Novel: Imaginary Friend

Overview
Imaginary Friend follows Christopher Reese, a nine-year-old boy who vanishes into the nearby woods and returns days later with a voice in his head. That voice compels him to create a towering, living "tree" constructed from books, a physical and metaphysical object that will reach into the lives of everyone in his small town. What begins as an eerie mystery becomes an epic confrontation between forces that use stories, language, and belief as weapons and defenses.
The novel stretches from intimate domestic scenes to sweeping supernatural conflict, offering both a child's-eye sense of wonder and a grim, sometimes brutal, adult reckoning. It blends horror, speculative fiction, and meditations on storytelling, asking what it costs to protect a community and what it means to fight an enemy whose greatest power is the ability to rewrite reality.

Main Characters and Setting
Christopher Reese is the center of the book: intelligent, sensitive, and haunted by the voice that returns with him from the woods. His single mother is fiercely devoted and terrified for her son, struggling to protect him while navigating a town that becomes increasingly affected by Christopher's mission. Around them, neighbors, school staff, and townspeople, some skeptical, some frightened, some drawn in, become both allies and casualties of the spreading phenomenon.
The story takes place in a small American town that transforms into the primary battlefield. The familiar trappings of suburban life, schools, churches, basements, and woods, are repurposed as arenas for supernatural and moral struggle. The tree of books, when erected, becomes a locus that refracts the town's fears, hopes, and stories, forcing ordinary places and people into extraordinary roles.

Plot Summary
Christopher's disappearance and reappearance kick off a series of strange events. The voice gives him instructions: to gather books, to build a tree, to keep certain people close and to repel others. As the tree grows, reality shifts around it. People begin to experience altered memories, visions, and compulsion; secrets surface; alliances form. The town divides between those who see the tree as a miracle and those who sense a dangerous contagion.
What follows is a prolonged, high-stakes struggle. The adults who try to manage the crisis confront not just a supernatural antagonist but their own doubts, grief, and failures. Christopher, as both instrument and protagonist, is forced into choices that test his innocence and courage. The narrative escalates from eerie domestic drama into a prolonged siege against hostile forces that exploit fears, language, and the gaps between people. Sacrifices are made, loyalties are tested, and the boundaries between protector and threat blur.
Throughout, the story frequently returns to the power of stories themselves: books, spoken words, and shared narratives operate as tools for healing or instruments of domination. The tree, part bookstore, part altar, part weapon, becomes a mirror of the community's soul, revealing both what binds people together and what will destroy them if left unchecked.

Themes and Tone
Imaginary Friend interrogates the nature of faith, the obligations of parenthood, and the ways communities respond to inexplicable danger. It treats storytelling as elemental: language can create worlds, but it can also be manipulated to control or erase. The novel is as much about how people narrate their lives as about a literal battle against a supernatural force.
The tone shifts between lyrical wonder and visceral horror, frequently juxtaposing the tenderness of parent-child relationships with scenes of grim confrontation. Ambitious in scope, the book asks readers to consider the ethical weight of protecting the vulnerable and the costs of using narrative itself as a means of defense or offense. It is a long, often polarizing work that aims to leave a lingering sense of both dread and awe.