Waiting On Wednesday – Nobody Real by Steven Camden

Synopsis (from HarperCollins):

Marcie is at a crossroads.

Finished with school, but unsure what she wants to do next. Abandoned by her mother when she was tiny – but drifting further and further from her dad.

Marcie is real. With real problems.

Thor is at a crossroads too.

Soon, if he doesn’t make a decision, he’s gong to face the fade. Years ago, he was Marcie’s imaginary friend – then she cast him out, back to his own world.

Thor is not real. And that’s a real problem…

But Marcie and Thor need each other. And to fix their lives, they’re going to have to destroy everything… and then build a new world.Why I can’t wait to read Nobody Real:

• Imaginary Friends are so interesting – from Imaginaries by AF Harold, and The Light Jar by Lisa Thompson, imaginary friends have appeared in some fantastic scenarios in Middle Grade fiction. They rarely appear in YA, and I am pleased to see this challenged. Teens might have outgrown their imaginary friends, but that doesn’t make their reappearance dull. If anything, it makes me wonder why the character needs their old friend. It grabs my interest. 

 

• The agent website references ‘the imaginary word’. I love stories where a fictional or imaginary world turns out to be real. They are often about the role of imagination within our lives, or the relationship between stories and life. 

 

• Contemporary YA is not my comfort-zone, but add a hint of fantasy and it becomes intriguing. I love worlds which are almost ordinary, but have a hint of magic around the edges. David Almond and Amy Wilson do this well, and Out Of The Blue by Sophie Cameron is another great example. 

 

• Why did Marcie ‘cast Thor Out’? It doesn’t sound like she outgrew him, it sounds like there is some interesting backstory. I want to know the relationship between what happened at that moment and the pair’s present situation. 

Nobody Real by Steven Camden

HarperCollins

May 2018