I Will Kill Your Imaginary Friend for $200
Robert Brockway
January 2026
A balance of comedy and catharsis, this dual-narrative tackles both the fear of growing up and the scars our childhood leaves behind.
To bright and anxious eight-year-old Kay Washington, the worst thing in the world is being alone with the quiet. That’s why Eddie Video makes the perfect imaginary friend: He’s smart, he’s loud, he loves pulling pranks, and he’s always there to chase away the silence.
To mid-forties, down-on-his-luck Ivan, the worst thing in the world happened when he lost his imaginary friend. Now cursed with the ability to see everyone else’s, Ivan makes a living by killing the imaginary friends of adults who couldn’t let go. But when one of Eddie Video’s “pranks” goes too far, Ivan agrees to make an exception and help Kay.
Only Ivan will soon learn that Eddie Video is nothing like the talking ostriches, star bears, and goblin princesses he’s encountered in the past, and it’s going to take a lot more than clumsy haymakers and steak knives to bring him down.
Praise
"Brockway's latest alternates between body blows of caustic whimsy and uppercuts of body horror, and you'll never know which is coming next. Be warned: many children are harmed, so this novel is not for the faint of heart. But then again, neither is childhood."
-Jason Pargin
New York Times bestselling author of the John Dies at the End series and I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom
“A chimerical, page-turning wonder of magic and menace, held together by the big, beating heart at its center.”
-Jeremy Robert Johnson
author of The Loop
"A wild-eyed, psychedelic madhouse of a novel that sucker punches you before you can get away, then sits on your chest and makes you read it."
Jackson Ford
author of The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With Her Mind and The Bone Raiders
“Funny as balls and creepy as hell."
-Django Wexler
author of Everybody Wants to Rule the World Except Me
“I Will Kill Your Imaginary Friend for $200 captures that magical time in childhood we look back on as adults and realize we were in a hell of a lot more danger than we ever thought possible.”
-Stephen Blackmoore
author of Dead Things
In the Media
Publisher's Weekly
"Stephen King meets Sesame Street in this delightfully unhinged, mind-bending horror novel from Brockway (The Vicious Circuit). Maksim “Ivan” Ivanov has the unique ability to see other people’s imaginary friends. Desperate for cash, he decides to put this skill to use and offer his services as a hyper-specific kind of medium. Enter Mack Washington, whose eight-year-old daughter, Kay, has a deranged imaginary friend based on an internet animation named Eddie Video. When Eddie’s increasingly volatile antics result in Kay being seriously injured, a desperate Mack hires Ivan to dispatch him. But Ivan soon realizes that he’s up against much more than his usual foe, and a battle for Kay’s psyche begins in earnest. The result is an unfiltered scramble through the power of children’s imaginations, a fun and frantic carnival ride that leaves the reader a little dizzy. Brockway uses the outre stuffed animal–based gore and outright evil villain to craft a smart and surprisingly touching metaphor for growing up. This thoroughly original tale has heart, menace, and just the right blend of fluff and guts."