Review of Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma

Title: Imaginary Girls

Author: Nova Ren Suma

Description:  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.

Review: Imaginary Girls tells the story of two sisters who have a complex relationship. Chloe and her older sister Ruby have an intense bond and because of their absentee mother, Ruby feels it is her job to protect Chloe, at whatever cost. As the story goes on, Chloe becomes more aware of how Ruby seems to have a lot of power over their town and all its people. Chloe learns more about the reservoir and what may lurk beneath the surface. The book is written through Chloe's perspective, but is greatly focused on Ruby's life, which can make it confusing at times. For a lot of the book, I was very confused about what was real and what Ruby was making up. I continued reading because I was hoping it would all make sense but the ending still wasn't very convincing.

Bottom Line: I really wanted to like this book, but overall it was just a let down. I continued reading in the hope that it would get better but that didn't happen for me. I think the problem was that everything was too realistic to have the element of fantasy thrown in. The setting and characters seemed like they could be real and from the description I thought it was just going to be a realistic fiction/mystery type book. Instead it was a realistic fiction book with a twist of fantasy thrown in and that didn't work for me. I think it would be better if it were written like the hunger games where the entire story is just fictional. All in all, I would not recommend this book.

Rating(1-5): 2.5