HIDDEN PICTURES by Jason Rekulak – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak
Published by Flatiron Books on May 10 2022
Genres: Adult, Horror, Thriller
Pages: 384
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: A unique format makes this supernatural thriller a fun escape from everyday life.

Hidden Pictures was a very good thriller with lots of surprises, and the book is full of illustrations which enhance the story and make it even better. There’s also a supernatural element, so if you enjoy thrillers with a ghostly presence, you’ll have fun with this too.

The story revolves around Mallory Quinn, a twenty-one year old who is in recovery for drug abuse. She’s been clean for eighteen months when the story begins, and her sponsor Russell thinks it’s time to stretch her wings a bit and get a job. When the opportunity comes along to work as a nanny for a five-year-old, Mallory thinks it will be the perfect summer job to keep her focused on her recovery and next steps. 

Her interview with Caroline and Ted Maxwell goes well and she gets the job, and even better, Mallory immediately bonds with the Maxwell’s son Teddy. Caroline offers Mallory a place to live on the property, a remodeled garden shed where she’ll be close to Teddy but will also have some privacy. Mallory and Teddy spend their summer days swimming and hiking in the nearby nature preserve, and Mallory even meets a local college boy named Adrien who takes an interest in her.

It all seems idyllic, until Mallory sees the strange drawings that Teddy is working on. At first the drawings seem normal, the sort with stick figures that a five-year-old might draw. But as the days progress, Mallory notices an unsettling shift in technique and subject matter. One day Teddy presents a series of disturbing drawings: a woman being dragged along the ground by a man, the man digging a hole, the woman screaming as someone is strangling her. The drawings are clearly done by someone with artistic talent and training, most certainly beyond Teddy’s capability. Teddy claims that he didn’t draw them, and when drawings mysteriously appear in Mallory’s shed, Mallory concludes that Teddy’s imaginary friend, a woman he calls Anya, may have something to do with them.

Mallory tells Adrien about the drawings and her concerns about Anya, and he agrees to help her investigate. Something weird is going on, and Teddy appears to be an innocent caught in the middle of it. With the help of Mitzi, the Maxwell’s kooky next door neighbor, Mallory attempts to communicate with Anya. But the truth is far stranger and more dangerous that she realizes.

Rekulak’s writing is punchy and his pacing is excellent. Once I starting reading, I found it hard to put down the book, probably because the mystery of Anya was so intriguing. And I loved the addition of the drawings, which are scattered throughout the book and add an extra layer of mystery to the tale. (I’m adding a couple of photos taken from my review copy because I couldn’t resist!) We finally learn the meaning behind the drawings at the end of the story, and I thought the reveal was really well done. Until that point, the author casts doubt on just about every character in the story: is Teddy telling the truth about his imaginary friend, or does he just have an active imagination? Why is Ted Maxwell so friendly towards Mallory? What’s up with Mitzi and her Ouija board? And of course there’s Mallory, a recovering addict who—despite Russell’s advice to come clean to others about her past—is lying to Adrien about her drug addiction and the fact that no, she doesn’t actually go to Penn State. I admit I had no idea where the story was going, and the twist at the end caught me completely by surprise.

I also liked the fact that Mallory has a lot of issues she’s trying to overcome, and she’s trying so hard to achieve a sense of normalcy in her life. We get flashbacks into the reasons behind her addiction—getting hooked on OxyContin after a serious sports injury, and later turning to heroine as a cheap (but deadly) substitute. I don’t know any heroine addicts personally, but I did think at times that Mallory’s recovery was just a little too easy. She never shows signs of slipping up or being tempted back into her old lifestyle, and after only a year and a half clean, I’m not sure how realistic that is.

Right off the bat I thought something might be up with the Maxwell’s—they just seem too perfect. They claim to have just moved to Philadelphia from Barcelona, and Caroline is currently working on enrolling Teddy into an exclusive Kindergarten. They have a long list of rules that Mallory must follow, including such things as no screens, no junk food, no religion and no photos of Teddy on social media. At first these feel like normal rules, but later we realize there are some nefarious reasons for some of them. I did not like Ted at all, Teddy’s father. He comes across as a sexual predator and acts inappropriately towards Mallory, although Mallory didn’t seem to be picking up on his signals, for some reason. But the weirdness of the parents only added to the unsettling feeling of the story and for me, was just one more mystery to solve.

A few things felt “off” to me, though. Mallory is apparently religious and brings up her faith several times during the story. I suppose it could have been added as one of the ways she’s working on her addiction, but these mentions of God and going to church felt completely out of place and unnecessary to the story. There’s also a subplot about how Mitzi is a drug addict, which I didn’t believe for a second. Later we realize there is a reason the author needed that element in the story, so that a particular thing could happen at the end, but the whole thing felt so forced, I’m sure there was a better way to work out that storyline.

The finale takes a bizarre turn into over-the-top violence, but to be honest, I thought it was all in good fun. Hidden Pictures wasn’t perfect, but I certainly had a fun time reading it, and in the end, Rekulak adds some nice emotional moments and gives his readers a satisfactory resolution to Anya’s story. 

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.