When Imogene moves to a new town, she decides to leave her tough gang-member image behind. She keeps the look, with her punk hair, tattoos, and thrift store attire, but follows the lead of her new friend Maxine by attending high school regularly and even studying for exams. The popular cheerleader clique and their football player cohort try to bully Imogene into conforming, but she defuses their small-minded tactics. Life is smooth sailing, until Pelly, Imogene’s imaginary childhood friend, appears as a living, decidedly inhuman, being. On top of that, the geeky boy who’s been following Imogene around school turns out to be a ghost. The ordinary world begins to slip further into an ominous fantasy mode, and it is up to Imogene and Maxine to discover a way to right the balance once again. More than just one-dimensional heroines, these two young women are well-developed characters — real teenagers with strengths and weaknesses who just happen to be surfing the Net for tried-and-true strategies against the supernatural. A rousing Halloween climax involving blue paint, vervain poisoning, and soul-eating anamithim offers everything a fantasy reader could desire. (Ages 13–16)

In this urban fantasy, Imogene is trying to lead a normal life at Redding High, Newford, after being a gang member at her previous school. She becomes best friends with Maxine, but there are still bullies to deal with— and others—because Imogene “walks at the edges of how the world’s sup posed to be . . .” (165). Imogene’s childhood companion, “Pelly,” thought to be imaginary, reappears; and Imogene and Maxine meet the school ghost, Adrian, who is mixed up with malevolent fairies. Imogene, Maxine, and Adrian take turns in narrating as they make plans, with Pelly, to defeat the “anamithin” who would eat their souls . 2006 White Pine Award Ontario Library Association Best Canadian Young Adult Fiction, 2005 YALSA Best Books for Young Adults. hc