who doesn’t fit in well. Her imaginary friend Eddie Video begins putting her in dangerous situations. Will Ivan break his own rule of leaving the imaginary friends of children alone to help save Kay?
This one does an excellent job of blending comedy and horror. While this book is not “horrifying,” it definitely plays into the fears of what’s real vs the imaginary. Some of the creations the kids came up with in this one were WILD. Overall, I enjoyed this one! Just wish it was a tad bit shorter!
Get it here 👉🏻 https://bookshop.org/a/79577/97988900...
February 20, 2026
I had such a great time with this book! The vibes were ✨vibing✨
I’ve never read anything like this before, a horror book centering children and their imaginary friends.
You follow Ivan a down on his luck dude that out of money desperation answers a Craigslist ad to kill an imaginary friend. And then the other main character you follow is Kay a child with anxiety and self esteem issues, who ends up with a malevolent imaginary friend and then the horror starts. 😁
The horror elements were kind of a slow build, but it worked to build some unease throughout the book. And closer to the end your like “did that really just happen!” 😱
I also loved the writing in this!
Weirdly there were a lot a great quotes throughout. (At least I thought so)
I’ll have to check out more from this author in the future!
I’ve never read anything like this before, a horror book centering children and their imaginary friends.
You follow Ivan a down on his luck dude that out of money desperation answers a Craigslist ad to kill an imaginary friend. And then the other main character you follow is Kay a child with anxiety and self esteem issues, who ends up with a malevolent imaginary friend and then the horror starts. 😁
The horror elements were kind of a slow build, but it worked to build some unease throughout the book. And closer to the end your like “did that really just happen!” 😱
I also loved the writing in this!
Weirdly there were a lot a great quotes throughout. (At least I thought so)
I’ll have to check out more from this author in the future!
March 13, 2026
I'm always looking for something singular. Sometimes a unique premise can come across as more of a gimmick than a substantial novel. I Will Kill Your Imaginary Friend for $200 surpassed my expectations. It had so much depth and thought and even though it felt like a fever dream I loved it.
We follow two characters. Ivan, a down on his luck gig worker who uses his ability to see and kill imaginary friends as a way to make rent. Kay, an 8-year-old, incredibly lonely girl, who's imaginary friend is starting to become dangerous in her real life.
Kay broke my heart. It feels unfair and almost impossible that a child can feel so lonely and self-conscious."Like there was a manual for being a person, and she was the only one who never got a copy." She had such big feelings that it overwhelmed her, and she invented her imaginary friend, Eddie Video, to help take away the quiet. Eddie was slightly creepy from the beginning and only became more sinister.
There is humor, how could there not be in a book about an assassin of imaginary friends but what really impressed me was Rockaways keen insight into loneliness and isolation. How our inability to cope and let go can cause even more suffering.
If you like em wierd, this is a must.
We follow two characters. Ivan, a down on his luck gig worker who uses his ability to see and kill imaginary friends as a way to make rent. Kay, an 8-year-old, incredibly lonely girl, who's imaginary friend is starting to become dangerous in her real life.
Kay broke my heart. It feels unfair and almost impossible that a child can feel so lonely and self-conscious."Like there was a manual for being a person, and she was the only one who never got a copy." She had such big feelings that it overwhelmed her, and she invented her imaginary friend, Eddie Video, to help take away the quiet. Eddie was slightly creepy from the beginning and only became more sinister.
There is humor, how could there not be in a book about an assassin of imaginary friends but what really impressed me was Rockaways keen insight into loneliness and isolation. How our inability to cope and let go can cause even more suffering.
If you like em wierd, this is a must.
February 5, 2026
Fun concept, but it dragged on at least 50 pages too long. So many chapters about Caper Town just felt like filler. The end was super rushed. Questions I'd had all book long were answered and moved on from in only a few sentences. Overall a lot of potential, but the second half was a bit blah.
March 5, 2026
Thank you Emm for picking this book for me!
I've asked myself several times, "What does a five-star horror book look like to me?". Don't get me wrong, I like a good horror book every once and awhile, but I always find them average or missing something to make them great; Maybe the genre just doesn't click for me like it does for others. Finally, I can say now that I've read one that answers that question!
I Will Kill Your Imaginary Friend for $200 follows two different characters: Kay, a little girl with social anxieties who finds comfort in the noise and antics the "Eddie Video Show" gives her; and Ivan, an adult struggling to make rent and has childhood trauma of his own. Ivan's unique curse? He can see other children's imaginary friends, and OH BOY can they see him!
Assassinating imaginary friends is honestly such a fun concept. Ivan's struggle is so real he has to do the most terrifying thing to him, though it quickly becomes lucrative. Also, the fact it's done so brutally without any planning or finesse makes it all the more shocking. Kay's imaginary friend is a Roblox-esque trickster named Eddie who is a star in a kids TV show with pranks, screaming, crafts and lots of meat *shudders*. Anything with kids is an instant ticket to horror success, and the growing control Eddie has over Kay was done so well.
What immediately made this book stand out for me was the way it touched on childhood trauma. Ivan and Kay are similar in that when reality was scary and they couldn't fit in, they found escape in their fantasy worlds and their imaginary friends. Hearing about Ivan's past throughout was incredibly sad and relatable, seeing the results of what happens when you can't let go and it's too late. Moxie was loving and had Ivan's best interest in mind; Eddie, on the other hand...
This book was seriously such an amazing surprise. Brockway's prose throughout is great too; The way he captures the emotions and thoughts of children is uncanny, and it's laced with humor and dark imagery throughout. If you haven't already, go check it out! It's seriously worth it.
I've asked myself several times, "What does a five-star horror book look like to me?". Don't get me wrong, I like a good horror book every once and awhile, but I always find them average or missing something to make them great; Maybe the genre just doesn't click for me like it does for others. Finally, I can say now that I've read one that answers that question!
I Will Kill Your Imaginary Friend for $200 follows two different characters: Kay, a little girl with social anxieties who finds comfort in the noise and antics the "Eddie Video Show" gives her; and Ivan, an adult struggling to make rent and has childhood trauma of his own. Ivan's unique curse? He can see other children's imaginary friends, and OH BOY can they see him!
Assassinating imaginary friends is honestly such a fun concept. Ivan's struggle is so real he has to do the most terrifying thing to him, though it quickly becomes lucrative. Also, the fact it's done so brutally without any planning or finesse makes it all the more shocking. Kay's imaginary friend is a Roblox-esque trickster named Eddie who is a star in a kids TV show with pranks, screaming, crafts and lots of meat *shudders*. Anything with kids is an instant ticket to horror success, and the growing control Eddie has over Kay was done so well.
What immediately made this book stand out for me was the way it touched on childhood trauma. Ivan and Kay are similar in that when reality was scary and they couldn't fit in, they found escape in their fantasy worlds and their imaginary friends. Hearing about Ivan's past throughout was incredibly sad and relatable, seeing the results of what happens when you can't let go and it's too late. Moxie was loving and had Ivan's best interest in mind; Eddie, on the other hand...
This book was seriously such an amazing surprise. Brockway's prose throughout is great too; The way he captures the emotions and thoughts of children is uncanny, and it's laced with humor and dark imagery throughout. If you haven't already, go check it out! It's seriously worth it.
March 16, 2026
Nice! This felt fresh, unique, fun while also extremely messed up. Especially after reading a run of mediocre to disappointing novels this was very welcome. Personally, the humorous parts were a bit so-so. But when this got real, it got REAL. Which is quite the feat considering this is about imaginary friends (IF) being real and what if one of them switches to the dark side? With a premise like that I feel like you have to play it a bit cuckoo but on the other hand also fold true meaning in. Brockway found that balance, I did prefer the serious side of this but I think it needed that slightly ridiculous element, too.
This walks you through the idea of imaginary friends, what they mean to children and why they get created. A strong statement for their usefulness is made before we go all Horror and despair. I liked how this approached childhood loneliness and even children's mental illness. It's about outsiders and what helps you cope with it, the limitations and dangers of these coping mechanisms if you let them run unchecked. Under all the quirk and weirdness this has a lot to offer but I also enjoyed it for its weirdness. And its creep-factor. Basically, this is very different take on the possession concept, the IF taking over, at least the way how it's done here, is very similar to the idea of a demon but without all that religious side of it. Refreshing! It also reminded me a bit of Sodergren's "Rotten Tommy" with the IF in question being inspired by/ taken from a kid's show and how we get to dive into that character's realm. Creepy children's shows or cartoons are still such an untapped Horror trope because yikes. Have you seen some of the things they put in front of kids?
Ivan was a great protagonist, full of insecurities and scars of the past. He is not the guy you meet and like, he himself knows he can come off rather creepy, especially when he tries to avoid the IFs that only he can see. I found the ending stretched itself a little too long, some things here are predictable at this point and therefor the final fight didn't need to take up as many pages as it did for me. It started to miss hitting the emotional beats that it was nailing before because the ending was too long. Overall this takes some risks but the ending is not necessarily one of them. Doesn't ruin the overall appeal at all though. This was great!
I really hope this gets some exposure, it deserves a wider audience!
This walks you through the idea of imaginary friends, what they mean to children and why they get created. A strong statement for their usefulness is made before we go all Horror and despair. I liked how this approached childhood loneliness and even children's mental illness. It's about outsiders and what helps you cope with it, the limitations and dangers of these coping mechanisms if you let them run unchecked. Under all the quirk and weirdness this has a lot to offer but I also enjoyed it for its weirdness. And its creep-factor. Basically, this is very different take on the possession concept, the IF taking over, at least the way how it's done here, is very similar to the idea of a demon but without all that religious side of it. Refreshing! It also reminded me a bit of Sodergren's "Rotten Tommy" with the IF in question being inspired by/ taken from a kid's show and how we get to dive into that character's realm. Creepy children's shows or cartoons are still such an untapped Horror trope because yikes. Have you seen some of the things they put in front of kids?
Ivan was a great protagonist, full of insecurities and scars of the past. He is not the guy you meet and like, he himself knows he can come off rather creepy, especially when he tries to avoid the IFs that only he can see. I found the ending stretched itself a little too long, some things here are predictable at this point and therefor the final fight didn't need to take up as many pages as it did for me. It started to miss hitting the emotional beats that it was nailing before because the ending was too long. Overall this takes some risks but the ending is not necessarily one of them. Doesn't ruin the overall appeal at all though. This was great!
I really hope this gets some exposure, it deserves a wider audience!
February 6, 2026
The son of a bitch has done it again.
Scary, fun, great characters. Tradition of a Cracked.com writer giving me a book to read around a go live continues
Scary, fun, great characters. Tradition of a Cracked.com writer giving me a book to read around a go live continues
February 8, 2026
very creepy but also very good
February 8, 2026
The real horror was the OCD we left untreated along the way
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
This book is a masterpiece. A unique, hilarious, tragic novel of horror, grief, and redemption. I loved it so much and it's going to stick with me for a long time.
The dual POV between Kay and Ivan adds depth and understanding to the story, both with their own distinctive voices and emotions that bleed onto the page.
As an autistic person of Ukrainian heritage raised by a single mom, this book hit hard in so many places. I can't count the lines I highlighted.
Pick this one up, especially if you like Jason Pargin (John Dies at the End), because apparently the authors are friends...and I can tell by the combination or horror and humor in this extraordinary book.
Robert Brockway is now an auto-buy for me. Exceptional.
Thank you NetGalley and Page Street Publishing for an early review copy in exchange for an honest review.
Now, go pre-order this bad boy. It's out on January 27th, 2026.
The dual POV between Kay and Ivan adds depth and understanding to the story, both with their own distinctive voices and emotions that bleed onto the page.
As an autistic person of Ukrainian heritage raised by a single mom, this book hit hard in so many places. I can't count the lines I highlighted.
Pick this one up, especially if you like Jason Pargin (John Dies at the End), because apparently the authors are friends...and I can tell by the combination or horror and humor in this extraordinary book.
Robert Brockway is now an auto-buy for me. Exceptional.
Thank you NetGalley and Page Street Publishing for an early review copy in exchange for an honest review.
Now, go pre-order this bad boy. It's out on January 27th, 2026.
February 5, 2026
What. What?
I saw the title and thought: ridiculous.
I read the blurb and thought: ridiculous… maybe it’s fun though.
I saw how many audible credits I had and thought: ok sure, why not?
Why was it so good??? I mean…. Why was this one of the best books I’ve read in a while??? Why am I excited to read it again someday???
First off it’s got this tragic hero who murdered or accidentally killed his imaginary BFF, this blue monkey/ape thing that was a mascot for the school library. Problem is that when your lil animal guy doesn’t leave naturally, then you’re doomed to see other people’s lil animal guys. And when these guys know you can see them, they go psycho because they know what you did. And no one can help you because usually it’s just some little kid with them that doesn’t know why his bestie has gone nuts, must be for a game.
Now the hero is older and he’s in the business of killing these imaginary dudes who won’t leave even when their kid becomes an adult. They’re plush, they’re annoying and they don’t grow up. *Cue just so many fart jokes.
I thought I would hate that and be sad. However, they’re not painted with sympathy and instead of gore they go out in a blaze of glitter, so it’s all good, no crying from this girl.
Secondly, we meet this latch key kid who has a really bonkers out of control buddy that doesn’t play by the rules. I’m not going to say it’s scary, but when you get into what’s going on… the victims of this book are young and lonely and they don’t know what’s being plotted against them, their parents can’t see the enemy and… honestly it gave me the dreads!!!! Can you imagine??? I have never really clicked with a monster style horror novel. I always get bored at the climax and am just rolling my eyes along the ride. Most of the time I DNF. But this bad guy was kind of cool, the premise was clever, the kid had some specific quirks that I was into and it’s all interspersed with the stories of kids that had increasingly frightening situations that as an adult had me nervous.
Also the audio book reader was chefs kiss perfect.
I saw the title and thought: ridiculous.
I read the blurb and thought: ridiculous… maybe it’s fun though.
I saw how many audible credits I had and thought: ok sure, why not?
Why was it so good??? I mean…. Why was this one of the best books I’ve read in a while??? Why am I excited to read it again someday???
First off it’s got this tragic hero who murdered or accidentally killed his imaginary BFF, this blue monkey/ape thing that was a mascot for the school library. Problem is that when your lil animal guy doesn’t leave naturally, then you’re doomed to see other people’s lil animal guys. And when these guys know you can see them, they go psycho because they know what you did. And no one can help you because usually it’s just some little kid with them that doesn’t know why his bestie has gone nuts, must be for a game.
Now the hero is older and he’s in the business of killing these imaginary dudes who won’t leave even when their kid becomes an adult. They’re plush, they’re annoying and they don’t grow up. *Cue just so many fart jokes.
I thought I would hate that and be sad. However, they’re not painted with sympathy and instead of gore they go out in a blaze of glitter, so it’s all good, no crying from this girl.
Secondly, we meet this latch key kid who has a really bonkers out of control buddy that doesn’t play by the rules. I’m not going to say it’s scary, but when you get into what’s going on… the victims of this book are young and lonely and they don’t know what’s being plotted against them, their parents can’t see the enemy and… honestly it gave me the dreads!!!! Can you imagine??? I have never really clicked with a monster style horror novel. I always get bored at the climax and am just rolling my eyes along the ride. Most of the time I DNF. But this bad guy was kind of cool, the premise was clever, the kid had some specific quirks that I was into and it’s all interspersed with the stories of kids that had increasingly frightening situations that as an adult had me nervous.
Also the audio book reader was chefs kiss perfect.
March 15, 2026
I. HATE. THIS. BOOK. It's one of the worst I've ever read. It's chaotic, unorganized, and nonsensical. It started off great, really promising, but slowly devolved into a mess of gibberish and gobbledygook. I don't get the high ratings.
The concept of the story is stellar, giving me Drop Dead Fred vibes when I read the synopsis. But no! The author took a great concept and made it disjointed and hard to connect with. The little girl the story revolves around is supposed to be 8 years old. But she has the mindset of a 30 year old who spends time ruminating on the beauty and grandeur of having secrets. There's no saving grace with the MMC, our would be IF assassin either. He's a fearful, bumbling idiot, who can't get past his childhood traumas.
The book could have been sooo good! It just wasn't. And I'm frustrated I wasted my time. If I could stomach being a DNF-er, I would have walked away. I actually thought about doing it 4 times! But I just tossed it to the floor when I was done and let it sit there like the rotting, stinking Eddie Video "meat" that it was! IYKYK. It's definitely going in my "read and release" pile post haste! I'll need at least two 5 star reads to cleanse my pallet and after this one.
1 star - and that's being generous.
The concept of the story is stellar, giving me Drop Dead Fred vibes when I read the synopsis. But no! The author took a great concept and made it disjointed and hard to connect with. The little girl the story revolves around is supposed to be 8 years old. But she has the mindset of a 30 year old who spends time ruminating on the beauty and grandeur of having secrets. There's no saving grace with the MMC, our would be IF assassin either. He's a fearful, bumbling idiot, who can't get past his childhood traumas.
The book could have been sooo good! It just wasn't. And I'm frustrated I wasted my time. If I could stomach being a DNF-er, I would have walked away. I actually thought about doing it 4 times! But I just tossed it to the floor when I was done and let it sit there like the rotting, stinking Eddie Video "meat" that it was! IYKYK. It's definitely going in my "read and release" pile post haste! I'll need at least two 5 star reads to cleanse my pallet and after this one.
1 star - and that's being generous.
February 5, 2026
Unique and original. Dual POV. Elements of fantasy, horror, contemporary lit-fic, and a fresh story about childhood (and adult) loneliness, depression, despair….and imaginary friends. Slower pace but builds in last third of story. The Imaginary friends characters (listen to the audio) are well-imagined and reflect real childhood fears and anxieties. The title and special edition edges drew me to the book, but the story, characters, writing, pop-culture references and book’s heart will have me recommending it to everyone!
March 7, 2026
This is actually a 3.5 out of 4, but I'll give it a higher rating because I think it deserves it for Goodreads.
I enjoyed this book. I could've read a whole book on just Ivan seeing and killing Imaginary Friends and becoming an assassin of some sorts. Eddie Video will live on in my head as some terrifying Sesame Street muppet unfortunately but so will Mister Twister (fortunately), RIP ❤️.
I enjoyed this book. I could've read a whole book on just Ivan seeing and killing Imaginary Friends and becoming an assassin of some sorts. Eddie Video will live on in my head as some terrifying Sesame Street muppet unfortunately but so will Mister Twister (fortunately), RIP ❤️.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 29, 2026
this was so good
February 1, 2026
Full of whimsy, heart, and horror.
February 4, 2026
Genuinely one of thee creepiest books I've read.
Read
February 5, 2026Not my type.
February 26, 2026
This was such a good book. I was really drawn right in and the story was great. My surprise read of 2026 and I recommend it. I don’t want to spill anything. However I am hoping for a sequel!
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