Hi friend! I hope you are doing well. You know I love a good horror book and today I love bringing them to you when I find such a gem. Hidden Pictures won the Goodreads Best Horror Award for 2022 and I was excited to see what kind of horror is resonating with the reading community at large. What I found was not disappointing. Take a look at the synopsis:
Hidden Pictures
By Jason Rekulak | Goodreads
From Edgar Award-finalist Jason Rekulak comes a wildly inventive spin on the supernatural thriller, for fans of Stranger Things and Riley Sager, about a woman working as a nanny for a young boy with strange and disturbing secrets.
Mallory Quinn is fresh out of rehab when she takes a job as a babysitter for Ted and Caroline Maxwell. She is to look after their five-year-old son, Teddy.
Mallory immediately loves it. She has her own living space, goes out for nightly runs, and has the stability she craves. And she sincerely bonds with Teddy, a sweet, shy boy who is never without his sketchbook and pencil. His drawings are the usual fare: trees, rabbits, balloons. But one day, he draws something different: a man in a forest, dragging a woman’s lifeless body.
Then, Teddy’s artwork becomes increasingly sinister, and his stick figures quickly evolve into lifelike sketches well beyond the ability of any five-year-old. Mallory begins to wonder if these are glimpses of a long-unsolved murder, perhaps relayed by a supernatural force.
Knowing just how crazy it all sounds, Mallory nevertheless sets out to decipher the images and save Teddy before it’s too late.
Content notes include addiction, drug abuse, murder, kidnapping, car accident and infertility.
Hidden Pictures – Review
Mallory is a young woman fresh out of rehab. She was on the path to be a great athlete but events led her down a bad road and she found herself addicted to drugs. Now, having dealt with the problems, she is looking for a second chance. With the support of her sponsor, Mallory finds a babysitter job for the summer with a family. Their boy is five years old and the parents have just moved into a new house in the suburb. The hope is Mallory would do a great job with Teddy and she may be allowed to stay for the school year.
Teddy is a sweet boy who loves drawing art. He is imaginative and playful. Mallory and him hit off from the very start and I loved their relationship. Since moving into the house, Teddy has made an imaginary friend named Anna. The parents remind him constantly that Anna is not real and Teddy agrees that to be the case but he and Anna are linked for a reason. Soon, Mallory starts to find Teddy’s art depicting a terrifying corpse. The book has numerous drawings and I loved this unique way of engaging with horror – a young child with such imagination is so creepy! At the same time, experiencing these art pieces through Mallory’s perspective was a great experience – I felt as jumpy and terrified as she did.
Mallory had a religious upbringing and has worked with psychics before. When she learns that the neighbour across the street is an old woman who runs a business, she gets her help to learn more about the spirit haunting Teddy and herself. Mallory tries to tell the parents but they do not want to accept the truth about their child. The situation escalates quickly due to Mallory’s history with drugs and addiction.
Hidden Pictures is way more than meets the eye from the synopsis. It is the story of a young girl with solid mental strength, recovering from addiction and wanting the best for her five year old friend. She is loving and caring and looks out for Teddy to the best of her capacity. The story moves at a good pace and fleshes out multiple characters including Teddy’s parents. Mallory’s affinity to ghosts and sixth sense around being observed is integrated very well into the narrative and adds to the horror feel. She is a very human character to relate to who lies and makes mistakes but has the best intentions at heart. It is also the story of a couple wanting a child desperately and having high hopes for their son.
Personally, the best horror books are those that leave a terrible feeling with me. The shock of the events, the effects on the main characters, the emotions and the big question of what next? If they still haunt me after I have read the book, it is stellar. Hidden Pictures gave me all the feels in the beginning as Teddy was drawing his art. As the story reaches its conclusion, it turns into more of a suspense-thriller with a vengeful spirit with a legit grudge. I enjoyed it and Mallory and Teddy’s relationship is one I grew to adore.
Have you read Hidden Pictures or plan to pick it up? Add it to your Goodreads. I want to hear from you in the comments!
Thanks for visiting today. 🙂
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