I would like to thank Francesca from Luna for an advance copy of this novella in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher – Luna Press

Published – 8/2

Price - £7.99 paperback £3.99 kindle eBook

Robert has been an imaginary twin brother to Lillian for over eighteen years.

After the sudden and deliberate death of their older sister, Robert is forced to confront the inevitability of his own death as an imagined being.

Interspersed between Robert's grappling with the logistics of what he is, are the voices of his family members: Lillian, who needed an imaginary friend late in life; Lacey and Samantha, the older twin sisters who grow apart on purpose; and Jillian, the result of a teenage pregnancy, who feels she's treated more like an imaginary being than Rob is.

Ever heard the idea that there are only 500 or so real people in the world? I think its that in reality our actual real connections are fairly small. I live in a city of 500,000 and I know in reality a very small group. As we get older people fade in and out of life and can you remember everyone in your school class still; are you sure what they looked like? That first office job? People come in and out of life like Shakespeare’s players and what happens when we don’t need them anymore. Tiffany Jimenez explores this concept with the idea of imaginary friends in one family’s life and asks are we completely sure who is and is not real?

Lacey and Lillian are twins with another sister Samantha. Lillian has an imaginary friend called Robert. But Robert doesn’t fade away he stays and watches the family dynamics change. A mother who loses her sense of self; Samantha that runs away for a pop career; Lillian and Lacey growing closer and further apart and with their own experience of growing up all take place and Robert sees this change all the way through.

This is a fluid tale skipping back and forth through characters’ lives back and forth in the past and the future. The narrative is for the reader to see all the little connections and developments. What I liked about this tale is that idea it explores how memory fades. An absent father could also become an imaginary friend; a family you never return to slowly fade from memory; our perceptions all change. In all that flux its strange then that Robert who knows he doesn’t exist gets to stay constant and he watches the flux in the relationships. It’s a very good idea and I love how the theme is played with. It does however need concentration I think my one issue was how many names are thrown at the reader in each little chapter and it becomes hard to distinguish which character is which although this could be deliberate as people do blur across our memories in time.

A fascinating, inventive and melancholy tale of love and loss in a family that I think is well worth experiencing for yourself. I will definitely watch for more from Jimenez in the future