Best Friends

by Ruby Jean Jensen

The bizarre death of Miss Beatrice shortly before her trial is just the beginning of the horror as three-year-old Barry's secret friends, who will do anything he asks, protect him

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Horror Thriller

320 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1985

About the author

Ruby Jean Jensen

Born McDonald County, Missouri, USA, March 1, 1927

Died November 16, 2010

Website http://www.rubyjeanjensen.com

Twitter RubyJeanJensen1

Facebook www.facebook.com/Rjjhorror

Ruby Jean Jensen authored 30 published and 4 not yet published novels, and over 200 short stories. Her passion for writing developed at an early age, and she worked for many years to develop her writing skills. After having many short stories published, in 1974 the novel The House that Samael Built was accepted for publication. She then quickly established herself as a professional author, with representation by a Literary Agent from New York. She subsequently sold 29 more novels to several New York publishing houses. After four Gothic Romance, three Occult and then three Horror novels, MaMa was published by Zebra books in 1983. With Zebra, Ruby Jean completed nineteen more novels in the Horror genre.

Ruby was involved with creative writing groups for many years, and she often took the time to encourage young authors and to reply to fan mail.

Ruby Jean, a supreme story-teller, quickly captures and holds your attention. Her books, written for adults, are also suitable for adolescents and young adults. She continues to have an enthusiastic following in the Horror genre.

Reviews

[Ken Ditzhazy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had a great time with Best Friends by Ruby Jean Jensen. This story is such a simple idea on the surface, but it goes in directions I absolutely wasn’t expecting, and I loved that about it. It was easy to read, easy to picture, and it kept me anticipating the next move the whole time. The core of the story revolves around a young boy who’s been through some serious trauma and the people trying to help him, but once his “best friends” start playing a role, things get strange fast. What really stood out to me was how the book touched on themes involving young boys and women that you don’t usually see handled this way. Usually, those roles are flipped, so that alone made it feel fresh. And listen, Shannon? Yeah. Low key a crush. Every time she showed up I was locked in. There’s just something about her energy that made her stand out, and I was rooting for her hard. I kept hoping this would land in a happy place, even as things kept getting darker, and then that ending came in and stole it from me at the last second. I didn’t love that it hurt, but I did love that it made me feel something. That’s a win in my book. This was my first Ruby Jean Jensen read and I’m already planning on picking up more, because if she can pull this kind of story off so cleanly, I’m in.

[Addy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a spooky, fantastic read. Somehow I know I can't go wrong with Ruby Jean. The book is about Juno and Reid who seem to be on a rampage to kill everybody Barry knows. Barry is a sweet little boy who manifests these entities. But how were they manifested? That's the one flaw with this book. It's not explained very well, but maybe that was her intention. The only thing we know is that he was abused by a witchcraft welding woman who somehow attached these demons to Barry. And how would a small child get rid of these demons? Well, I'll leave that up to you. Surprise ending for sure! Great little read to pass the time. Don't miss out!

[Marie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unfortunately I am not finishing this book as for some strange reason I just cannot seem to get into it. It has been literally years and years since I have read anything by Ruby Jean Jensen. I so wanted to like this book, but it just has been dragging on with nothing happening even as far as being up to 35%. I have been forcing myself to read it as I kept thinking that something was going to take off, but my hopes are dashed as it just isn't sparking anything within me to keep going on with it. That is just me though - other people might like it, but it is too much of a slow burn for me. Normally I do not star books I don't finish but I will give it one star for the cover as it is creepier than story.


My thanks to Netgalley and BooksGoSocial for letting me review this ARC.

[Famine · Rating 3 out of 5]

SPOILERS AHEAD!


So this was my first Ruby novel; however it's not my first 80s horror or campy trope-based horror either.

The story revolves around a young boy, Barry, the victim of the pedophile manager at a daycare center. His father Ramon decides that the best therapy for him is to hire a babysitter to spend time with him and his two older siblings and their housekeeper at their vacation lodge at a lake.

This way, Barry's therapist advises, Barry can learn to trust women again and overcome his fear + depression.

Except Barry doesn't come alone: he's got two best friends, a imaginary cat/weasel creature and a strong-man 'boy'. They serve as his playmates and guardians; but we learn early on, maybe five pages into the novel, they're pure evil and seek only to kill. This isn't a surprise as its explained in the blurb.

They begin killing Barry's molester but go on to kill indiscriminately despite Barry's pleading them to stop as they eventually go after the ones he loves: his family.

The best friends 'Reid & Juno' don't do much besides act as guardians and cause mischief at the lake house initially, but towards the end of the book the murders begin.

What's good is that the story has other plots weaved through it at a good pace. My only disappointment is that some plots appeared to be forgotten about and ignored like it never happened, which raises the question of why were they even inserted? Why start something if you have no plans to end it?

These secondary plots included a incestuous relationship between Becky and her cousin Jason; and Shannon's dead husband and son becoming a conflict of interest with Barry.

We learn that Barry's friends came about as a demonic summoning ritual conducted by his molester; through the sacrifice of baby animals and so on. This was glossed over and handled badly, like Ruby was one of the countless misinformed people who think Satan worshippers are all about killing animals for pleasure and torturing children.

We never learn WHY she summons Reid & Juno, how she knew of them, why she gave them to Barry when they only turned on her later, and where Barry's final 'best friend' in the climax came from considering his molester and the cliche Satanic torture chamber was nowhere in sight when he sought help from a new best friend.

The ending was abrupt and felt like a typical cheesy horror ending - it could have been done better since it had a gaping plot hole. Barry defeats his best friends with his third and last best friend, a giant web-monster that devours Reid & Juno; in the last pages we learn that Reid somehow possessed Barry's brother David. We can only presume that then, Juno, also has survived to live on in his sister Becky.

Everybody goes home happy, until Reid & Juno of course successfully kills everyone through the cliffhanger implications.

How? We don't know. Their apparent ability to possess and inhabit other bodies came out of the blue and has no background. This felt very rushed and anti-climatic in conjunction with the overall cliche, sappy 'Ramon & Shannon marry post-their near death experiences' ending that Ruby gave us.

An otherwise entertaining weak horror; it has not put me off reading further works but I do admit they must all turn out alike as she seems to stick with a formula. There was no horror at all, but the story was a fun read.

[Paula Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three-year-old Barry was the victim of a daycare owner who practiced the dark arts and abused him. (Very satanic panic 80s stuff!) That created his best friends, Juno and Reid. Juno is a strange weasel like creature, and Reid is like a teenage version of Barry.

After the daycare owner is killed, it is suggested that Barry be taken away to recuperate. So, his father hires Shannon Berman, a teacher whose own young family was killed in a car crash, to take Barry and his siblings, David (11) and Becky (13) to the family lodge. Accompanying them is their grandmother-type housekeeper, Edna Ashley.

And Juno and Reid, of course! This duo seem to want to just protect Barry at first, killing anyone who upsets him. But it seems they like killing humans too much, and now nobody is safe, not even Barry's family and especially not Shannon.

After a triple-punch of awful books (My Husband's Killer, Jar Of Hearts, The End Of Her) I just completely fell out of love with reading. I didn't want to pick another one up, fearful of the same old plot and the same old lazy author tricks. So, I went old school and it paid off. Just like its glorious 80s cover art, this reads just like an 80s horror movie in book form.

Best Friends isn't great literature and doesn't care. It's a fun, simple, slightly slow-burn horror story that delivers the requisite thrills and chills. You want a boy's imaginary friends killing people? That's exactly what you get! The allusions to the 80s satanic panic that gripped the nation at the time adds to the fun. It's only the over-before-it-begins climax that disappoints.

My first read of the iconic Ruby Jean Jensen and it won't be my last.

[Michael Laney · Rating 5 out of 5]

The tale of a boy who suffered abuse in a day care center, or was he. Barry has two imaginary friends, Reid, a little boy who looks like Barry and Juno, a monstorous cat. Reid and Juno are always there to protect Barry, but are they really.

Another of Jensen's great stories from the late 80's, that drips with menace and is hard to put down once you get started.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘He felt all alone now, the way he had felt then, before they had come to be his best friends.’

This isn’t your typical story regarding a child’s deadly imagination, and when factoring all mediums, it is a subject that has been exploited and played out countless times. Jensen, however, takes the idea and kicks up the momentum by conjuring up some horrific ideas and creative characters.

The story revolves around three-year-old Barry, who after having a bad experience at his nursery school, unleashes his imaginary friends to do his evil bidding. The imaginary friends are amorphous cartoons (although one of them looks like the cat on the cover), and it was refreshing to read about animated manifestations for once, rather than demons and beasts.

Barry’s family eventually enlists the help of a nanny to get him psychologically fit, and everyone eventually ends up in Big Bear Lake for the summer. The beginning of the story has a more of an urban setting, which faired better with the deadly encounters, but the geographical shift also had its grisly perks.

Not much else separates “Bad Friends” from other supernatural equivalents, but from the first page you know you want to read more.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing a free ARC for my honest feedback.

[Jordan Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

What happens when imaginary friends end up being real and dangerous? That’s what we get to find out in RJJ’s Best Friends.

Residing somewhere in the middle between cozy horror, and quiet horror, this is a rare Zebra that is neither amazing, nor terrible but is at least moderately enjoyable for its simple prose and plot, even if some of it is incredibly thin and leaves a lot to be explained.

Obviously the requisite amount of spooks and jumps happen here, though RJJ doesn’t really give many reasons for them, other than that as readers I guess we are just programmed to assume it’s gonna happen. The reason for the imaginary friends is pretty basic with hardly any real backstory. As i said, the story is simple, so even though it’s far from some of Zebra’s truly awful publications, there are moments that drag on far too long, suffering from too much pointlessly contrived melodrama.

Still, I didn’t hate this one, and, when you compare RJJ to the other infamous female Zebra author Patrica Wallace, I can say that at least Best Friends was competently written…

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Horror abounds when an abused and traumatised child's imagination crosses the boundary of internal coping mechanism to intelligent killers seeking a misguided form of vengeance at the bequest of their creator.

Whilst not hitting all the 80's horror tropes, Best Friend serves up a veritable platter of gore and goodness which is sure to fill the void of mass market paperback horror rekindled for today's audience.

This was my first Ruby Jean Jensen book and it certainly won't be the last.

[Karlene Olesuk · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a little afraid of boys and cats for awhile after reading this.

[Kymber Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best Friends by Ruby Jean Jensen has a few elements of both Stephen King and Dean Koontz in her writing style which surprised me, because I really enjoyed reading this book, unlike the Stephen King books I've tried to read in the past, though I LOVE Dean Koontz. Not that there is anything wrong with Stephen King books, they are just not my style, with the way Mr. King continuously describes everything, going into great detail about the most minute object, whereas Dean Koontz describes things, but he also has more action in his books, making them more fast paced.

The same thing can be said for Ms. Jensen to a degree. She does describes most things in her book quite a bit, but not to the point of losing her readers interest. Her writing style is simple and to the point, easy enough for a fifth grader to read, or even a well developed third or fourth grader.

Best Friends, while being a thriller/horror, also talks about the very subject of child abuse (sexual assault) and trying to help the child overcome the damage that was done to him by a teacher at Daycare, someone in authority and supposed to care for him. As a result of the horror the child endured, the child has two imaginary friends drawn by someone at Daycare - probably an adult, but was it the the teacher that abused him? - who has the ability to come to life to. These drawings start off as imaginary friends, protecting the boy and making him feel safe, but along the way they start to go rogue, and start killing anyone and everyone that looks at or speaks to the boy.

While this book is written is such in such a simplistic writing format, the descriptiveness draws the story out, very much like Mr. King's work does. The only difference is, unlike Mr. King, Ms. Jensen has more things happening in her book which makes it seem more fast pace, more along the line of Mr. Koontz, but not as fast paced as say #BarbandJCHendee and #KeithDouglas. Now, don't get me wrong, just because Mr. King's books are not to my liking, DOES NOT mean the movies based on his books not to my liking. In fact, the MOVIES based Mr King's books are COMPLETELY to my liking, and I look forward to each movie that comes out like a like a child eagerly looking forward to Halloween and Christmas both each year, and Ms Jensen's book would make just as great a movie as one of Mr. King's books does. The next book I will be reading by Ms. Jensen is called Mama, and I can't wait to see how it turns out.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars out of 5. This was a fun book. A shady vacation home with violet entities lurking. I'm a fan of Ruby Jean Jensen. The book has some predictable aspects like the set up love interests, but the heteronormative romanticism is enjoyable and very 80s. The book does what many other things in horror do in which the use and representation of psychology is distorted and innacurate to suit the needs and excitment of a horror story. While I prefer accuracy, this book did not lose major points for its psychological inaccuracies as this distorted representation was especially prevelent in the 80s. There was some weird cousin incest that I was wondering if the book was ever going to acknowledge as weird and eventually it did (I'm placing this as another "from the 80s" thing...I guess?) The book has a very cool ending! I underlined the entire page. I loved it! And while the book foreshadows the ending, the possibility was something I was hoping would happen and when it did it exceeded my expectations!

[Thieving Magpie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was... such an odd read. First of all, friendly reminder this book was first published in 1985. I had not known that. Still, this book did not convinve me.
I mean - a catholic nursery performing satanic rites on children?! Messed up. (And slightly ironic...)
And to deal with that, Barry (who did not exactly stirke me as three-year-old, but I don't have kids and I can't remember whether or not my brother was as eloquent with words when he was three...) creates drawings of a guy without a face and a... cat? Well, a furry animal with a tail.
There was so much wrong with that book - especially the part between Barry's sister and their cousin?! Holy shit, nope! Don't add attempted sexual assult to a book when you're already throwing around satanic rituals which probably turned out as sexual assults (based on Barry's behaviour, at least).
So - a big no on my end. This book was just... weird.

I received a free copy by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Mariette T · Rating 4 out of 5]

After experiencing a horrifying trauma at his daycare facility, Barry finds comfort in his imaginary friends, Reid and Juno. However, it isn't long before Reid and Juno step out of Barry's imagination and into reality; where they engage in their own form of retribution towards anyone who upsets Barry.
Jensen does not shy away from bringing awareness to hot bed topics of that time period. Marrying the Satanic Panic of the 80's with accusations of sexual abuse in daycare facilities, Jensen's novel tap dances all over that nerve. What I found particularly interesting about Best Friends was that Jensen decided to make Barry's abuser female. If I'm not mistaken, female sexual abusers were still very much a minority in the 80's; which makes this book all that much more unique.

[DJMikeG · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quite a belabored effort here from Mrs. Jensen. This is the fourth book I have read by her, and easily my least favorite. Very, very padded. This book could have been parsed basically in half and would have been a better read. For most of this book, I would read two pages then fall asleep. This 317 page novel took me about 6 weeks to read, that should tell you something! It isn't a total failure, however, as there are some interesting concepts and Jensen gets some points for originality. I look forward to reading more of Jensen's large body of work, as I really enjoyed some of her other books, but I struck out with this one.

[Ronald Foster · Rating 4 out of 5]

Barry had some bad experiences in nursery school, and his defense mechanisms were activated. He had some new "best friends" that protected him. At first, he seemed to be able to control them. But over time, things changed ... Ruby Jean brings her characters to life, and it is easy to empathize with them.

[Billie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a brilliant read.
Wonderful well written plot and story line that had me engaged from the start.
Love the well fleshed out characters and found them believable.
Great suspense and action with wonderful world building.
Can't wait to read what the author brings out next.
Recommend reading.

[Annette Vecellio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting enough to finish but not one of her best books.

[Scott Oliver · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had its moments, some creepy parts and ideas but was a bit slow going

Not bad but not great either