The Perks of Being a Wallflower author returns after a 20-year publishing hiatus with the new novel Imaginary Friend. A departure from that YA classic, Chbosky’s new adult debut offers a little horror, a little mystery, "a lot of fun scares," and a compelling story that the renowned author has said "haunted" him for over nine years.

Christopher is a kind little boy whose single mother, Kate, moves him to a small town to help them both escape an abusive man. Their story takes flight in a Mill Grove, Pennsylvania, where the resilient young Christopher—whose creativity and intellect are as unfettered as any child's— develops an "imaginary friend" with very real consequences. When this "friend" tells Christopher to build a treehouse in the woods by Christmas, or else risk dire consequences for Kate and all of Mill Grove, Christopher begins to build.

What if your childhood imaginary friend talked back?

Would you trust the voice?

Chbosky visits Kepler's on October 11th to discuss his first book in twenty years, a satisfying work of literary horror whose ending "creeps up on you. Until you’re inside it, you didn’t even know it was a trap." In conversation with EM Markoff, Latinx horror writer and dark fantasy author of the Ellderet series.

Photo of Stephen Chbosky by Meredith Morris.