Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak
A wildly inventive spin on the supernatural thriller, 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.
Review:
I’d heard really good things about this book, and I don’t know why it took me so long to finally read it. It wasn’t especially scary, but the mystery kept me glued to the pages, and while I had a few suspicions of what might be going on, I was not expecting the reveal at all!
The story revolves around Mallory Quinn, a young woman who grew up poor but was a promising cross-country runner with college dreams. Things looked bright for her until she became addicted to drugs. After a stint in rehab, Mallory has an amazing sponsor and is doing pretty well for herself. She is 18 months clean and intends to stay that way. Desperate for stability and a fresh start, she interviews for a job as a babysitter for the Maxwell family in a small town in New Jersey. From the moment she steps into their home, it becomes clear that this is the perfect job for her.
Mallory quickly forms a bond with Teddy, the five-year-old son of Ted and Caroline Maxwell. Teddy is a shy and sweet boy who seems to always have his sketchbook and pencil in hand. He also has an imaginary friend named Anya. Teddy’s drawings, at first, are innocent and typical of a child his age. However, things take a turn when Teddy starts drawing scenes depicting a woman being murdered, and things get even more strange when he claims Anya is making him.
The sketches become increasingly dark and unsettling, and Mallory can’t help but wonder if they are glimpses into a disturbing truth. As the drawings evolve into lifelike sketches, Mallory is convinced that Teddy is being haunted. The Maxwells refuse to believe Mallory and wonder if maybe she’s relapsed and is using again. Desperate to keep her job and save Teddy, Mallory decides to find out what’s going on, but what she finds may end up being more deadly than she ever could have imagined.
While not especially scary, this is a creepy book and the author does a fantastic job of building tension throughout the story. As Mallory delves deeper into Teddy’s drawings, the atmosphere becomes increasingly eerie. The pacing of the book is spot on, with just the right balance of suspense and mystery.
One of the strengths of “Hidden Pictures” lies in its characters. Mallory is a flawed but relatable protagonist, determined to unravel the mystery while battling her own demons. The story is told from her first-person point-of-view, which puts us directly in her shoes.
Teddy is also an interesting character. The juxtaposition between his sweet nature and the darkness portrayed in his drawings adds another layer of intrigue to the story. The supporting characters, such as Ted and Caroline Maxwell, have great character arcs, and the addition of a few other characters helps round out the cast perfectly. It never felt as though there were too many characters in the mix.
The idea of a child conversing with spirits and creating creepy drawings isn’t exactly a new concept, but the payoff is definitely something I wasn’t expecting. I can’t say much without ruining everything, but I will say that it shocked me, and the last 50 or so pages had me glued to the book.
There were times when I was reading that I felt that the voice was very basic and that some of the dialogue felt a little ridiculous, but then, after I finished the book and thought about it some more, it seemed that this wasn’t a shortcoming of the author, but rather a deliberate tactic to elevate the character of Mallory.
I think my only complaint (and honestly, complaint seems like a strong word) is that I didn’t feel like the book needed to be tied up in a pretty bow. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I’m a fan of an ending that’s open for interpretation, and I think that would have elevated this one by an extra half-star for me.
