It Was Real Imaginary

By: S.A. Gensch

Thanks to the author and Brey’s Book Tours for the ARC and allowing me to be a part of the book tour!

About the Book (From Goodreads)

RK Larsen lives with a mental condition. Every day he faces hallucinations, or what he refers to as imaginary people. They aren’t always easy to manage, but as long as RK sticks to his strict rules and routines, he can keep control of his brain.

After years of doing everything the exact same way, RK finds out he has to change a key factor in his his medications. This one change could alter everything he knows about running his life. It soon brings a great deal of challenges for RK, including witnessing a murder he isn’t sure happened.

MY REVIEW

This was a slow burn type of thriller. I don’t normally like slow burn books, but this one was particularly done very well. RK deals with hallucinations, but his “diagnosis” is never labeled. I liked this choice by the author because we are so obsessed with labels today and make split second judgments based on those labels. Gensch dealt with RK’s hallucinations very delicately. It’s clear that time was taking to develop this aspect of RK. RK wanted to be “normal” so bad sometimes, that I really felt bad for him. And because the book is told mostly from his perspective, you don’t know if you can trust that what is happening is real or a hallucination! There were a few times where I thought it was real, but it was a hallucination. Gensch also showed what it is like for the caretaker of a person with this particular mental illness. The relationship between RK and his brother was really beautiful to read, even after learning some things later on in the book. He changed his whole life just to be able to care for and be there for RK. Now, there is mystery and murder is this book – which is why I wanted to be a part of the book tour! About 10 pages before the reveal, I figured it out and I hardly EVER figure it out! It didn’t ruin it for me because I figured it out so close in time to the reveal. The ONLY reason I didn’t give this book 5 stars is because I had some issues with the way that the trial was portrayed and what was said about pleading mental capacity. I don’t know if I misinterpreted, but the way that it was written seemed like the idea of mental incapacity was brought up during closing arguments and that would be procedurally incorrect. Unfortunately, when I read stuff like that it bothers me just a bit (for those that don’t know, I am a lawyer).  Overall, I think this is a wonderful book that is more than just a thriller. I applaud Gensch for handling this topic with so much sensitivity.

You can get your copy of this book here.