What if your imaginary friend from childhood was your one true love?
Authors: James Patterson & Gabrielle Charbonnet
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 978-0-446-19944-5
Intended Audience: Females aged 30 +
Summary: Jane Margaux’s mother, a famous Broadway producer, only makes time for her daughter once a week for their Sunday trips to admire the jewelry at Tiffany’s. Being the classic attention-deprived child, Jane seeks attention and friendship through her imaginary friend, a handsome, caring, and funny man named Michael. Michael “leaves” Jane on her 9th birthday, promising that she’ll soon forget all about him, but Jane, even in her twenties, is unable to forget her perfect imaginary friend. One day Michael re-enters her life, and their bond is as great as it ever was, but Michael has come back for a reason, which Jane will eventually find out.
Review: Let me just start by saying that I love James Patterson novels. With that being said, this was the worst book I’ve ever read in my entire 22 years of living. I was a bit turned off by the un-original title, but decided to give it the benefit of the doubt since James Patterson is (generally) a good author. Upon reading, not only did he basically copy the title, but he also stole the entire idea of finding solace and comfort in the jewelry store from Truman Capote! It is literally exactly the same idea as in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
My dislike of the book is probably partly my fault because I didn’t read the byline before purchasing. ”What if your imaginary friend from childhood was your one true love?” The closest I ever got to an imaginary friend was when pet rocks were cool in the 4th grade, and that lasted about a week. I’m not a big fan of those things that can never, will never happen, so therefore, find it nearly impossible to enjoy an entire novel about an imaginary friend/lover.
My third severe issue with the novel is Michael and Jane’s friendship when she was a child. Michael is a grown adult, and Jane is under the age of 9, but yet they’re best friends and Jane never wants to be without him. Alright. I know we’re delving into the complete absurd here, but if you’re going to have an imaginary friend, wouldn’t he be your same age, and not the age of your parents? The 20 year age gap just takes the novel to a new level of creepy.
Overall, the novel had a weak storyline, unoriginal ideas, and was poorly written. This could have been classified as a young adult novel based on the structure and vocabulary. While it’s nice to have an easy read every once in awhile, teetering the border of 3rd grade reading competency levels just leaves you feeing ignorant and unfulfilled.
Rating: 0 out of 5
