This was one of those books which seem to have become increasingly appealing in recent years. It was likened to both The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and Room, and to that I would also add The Lovely Bones, The Time-Traveler's Wife and even the frankly terrible If You Could See Me Now. The title basically gives it away in that it is indeed the memoirs of an imaginary friend, a concept I was quite interested in, even having experienced the aforementioned If You Could See Me Now.
The initial concept was pretty good. It showed that the writer had really thought things through, examining the world through an unconventional narrator and throwing fresh light upon every day events. It's very un-PC to say that I was a tad frustrated that the boy in the story seemed to, once again, have some form of autism, which seems to be the disorder du jour amongst novelists. Perhaps I was more affected by coming off the back of The Way Things Look to Me, but in some ways this was a wasted opportunity to fully explore what being a child is like.
The novel took an unexpected and, for me, unnecessary turn halfway through when the boy was abducted and then held hostage, with only his imaginary friend Budo able to rescue him. Therein there was a protracted rescue attempt which had more than a small debt to pay to the film Ghost. This, however, I didn't like much; it felt out of place and incredibly random, as though the writer had realised the concept of an imaginary friend was good but not enough to sustain an entire story on its own. He was probably right.
Okay, but a bit frustrating and doesn't live up to its billing.
Also, I've found the writer listed as both Matthew Green and Matthew Dicks. The latter one seems more appropriate if he is writing under two different names for the same book.
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