Book Review: "Imaginary Strangers" by Minka Kent

Minka Kent is probably best known for her terrifying novel The Stillwater Girls and is prolific in the circles of psychological horror. I have to admit, this is only my second book by her since I read The Stillwater Girls during my year-long hiatus from this website a while back. Currently, I have had to read this book on my phone since my devices are taken up by other books but I'm still glad that the book was cheap and still pretty good. Though sometimes the therapy-session flashbacks from the narrator are a little bit cringe-worthy since they aren't really psychology-accurate in what a sociopath actually is, the atmosphere and the slow, creeping pace makes the misunderstanding forgivable. I don't think any of us can actually know what a true sociopath is unless we've studied it for years and so the narrator's imaginative perspective on the disorder is understandable; be that as it may, it's still a bit cliché at times. Let's take a look at what the story consists of then...

Our narrator was abused by their horrific mother, made to feel like she was unwanted by the one person who was meant to take care of her. Lucinda, the mother, is a sociopath but also a terrible human being atop of it. Something out of a dark tale of old, she often refuses to feed her daughter, acts anti-socially and takes drugs. But, on the outside, Lucinda projects a perfect suburban image of motherhood. Ultimately, when our narrator tries to kill her mother (and fails), everything begins to fall apart. Minka Kent definitely presents us with a terrifying past, something that we can sink our teeth into and also, something we can use for our interest: we want to know what happens to her in the future, we want to know what returns and what doesn't.

So, years' later when our narrator has children of her own and is also diagnosed with sociopathy, she is fiercely loyal to the kids - wanting them to always feel loved even though she cannot feel love herself. She wants to be the best possible mother she can possibly be. Her own daughter though, has started seeing an imaginary friend and though it isn't worrying at first, something makes our narrator's hair stand on end when she hears it - something that reminds her of Lucinda. All of a sudden, though we expect it, our own emotions are caught in our throat. As the reader, we feel the same threat the sociopath narrator does and I think that, the hook character with all of her flaws and madnesses, is something Minka Kent does very well. This is very much like a Lucinda Berry novel.

But all is not as it seems, apparently. There's much more about the therapy sessions, the past, the history our narrator cannot escape. As her daughter keeps reporting on this imaginary friend, the school she goes to isn't reporting anything out of the ordinary and yet, our narrator is more paranoid than ever. There's someone out there who knows very specific details and she's wondering why. Is it Lucinda? Is is her mother from her past that has returned, just as she said she would: she is going to return to destroy her daughter's life. Is she starting with her own granddaughter? One thing Minka Kent is very good at here is planting seeds in the head of the reader. We aren't told exactly what is happening, but because of the limited perspective and the narration by an unreliable character, we only get this tunnel-vision small section of the story. We cannot see what she cannot see. We cannot see past the decisions she does not know. And so, like her, we have to either wait or frantically search.

All in all, I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. It is part of a series but I think I might leave it there for now*. Hopefully I will return to it in the future and be entrapped in this character's story once again. Yes, is it a bit on the cliché side in terms of its writing, but that doesn't mean it is no good. It's fun and at times, gets quite dark.

***

*This is a lie. I have already bought the next one.