https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/oct/02/imaginary-friend-stephen-chbosky-review

The long-awaited follow-up to the YA bestseller The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a bloated homage to Stephen King

“Dear friend,” writes Charlie, at the beginning of Stephen Chbosky’s much-beloved coming-of-age novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower (1999), “I am writing to you because she said you listen and understand.” Charlie, Chbosky’s troubled teenage “wallflower”, pours out his heart to this friend in a series of letters trying to make sense of his life, but we learn nothing more about him or her.

Two decades on, the friend in Chbosky’s follow-up is even more mysterious. Seven-year-old Christopher Reese and his single mother, Kate, arrive in the small town of Mill Grove, Pennsylvania, running from their past. “Deep down, Christopher thought maybe she picked it because it seemed tucked away from the rest of the world. One highway in. One highway out. Surrounded by trees.”