ICYMI, yesterday handsome HBO Insecure star and now author, Jay Ellis posted the cover of his memoir ☛DID EVERYONE HAVE AN IMAGINARY FRIEND (OR JUST ME)? ADVENTURES IN BOYHOOD [pub: One World] on Instagram. I’m intrigued. Like how does his childhood made-up friend “morph into adult consciousness?” 🤔 And also, it’s told in the “roast-you-with-love voice of your closest homey.” Umm, yeah. I look forward to meeting this Mikey dude. Did Everyone Have An Imaginary Friend (Or Just Me)? releases this summer on July 9, 2024 and is available for pre-order now.
View this post on Instagram
Did Everyone Have an Imaginary Friend (or Just Me)? Adventures In Boyhood Synopsis From One World/Penguin Random House:
Jay Ellis, star of HBO’s Insecure, tells the story of growing up with an imaginary best friend you will never forget—part Dwayne Wayne from A Different World, part Will Smith from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air—in this hilarious, vulnerable memoir.
What to do when you’re the perpetual new kid, only child, and military brat hustling school to school each year and everyone’s looking to you for answers? Make some shit up, of course! And a young Jay Ellis does just that, with help from his imaginary friend, Mikey.
A testament to the importance of invention, trusting oneself, and making space for creativity, Did Everyone Have an Imaginary Friend (or Just Me)? is a memoir of a kid who confided in his imaginary sidekick to navigate parallel pop culture universes (like watching Fresh Prince alongside John Hughes movies or listening to Ja Rule and Dave Matthews) to a lifetime of birthday disappointment (being a Christmas-season Capricorn will do that to you) and hoop dreams gone bad. Mikey also guides Ellis through tragedies, like losing his teenage cousin in a mistaken-target drive-by and the shame and fear of being pulled over by cops almost a dozen times the year he got his driver’s license.
As his imaginary friend morphs into adult consciousness, Ellis charts an unforgettable story of looking inward to solve to some of life’s biggest (and smallest) challenges, told in the roast-you-with-love voice of your closest homey.
