Genre: Psychological Thriller
Published: May 10, 2022
Pages: 375
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.
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.
This was the October book for my Thrills and Chills book club and it was a great read for the spooky vibes. Mallory is set up as an unreliable narrator from the beginning, but literally nothing in this book is what it seems.
One of my favorite parts of this book was getting to see the pictures "in real time" as Mallory is seeing them for the first time. I definitely recommend reading this book with your eyeballs because of the added illustrations. The initial illustrations really reminded me of the Stephen Gammell illustrations from the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series, so the nostalgia factor there was also great.
I'd love to say that I figured things out before the reveal, but I really didn't. Granted some of that is because I accepted that Mallory couldn't be trusted to know or remember the truth accurately. We only see things from her perspective and if she can't be trusted...well...
Overall I give Hidden Pictures 4.4973 out of 5 stars. - Katie
Jason Rekulak is the author of three novels: HIDDEN PICTURES, THE LAST ONE AT THE WEDDING, and THE IMPOSSIBLE FORTRESS. His books have been translated into 35 languages. He lives with his wife and children in Philadelphia.
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