Doogie Horner and Will Staehl do an excellent job creating perfectly creepy childish illustrations that I wouldn’t keep or put on my fridge if a kid gave them to me and seamlessly transitions into the gorgeous professional illustrations that come later in the book. And the drawings are easily the best part of this book. I wanted to know what happened to Annie Barret, the artist who had died in Mallory’s cottage, I wanted to know what Teddy was doing during Quiet Time and what his drawings meant. The story was creepy, the writing was easy to follow, I was hooked. He made Mallory suspicious and flawed, a character that I was truly rooting for. I loved how he wrote Mallory’s voice, it was simple and vague, hinting at a darker, tragic past without actually giving anything away. I’ll admit, I hadn’t heard of the book until I was reading the Goodreads Reader’s Choice Winners, but it won and I was intrigued, that had to count for something.Īnd honestly, Rekulak pulled me in. I mean, it was literally Goodreads Reader’s Choice for Horror for 2022. And it’s really disappointing, because Hidden Pictures started off as a really good horror. It’s honestly impressive how the story changed at almost exactly the three-hundred-page mark. I have to say, this is the first time I’ve read a book that jumped the shark in it’s last third. I have a lot to say about this book, so spoilers ahead! Mallory sets out to find out what the spirit wants from her and Teddy before it’s too late. But when Mallory finds out that a young artist was murdered in the cottage she now calls home years before, she wonders if Teddy’s drawings may be a message from the young woman. But then one day Teddy gives her a picture of a woman’s body being dragged through the woods, and then the pictures get more disturbing and far more detailed than a five-year-old is capable of drawing. They’re the sweet sort of drawings one expects from a kid: a rabbit, a balloon, of Mallory herself. The neighbourhood is safe for her nightly runs, she enjoys the cottage pool house that she lives in, and she loves looking after Teddy, and Teddy loves showing Mallory the pictures he draws. Ted and Caroline Maxwell seem like kind and doting parents who will do anything for their five-year-old son Teddy, who takes an immediate shine to Mallory, and she loves her job. Mallory Quinn is eighteen-months sober and finds herself a babysitting job in the privileged neighbourhood on Spring Brook, New Jersey. It will steer you toward bad choices, override logic and common sense, and warp your most cherished memories into impossible fantasies,” (Rekulak 5). In fact, you need to understand that your brain has become your own worst enemy. With help from a handsome landscaper and an eccentric neighbor, Mallory sets out to decipher the images and save Teddy-while coming to terms with a tragedy in her own past-before it's too late.“One of the hardest things about recovery is coming to terms with the fact that you can’t trust your brain anymore. Mallory begins to suspect these are glimpses of an unsolved murder from long ago, perhaps relayed by a supernatural force lingering in the forest behind the Maxwell's house. But one day, he draws something different: a man in a forest, dragging a woman's lifeless body.Īs the days pass, Teddy's artwork becomes more and more sinister, and his stick figures steadily evolve into more detailed, complex, and lifelike sketches well beyond the ability of any five-year-old. His drawings are the usual fare: trees, rabbits, balloons. And she sincerely bonds with Teddy, a sweet, shy boy who is never without his sketchbook and pencil. She lives in the Maxwell's pool house, goes out for nightly runs, and has the stability she craves. She is to look after their five-year-old son, Teddy. From Jason Rekulak, Edgar-nominated author of The Impossible Fortress, comes a wildly inventive spin on the classic horror story in Hidden Pictures, a creepy and warm-hearted mystery about a woman working as a nanny for a young boy with strange and disturbing secrets.įresh out of rehab, Mallory Quinn takes a job in the affluent suburb of Spring Brook, New Jersey as a babysitter for Ted and Caroline Maxwell.
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