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HIDDEN PICTURES

by Jason Rekulak ; illustrated by Will Staehle & Doogie Horner ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 10, 2022

It's almost enough to make a person believe in ghosts.

A disturbing household secret has far-reaching consequences in this dark, unusual ghost story.

Mallory Quinn, fresh out of rehab and recovering from a recent tragedy, has taken a job as a nanny for an affluent couple living in the upscale suburb of Spring Brook, New Jersey, when a series of strange events start to make her (and her employers) question her own sanity. Teddy, the precocious and shy 5-year-old boy she's charged with watching, seems to be haunted by a ghost who channels his body to draw pictures that are far too complex and well formed for such a young child. At first, these drawings are rather typical: rabbits, hot air balloons, trees. But then the illustrations take a dark turn, showcasing the details of a gruesome murder; the inclusion of the drawings, which start out as stick figures and grow increasingly more disturbing and sophisticated, brings the reader right into the story. With the help of an attractive young gardener and a psychic neighbor and using only the drawings as clues, Mallory must solve the mystery of the house's grizzly past before it's too late. Rekulak does a great job with character development: Mallory, who narrates in the first person, has an engaging voice; the Maxwells' slightly overbearing parenting style and passive-aggressive quips feel very familiar; and Teddy is so three-dimensional that he sometimes feels like a real child.

Pub Date: May 10, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-250-81934-5

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Flatiron Books

Review Posted Online: March 1, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022

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BOOK REVIEW

by Jason Rekulak

Awards & Accolades

Our Verdict

New York Times Bestseller

by Max Brooks ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 16, 2020

A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.

Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z (2006).

A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.

Pub Date: June 16, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine

Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020

GENERAL SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE | SCIENCE FICTION

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by Max Brooks

More About This Book

BOOK TO SCREEN

YOU'D LOOK BETTER AS A GHOST

by Joanna Wallace ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 16, 2024

Squeamish readers will find this isn’t their cup of tea.

Dexter meets Killing Eve in Wallace’s dark comic thriller debut.

While accepting condolences following her father’s funeral, 30-something narrator Claire receives an email saying that one of her paintings is a finalist for a prize. But her joy is short-circuited the next morning when she learns in a second apologetic note that the initial email had been sent to the wrong Claire. The sender, Lucas Kane, is “terribly, terribly sorry” for his mistake. Claire, torn between her anger and suicidal thoughts, has doubts about his sincerity and stalks him to a London pub, where his fate is sealed: “I stare at Lucas Kane in real life, and within moments I know. He doesn’t look sorry.” She dispatches and buries Lucas in her back garden, but this crime does not go unnoticed. Proud of her meticulous standards as a serial killer, Claire wonders if her grief for her father is making her reckless as she seeks to identify the blackmailer among the members of her weekly bereavement support group. The female serial killer as antihero is a growing subgenre (see Oyinkan Braithwaite’s My Sister, the Serial Killer , 2018), and Wallace’s sociopathic protagonist is a mordantly amusing addition; the tool she uses to interact with ordinary people while hiding her homicidal nature is especially sardonic: “Whenever I’m unsure of how I’m expected to respond, I use a cliché. Even if I’m not sure what it means, even if I use it incorrectly, no one ever seems to mind.” The well-written storyline tackles some tough subjects—dementia, elder abuse, and parental cruelty—but the convoluted plot starts to drag at the halfway point. Given the lack of empathy in Claire’s narration, most of the characters come across as not very likable, and the reader tires of her sneering contempt.

Pub Date: April 16, 2024

ISBN: 9780143136170

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Penguin

Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024

GENERAL & DOMESTIC THRILLER | THRILLER | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE

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Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak – Book Review

The book cover of Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak

Warning – possible spoilers! (Tiny ones, though, and I’ll try to avoid even those; I swear I’ll give my best not to ruin it for you… :-))

Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak – Book Details

TITLE – Hidden Pictures

AUTHOR – Jason Rekulak

ILLUSTRATORS – Will Staehle, Doogie Horner

GENRE – horror , thriller , mystery , paranormal

YEAR PUBLISHED – 2022

PAGE COUNT – 373

MY RATING – 4.5 of 5

RATED ON GOODREADS – 4.20 of 5

What It Is About

A man is digging a grave. A woman is being dragged through a forest. And someone is looking up from the bottom of a very deep hole.

Goodreads Choice Award winner for Best Horror of 2022!

Mallory Quinn has been battling OxyContin and heroin addiction for the past eighteen months. And though that battle never ends, she’s doing much better. She even managed to find a job as a nanny in a prosperous suburb of Spring Brook, New Jersey.

Teddy Maxwell, the kid she is to babysit, is the sweetest five-year-old boy and one of the reasons Mallory loves her new job. Like many kids, Teddy loves to draw. But his sketches quickly progress from simple drawings of balloons and rabbits to detailed sinister illustrations of a man dragging a dead body through the woods.

As it is clear Teddy couldn’t have drawn such complex sketches on his own, Mallory starts to suspect his artwork are really glimpses of an unsolved murder that allegedly happened at the Maxwell property several decades ago.

But what does the force that is trying to communicate through Teddy want? And why does it seem that all the events in the house only lead to another tragedy?

I’m not sure if I’m consoling her or she’s consoling me, I can’t tell where my guilt ends and hers begins. Maybe it’s the kind of grief we will never ever shake, not even after we’re dead.

Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak – My Review

An illustration from Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak

I’m always in for a good thriller with horror-ish vibes, and adding a dash of supernatural to the mix is pretty much a sure way to make me pick up a book. Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak offered just that and it sounded like it might be a hundred percent my kind of thing.

This is also the book that won this year’s Goodreads Choice Award for the best horror, beating several other titles that I’ve been hoping to get to soon. I just had to see what so many people liked about it.

And straight out of the gate, several elements made Rekulak’s Hidden Pictures work so well.

There are so many pieces to the puzzle, my head is starting to hurt. I feel like we’re trying to jam a square peg into a round hole—or to force a very easy solution on a very complicated problem.

First, the setting. The contrast between the beautiful, quiet neighborhood during warm, sunny summer days and the increasing horror unfolding in one of the houses. Plus the local legends about a tragedy in the past that might be reaching its fingers all the way to the present.

The psychic neighbor – too eccentric for anyone to pay attention to, but who keeps warning that a spirit might be using the boy to tell her story.

And, of course, the protagonist. Mallory was a great MC. Likable and complex. Strong but vulnerable. Someone who has definitely had her share of mistakes in the past, but seems to have come out of it stronger. Determined to make the best she can out of the rest of her life.

So, a girl easy to root for and in some ways relate to. But also someone you know won’t be trusted if she starts to talk about the supernatural. No way she can go to anyone, be honest about what’s going on and ask for help.

Teddy runs to get his swimsuit and I see he’s left a new drawing facedown on the coffee table. […] Curiosity gets the better of me. I turn the paper over, and this is pretty much the last straw.

And when she first goes to the Maxwells’ house for the job interview and meets the parents, Caroline and Ted, as well as Teddy, nothing suggests this babysitting gig might challenge her to those impossible choices. The house is gorgeous, the parents pleasant. And Teddy is an adorable kid.

But Ted and Caroline are worried about him. Teddy is about to start school, but he doesn’t want to play with other boys. In fact, his only playmate is his imaginary friend Anya.

It is Mallory’s job to help Teddy get used to meeting new people. And for a while, everything seems to be going great. But Teddy’s simple drawings quickly progress to detailed, complex sketches no five-year-old could master on his own. And the illustrations seem to be telling a story of a murder.

As Teddy’s drawings take darker and darker turns, Mallory starts to wonder how those images even got into his head. And there’s only one obvious solution – his imaginary friend Anya with whom Teddy talks every day during his Quiet Time.

“The man dug a hole so no one would find her,” he says with a shrug. “But I guess she got out.”

So, great setup, great vibes. And I can honestly say I enjoyed this book a lot from start to finish.

The beginning was maybe a bit slow, but Hidden Pictures was one of those books where narration has a good rhythm so you barely notice it. The writing was very accessible and easy to fly through.

The only thing I maybe wish was different was that I hoped for an even creepier, scarier story. But the narration was so light, even the truly disturbing parts didn’t quite get to me.

Which wasn’t all that bad. It made for a quick, easy read, fun and entertaining. Great for people who love spooky vibes but not to get completely terrified.

Book illustrations from Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak

The illustrations were also a huge part of the book. They added something little extra to the story. I especially appreciated the transition from Teddy’s obviously childish stick drawings to dark, skillful images as the story progressed.

But the ending really made Hidden Pictures a 5-star read for me. I kept wondering throughout the book where the story was going, and some parts of the twist caught me completely clueless!

There were actually a couple of aspects of the story that I entirely missed while reading. The ending made me gasp once or twice before tying everything nicely together.

And I think back to the doctor from the University of Pennsylvania and the research experiment that didn’t actually happen. And it’s the first night I feel like someone might be watching me.

Look. Kids drawing creepy images and having imaginary friends who may or may not have malevolent agendas is not exactly the newest or the most original concept we’ve ever heard of. But there’s nothing wrong with good old tropes that became tropes because they work. Especially when they are done well, and this one was.

I enjoyed this book a lot. I can even see it turned into a movie, and I’d certainly watch it. Hidden Pictures was a fun and entertaining horror. Creepy, but not too creepy. Weird, but not too out there.

Great to kill a couple of lazy evenings. And if that’s what you are looking for, Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak is a great option.

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(3) comments.

I liked this book too, Jovana! And I love your review, you just made me wanna go and reread it!

Yay, glad you enjoyed it! (Both the book and my review 😅)

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REVIEW: Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak

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.

Fresh 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. She is to look after their five-year-old son, Teddy. Mallory immediately loves this new job. She lives in the Maxwell’s pool house, 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. As 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. 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. 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.

Dear Mr. Rekulak,

When I saw your name on this arc, I knew I wanted to read it even though it seemed very different from the first book of yours I read, “The Impossible Fortress.” Despite having read the blurb, I had a totally different idea of what was going to unfold. As a result, I was riveted to the twists and turns of the novel.

Mallory Quinn is not the typical older young adult I’ve read about. We meet her in a bizarre psychological medical experiment when she’s still addicted to whatever she can get her hands on. Then the story fast forwards to her in rehab. She’s wrecked her relationship with her family but is almost eighteen months sober and clean. Now she has a chance at a job as a nanny for an affluent couple in a rich town in New Jersey which is light years away from the South Philly neighborhood in which she grew up. The mother is a psychologist who works with recovering military vets but it’s the father who grills Mallory during the job interview.

Amazingly Mallory gets the job and starts working and living a dream. Teddy is sweet and soon the two of them are making up stories, swimming in the pool, and wandering through the nature park behind the home. Then Mallory sees some of Teddy’s newer drawings and they are unlike anything she’s seen Teddy draw before. It’s not just how different in artistic skill they are but the subject matter is deeply disturbing. How on earth could a five year old produce these?

Mallory begins to hear things at night and gets the feeling she’s being watched. Is Teddy being haunted by the ghost of a woman supposedly murdered over 70 years ago in the little one room house at the back of the Maxwell’s property and now trying to tell her story? Or have the drugs Mallory was on fritzed her brain into seeing something that’s not really there?

Though there aren’t any detailed descriptions of Mallory in the depths of her addiction, she pulls no punches in admitting to the reader she was addicted. Later we learn the tragedy of how and why her addiction began.

As she is interviewed for the job and sees the picture perfect little town in which the Maxwells live as well as how they interact with each other and the wholesome house rules under which she’s expected to live, my alarm bells started going off. It’s really, creepily perfect. At first Mallory is delighted with how easy the job is and how well she gets along with Teddy. Teddy’s not a faultless child or a plot moppet by any means but when she runs into situations she needs help with, Mrs. Maxwell is there with her psychological expertise and child care experience. Mallory might not always agree but knows not to go against Teddy’s parents.

Until things begin to happen that unsettle Mallory as well as Teddy. These start slowly, gradually, and build up. Some can be explained away … until they can’t be anymore. One of the long term effects of the kind of drug use Mallory did are mental lapses and the brain inventing false memories. She begins to worry that this is what is happening while her NA sponsor is concerned that she’s using drugs again.

The mystery of what’s going on deepens. Clues are discovered but can’t be fit together to make enough sense. Teddy’s drawings get worse and Mallory’s idea of what – or who – is causing everything freaks her out. Is a ghost haunting them?

I enjoyed the slow build up of the story. It’s very atmospheric in different ways. The bonding between Mallory and Teddy is delightful to watch. Teddy is an intelligent child with occasional five year old sulks. Mallory discovers how much she enjoys her job and getting her life back on track. The drawing parts are unsettling. The growing menace snuck up on me until I felt I was chest deep and with dangerous water still rising. Something is going on but what?

The explanation makes sense even before the villain exposition ties everything together in the end. Mallory keeps her head on straight until a final scene when it suddenly dawns on her that maybe she shouldn’t have done something. But she still manages to save the day in a taut race against a killer. The final section is emotional in a good way with an ending that allows Mallory as well as Teddy and the reader to decompress and feel better about the future. There are a couple of plot holes that might or might not bother people but I finished the book satisfied. B+

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Book Review of HIDDEN PICTURES

Hello, Tartlets! I’m so excited to be part of the blog tour for Hidden Pictures . Because I seriously loved this book.

(Whew! What a relief. It would’ve been totally awkward to be part of a blog tour for a book I hated.)

Billed as “ The Haunting of Hill House meets The Perfect Nanny ,” this supernatural thriller by Jason Rekulak surpassed all the expectations I had for it. I ripped through Hidden Pictures in just two days. TWO DAYS! Every spare moment had me reaching for my copy of this super creepy story.

The main story behind Hidden Pictures will seem pretty familiar — at least, at first. A down-on-her-luck young woman, Mallory, takes a job nannying a quiet and sweet child named Teddy. The offer seems too good to be true, and sure enough, almost as soon as Mallory arrives at the Maxwell family’s house, weird things start happening and the kid starts shoving creepy drawings in her face.

Been there, done that, right? WRONG. Why? Because Hidden Pictures has art.

As Mallory sifts through Teddy’s drawings, so do you — one minute you’re reading about some scribbles that kinda-sorta look like a bunny sitting in the grass, and the next thing you know, you’re looking at it. Every drawing that Teddy creates is in Hidden Pictures . Which means that when Mallory sees his disturbingAF drawings — like a woman who looks like she crawled out of the The Ring , or a man dragging a woman by the ankles through a forest — so do you .

I’m a sucker for scary stories with artwork. Remember Horrorstor ? The illustrations in that book are what helped make it so great, and the same goes for Hidden Pictures . I’m a writer , so I’m all for the power of words, but being able to see exactly what Mallory sees really brings you into the moment. It’s almost as if you’re watching a movie instead of reading a book.

The book’s illustrations are also inadvertently hilarious. Like, you’re flipping through a bunch of Teddy’s nice little sketches, and you’re like, “Okay, normal, normal, normal…all normal things a kid would draw….WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!?!” I burst out laughing as many times as I hid under the covers.

While Hidden Pictures starts off like a traditional ghost story, it eventually becomes clear that there’s a lot more going on with Mallory and Teddy than just a good, ol’ fashioned haunting. Mallory’s emotional side story really tugs at your heart, and there’s a darn good mystery that begins to unfold at the Maxwell house. Most importantly, there are plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing right up until the very (crazy, unpredictable) end.

If you’re looking for a riveting and unique haunted house story (I mean, who isn’t??), get your hands on a copy of Hidden Pictures ASAP.

Notes to my fellow New Jersey readers: Hidden Pictures is set in South Jersey (aptly so; there’s nothing scarier than South Jersey to this North Jersey girl), and I was psyched every time there was a shout out to my alma mater, Rutgers New Brunswick. Jersey Strong!

Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak (with illustrations by Doogie Horner and Will Staehleill) is now available from Flatiron Books. Although I received a complimentary advance copy of this book, all opinions expressed in this review are my own, and I was not compensated in any way for this review or for any other promotion/publicity I’ve done related to this book.

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#BookReview Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak @Flatironbooks #HiddenPictures #JasonRekulak #FlatironBooks

Fresh 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. She is to look after their five-year-old son, Teddy.

Mallory immediately loves this new job. She lives in the Maxwell’s pool house, 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.

As 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. 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.

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.

Intense, eerie, and dark!

Hidden Pictures is a haunting, character-driven thriller that takes you into the life of recovering addict Mallory Quinn who, after recently being hired to nanny the delightful five-year-old Teddy, whose love for drawing and his imaginative friend Anya become creepier day by day, discovers quickly that something isn’t right in this seemingly perfect home of Ted and Caroline Maxwell, and that someone or something is determined to reveal the secrets they’re desperately trying to hide.

The prose is unsettling and taut. The characters are suspicious, troubled, and wary. And the plot is a simmering, sinister tale of familial drama, class division, tension, deception, violence, and desperation, all interwoven with a sliver of the supernatural.

Overall, Hidden Pictures is a tight, creepy, atmospheric tale by Rekulak that, with its quick pace and disturbing illustrations, kept me unnerved and highly entertained right from the very first page.

This book is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

Thank you to Flatiron Books for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

About Jason Rekulak

Jason Rekulak is the author of The Impossible Fortress, which was translated into 12 languages and was nominated for the Edgar Award. For many years, he was the publisher of Quirk Books, an independent press, where he acquired and edited multiple New York Times bestsellers. He lives in Philadelphia with his family.

Photo by Jason Varney.

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1 Comment on #BookReview Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak @Flatironbooks #HiddenPictures #JasonRekulak #FlatironBooks

This sounds so good! I need to get a copy. Thanks for the review Zoe

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A Riveting Supernatural Thriller in Hidden Pictures

Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak tells the story of Mallory Quinn, a woman hired as a nanny for a five-year-old boy named Teddy. However, things take a strange and disturbing turn when Teddy’s drawings become increasingly sinister, leading Mallory to wonder if they are related to a long-unsolved murder.

The characters are well fleshed out, and Mallory’s character is particularly impressive. She has a rich backstory, which adds an extra layer of depth to her character.

Mallory’s quest to decipher Teddy’s drawings is both creepy and intriguing. As the story progresses, the drawings become more sinister, and the stakes increase. The book is intellectually stimulating and continuously surprising as each piece of the puzzle falls into place. Rekulak employs clever symbolism and metaphors to move the plot forward, making the book worthwhile to read.

The storytelling style of Hidden Pictures leaves a lasting impression. It’s not only an original fusion of genres, but the narrative structure, formatting and use of illustrations is also so innovative that readers won’t forget about it quickly. Every element of the story comes together beautifully to form something unique, and the combination of local history with modern-day horror makes it more engaging.

Hidden Pictures is a thrilling and intelligent horror novel. It’s a well-crafted novel that demonstrates Jason Rekulak’s mastery of storytelling, pacing, and character development. The supernatural elements of the book are well-conceived and deliberately shaped to compel the reader’s interest. And that ending…damn!

Hidden Pictures is available at bookstores everywhere. We high recommend the audiobook narrated by Suzy Jackson.

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Writer – playwright – cannot save you from the robot apocalypse, book review: hidden pictures by jason rekulak (illustrated by doogie horner and will staehle).

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January 24, 2023

“One of the hardest things about recovery is coming to terms with the fact that you can’t trust your brain anymore. In fact, you need to understand that your brain has become your own worst enemy. It will steer you toward bad choices, override logic and common sense, and warp your most cherished memories into impossible fantasies,” (Rekulak 5).

Mallory Quinn is eighteen-months sober and finds herself a babysitting job in the privileged neighbourhood on Spring Brook, New Jersey. 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. 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. They’re the sweet sort of drawings one expects from a kid: a rabbit, a balloon, of Mallory herself. 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. 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. Mallory sets out to find out what the spirit wants from her and Teddy before it’s too late.

I have a lot to say about this book, so spoilers ahead!

I have to say, this is the first time I’ve read a book that jumped the shark in it’s last third. It’s honestly impressive how the story changed at almost exactly the three-hundred-page mark. And it’s really disappointing, because Hidden Pictures started off as a really good horror. I mean, it was literally Goodreads Reader’s Choice for Horror for 2022 . 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.

And honestly, Rekulak pulled me in. I loved how he wrote Mallory’s voice, it was simple and vague, hinting at a darker, tragic past without actually giving anything away. He made Mallory suspicious and flawed, a character that I was truly rooting for. The story was creepy, the writing was easy to follow, I was hooked. 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. And the drawings are easily the best part of this book. 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. They’re beautiful, they’re sickening, they’re terrifying and really enhanced the overall creep factor of the book. I was so into the story, I thought Hidden Pictures might be a new favourite horror for me.

But the ending…

Last chance to leave, otherwise, WELCOME TO SPOILER CENTRAL!

The last third of the book turns everything you were expecting on it’s head. Rekulak reveals that Teddy is actually a cisgender girl named Flora (and for the rest of the review I will be calling her Flora) who was kidnapped at a very young age by Ted and Caroline Maxwell after they accidentally killed and buried her mother, Margit. In order to escape authorities they cut Flora’s hair, dressed and presented her as a boy to the public, and kidnapped her. They called her Teddy and introduced her to the world as their son. Near the end when “the big reveal” happens, Mallory tells Caroline that she knows Teddy is a girl to which Caroline lies that Teddy is trans: “Obviously, Teddy was born a girl…We knew about your religious convictions–” (Rekulak 319-320).

I’ll also mention that Mallory being religious really isn’t mentioned aside from the fact that as a recovery addict Mallory has “worked the Twelve Steps and I have surrendered my life to my lord and savior Jesus Christ” and that she wears a cross necklace (Rekulak 5). One of the list of rules Mallory receives when starting to take care of Flora is “No religion or superstitions. Teach science” (Rekulak 15) which Mallory never pushes, though her being religious somehow makes her more willing to believe in ghosts and seances and seek the help of next door neighbour drug-addict Mitzi, and Mallory only briefly shows the urge to relapse. I obviously can’t speak for all Christians and religions, but I do know people who weren’t allowed to watch Caspar the Friendly Ghost growing up because his existence showed there was no Heaven. So take from that where you will.

And then Caroline uses Mallory’s religion as an excuse for lying about Flora’s gender identity even though FLORA IS NOT TRANS! There are many very real parents of trans kids who do have to worry about religious/conservative individuals judging their children for their identity, but as one reviewer excellently put Caroline weaponizes transphobia in order to get away with the fact that she killed Flora’s mother. This plot device reinforces the transphobic belief that parents of trans kids are just forcing their children to identify differently and completely invalidates the identity of real trans individuals and children.

There are some clumsy hints Rekulak provides about Flora’s gender identity throughout the book: she always wants to play Dorothy when playing Land of Oz, expresses interest in wanting long hair like the Cowardly Lion and has tantrums when being taken to the barber to have it cut, she asks Mallory about her private parts which results in Caroline getting books on gender and sexuality for Flora to read when SHE KNOWS SHE’S RAISING A CISGENDER GIRL AS A BOY. Mallory makes sure to mention that the books cover topics of anal sex and cunnilingus: “The next day [Caroline] comes home with a giant stack of picture books with titles like It’s Perfectly Normal! and Where Did I Come From? … There are detailed definitions of anal sex, cunnilingus, and genderqueer expression. With full-colour drawings and everything” (Rekulak 116). The fact that Rekulak makes sure to mention anal sex and genderqueer identity in the same sentence, as well as Mallory’s own objection to Flora being taught about her body, and that Caroline pretends Flora is a trans kid makes an unfortunate reinforcement of violence/predator with the queer and trans community, which is also a problematic and toxic idea.

And then there’s a weird point near the end when Mallory recognizes Flora as a cisgender girl: “It was really remarkable how a blue dress and slightly longer hair shifted my entire perception of you. Just a few subtle cues and my brain did the rest of the work, flipping all the switches. You used to be a boy. Now, you were a girl,” (Rekulak 365). Flora was never a boy but forced to present and believe she was one, she was never trans, and a dress and long hair doesn’t equal what it means to be a girl. Hair and clothes aren’t gendered.

This “twist” came out of nowhere and was done purely for shock value. It is so insulting to the trans community and trans readers, I can’t believe Rekulak wrote this into his book, that his editor and publisher had no problem with this plotline, and that more reviewers haven’t called him out on this.

The last third of the book nearly reads like an entirely different book. What started as a horror ghost story turns into a thriller with a psychotic couple literally forcing a child to present as a different gender so they won’t be discovered as murderers/kidnappers. Caroline and Ted become satires of themselves, it was almost comical reading how ridiculous they were speaking and presented for the rest of the book.

There’s also a weird part with Mallory where she mentions her time as a user and takes care to mention that she was never raped, and that she’s very fit and physically much stronger than the privileged people around her because she runs and swims and works out despite only being sober for eighteen months. It’s like Rekulak wrote Mallory as a past addict to make her unreliable, but didn’t actually want to give her the qualities that many addicts face like relapse or physical and sexual abuse. It’s almost like Rekulak made her a “good victim,” a tragic heroine who readers will sympathize with because she avoided the fate of other addicts.

And also, copaganda! Adrian, a Mexican landscaper who comes from a wealthy family that becomes Mallory’s love interest, is viewed in a prejudiced light by Mitzi who says “[t]his might sound racist but it’s true. These men–they’ve already broken the law once, when they crossed the border. So if a criminal sees a pretty girl all alone in a backyard, what’s stopping him?” (Rekulak 60). And Mallory is understandably and correctly horrified by Mitzi’s racist outburst, but later when Adrian is being frisked by police after he and Mallory snoop around Mitzi’s house, Mallory says: “Adrian seems to think he doesn’t have to listen to them, that he’s somehow above the law” (Rekulak 285).

MALLORY! HE’S A PERSON OF COLOUR! IT DOESN’T MATTER THAT HE’S RICH, NOTICE HOW THEY’RE FRISKING HIM BUT NOT YOU, A WHITE WOMAN?! A WHITE WOMAN WHO, AS A FORMER ADDICT, PROBABLY HAD SOME NOT SO GREAT RUN INS WITH THE POLICE?!

And then, as if random transphobia and copaganda wasn’t enough, surprise fatphobia! When Mallory rehashes the death of her sister, it is necessary that she mentions that her mother worked in a hospital and that she was fat. She was so fat! Mallory’s mom “was short, overweight, and she smoked a pack a day–even though she worked at Mercy Hospital…so she knew all the health risks,” (Rekulak 248). But then when Mallory reunites with her mother at the end she’s wearing leggings, she’s got a Fitbit! Rekulak says that the “biggest surprise was learning that my mother had started running! All through high school, Beth and I could never drag her off the couch, but now she was pacing nine-minute miles. Now she had Lycra shorts and a Fitbit and everything,” (Rekulak 360-361).

WHAT WAS THE POINT OF THIS?!

And then, to top it all off, the last chapter of the book is even weirder because it’s written in second person as a sort of letter to Flora where Mallory explains WHY THE BOOK IS WRITTEN SO BADLY. Again, I had no issue with Mallory’s voice. I liked that it was simple and straightforward, no purple prose, just a young woman telling her story. But for whatever reason Rekulak felt he needed to explain WHY the book used the voice it did.

Hidden Pictures started as a great horror with chilling pictures adding a great haunting factor to the book, but it completely fell apart in it’s last third. I honestly have no idea how so few reviewers, from BookTok and beyond, are talking about this. To use such outdated, dangerous tropes for horror and shock value against the trans community is disgusting, and I can’t believe this book was able to get published when everything hinged on this toxic “twist.”

Fresh 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. She is to look after their five-year-old son, Teddy. Mallory immediately loves this new job. She lives in the Maxwell’s pool house, 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. As 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. 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. 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.

Hidden Pictures

"Hidden Pictures" Book Review

Written by Tony Jones

Published by Sphere

hidden pictures jason rekulak poster large

Written by Jason Rekulak 2022, 384 pages, Fiction Released on 10th May 2022

I had never previously heard of Jason Rekulak or his second novel Hidden Pictures until it reached the latter stages of the 2022 Goodreads Choice Award , eventually winning the horror category. It is rare for a horror novel to do so outstandingly well in a major book competition without it appearing on my radar, so I had to track it down to satisfy my curiosity. Interestingly, subsequent conversations with authors, bloggers and fellow reviewers revealed that others were equally mystified how a novel which had clearly picked up next to zero attention in the horror press could win such a big award.

The horror genre bubble is miniscule in comparison to the mainstream publishers which dictate the tastes of a massive percentage of the book buying public and as Hidden Pictures is released by Sphere, it certainly had one of the bigger boys promoting it. It also has this cool Stephen King quote on the front cover: “I loved it… the surprises really surprise, and it has that hard to achieve propulsiveness that won’t let you put it down.” Other quotes from Grady Hendrix , Ransom Riggs, and major UK newspapers The Times and The Daily Mail back up the fact it clearly did pick up mainstream coverage (even if it passed me by for whatever reason). Most years there is a breakout ‘supernatural thriller’ hit and Hidden Pictures is clearly that book for 2022, which it will surely carry into 2023 with the momentum gathered from the surprising Goodreads victory.

But is it any good and worth the hype? Yes, and definitely yes. This is exactly the type of thriller with a supernatural edge to it which would be popular with readers who are not attracted to more traditional horror fiction. Hidden Pictures does precisely what its publicity promises and is an amazingly easy-to-read dark thriller. I do not always agree with the endless cycle of Stephen King quotations which appear on new releases, but on this occasion, King nails it. This is a clever page-turner which is hard to put down, demanding 100% of your attention. As King alludes to, it does indeed include some very clever twists, plot shifts and very sneaky misdirection. For the most part it uses ambiguity beautifully, balancing a potential supernatural riff with a main character who is not quite an unreliable narrator. I read the 372 pages over three evenings and had an outstanding time with this novel and even if the idea of a ‘twist’ ending is overhyped, I was very satisfied with how things play out and did not feel cheated in the slightest.

It is exceedingly difficult to review this book without heading feet first into spoiler territory, so I am going to keep the summary of the plot both brief and vague. The first great strength of Hidden Pictures is the first-person narrative of the main character Mallory, a young woman in early recovery (18 months) from drug addiction. As a teenager, she had a promising career as a distance runner, which was cut short by an accident, then addiction to painkillers which spiraled to much harder drugs followed. When the novel opens, Mallory is about to be interviewed as a live-in nanny for four-year-old Teddy.

You might wonder why a rich couple (Caroline and Ted) might be interested in hiring a young drug addict to look after their kid, but Caroline works in the medical field and is keen to give Mallory a second chance, but her husband is more reluctant. Mallory loves Teddy and the summer house she is given to live in is perfect and initially everything goes like a dream. In the evenings, Mallory goes on long runs. She meets a nice guy and feels she has the perfect opportunity to rebuild her life and perhaps come to terms with the skeletons lurking in her closet. She also stops attending Narcotics Anonymous meetings but keeps in touch with her sponsor (like a counsellor) by phone and the odd meeting.

But things do not remain peaceful for long, as soon Teddy starts to draw disturbing pictures of an imaginary friend he calls Anya. It is quite clear to Mallory and to Teddy's parents, even in his crude childlike style, that the woman Teddy is drawing in his pictures is dead. Soon, the pictures begin to get more and more sophisticated and Mallory takes her concerns to Teddy’s parents. From that moment on, things begin to get extremely complicated and nothing is quite what it seems.

Hidden Pictures did a terrific job of keeping me on the hook and I loved the manner in which the drawings are added seamlessly into the story, magnifying Mallory’s paranoia. I studied them very carefully! The interactions between the four characters are also terrific. Ted and Caroline as Mallory’s employers hold all the power, but her obsession with the drawings trumps even that. Supernatural thrillers do not get much slicker than Hidden Pictures and I appreciated the twists lurking within the tightly written story. Jason Rekulak previously worked for the indie publisher Quirk Books, who have released fiction by many top horror authors, including Grady Hendrix and Clay McLeod Chapman , so undoubtedly Jason had a wealth of reading experience to draw upon when writing this excellent novel. It certainly shows.

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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.

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.

20 responses to “ HIDDEN PICTURES by Jason Rekulak – Review ”

I really enjoy a mystery that’s able to keep you guessing and having that supernatural element, or at least the possibility of it, is often a great touch. Sounds like a book worth trying.

It was a nice combo of mystery and supernatural:-)

Thanks Stephanie! It was very creepy:-)

Well when you put it that way…;-)

It was definitely fun and twisty!

Ooh, I like the idea of the illustrations in the book! I don’t read thrillers very often, but this sounds appealing!

It was a ton of fun:-)

Thanks Debjani! I loved the illustrations:-)

Interesting!

It was very interesting:-)

I’m intrigued by the idea of a thriller with illustrations. I don’t think I’ve ever read one like that before.

It’s my first, and I thought it worked great!

I have an audio copy of this so I’ll miss the visuals, but this sounds awesome! I’ll definitely have to bump it up on my list.

The illustrations definitely added to the experience, but I’d be curious to hear how the audio is.

Ooh love the creepy drawing! I’m adding to my list!

I love a thriller with supernatural elements so this is gong on the list. Lynn 😀

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Book Review: ‘Hidden Pictures: A Novel’ By Jason Rekulak

by RedCarpetCrash | Apr 24, 2022 | Books | 0 comments

Mallory Quinn is 21 years old a recovering drug addict and has been clean for 18 months now. She gets a job as a nanny to 5 year old Teddy and lives in the guest house at the parents house. Something is strange with Teddy. He has an imaginary friend named Anya and he draws some weird pictures that seem to tell a story. It seems to lead to a long rumored story about a death that took place in the house where Mallory now lives back in 1948. Mallory thinks there is a ghost that is taking over Timmy’s body to draw the pictures. The more Mallory investigates leads to a series of weird things happening, the truth about what happened all those years ago and a truly shocking twist that explains everything that has been happening, to say anymore would be spoilers. If you’re a fan of supernatural mysteries, this book is right up you alley. An intense story you don’t want to put down. The author includes the pictures that are being drawn, which helps the story out in a big way, as we’re able to see the pics as Mallory sees them. It really enhances the story and is a nice touch.

You can pick up Hidden Pictures in stores on Tuesday, May 10th from Flatiron books.

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Hidden Pictures, a review by Shelley

✏️✏️✏️ HIDDEN PICTURES Jason Rekulak

Flatiron Books Published May 10, 2022 384 pages Goodreads | Amazon

What would you do if the child you’re watching starts drawing pictures like this?

Well, that’s what the new nanny, Mallory, is dealing with when Teddy starts to draw pictures of his invisible friend, Anya. The beginning of this book was SO good. I was really enjoying the creep factor of a child possessed and communicating through sketching. I liked that the nanny, Mallory, had a dark past so it made it easy to brush her off. It was engrossing and the pages practically tuned themselves. The character development was phenomenal and the cover is amazing.

When I got to the 75-80 percent mark the book took a turn that I didn’t like. I will state that I did not see that twist coming BUT any babysitter worth their salt would have had that figured out on the first day, I mean Teddy is five for crying out loud! And the last scenes were just too unbelievable to make this enjoyable. I was too busy shaking my head and rolling my eyes to find that ending even a bit entertaining. I do not mind suspending belief but the author was asking for a little too much in my opinion.

Many people have given this book four and five stars so judge for yourself, it just might be a case of me not being the right person for the book. I would definitely give the author another go and have heard wonderful things about his debut novel The Impossible Fortress.

This book is now available for purchase.

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Searching for the Real ‘Anna O.’

As described by Gabriel Brownstein, the basis for one of Freud’s most famous cases posed as many questions as it answered.

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By Susannah Cahalan

Susannah Cahalan is the author of “The Great Pretender” and “Brain on Fire.”

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THE SECRET MIND OF BERTHA PAPPENHEIM: The Woman Who Invented Freud’s Talking Cure, by Gabriel Brownstein

Bertha Pappenheim stopped eating and sleeping. She lost her language and ability to move. Her eyes crossed and her muscles spasmed.

She suffered, her doctors said, from the prevailing diagnosis afflicting primarily well-to-do women in fin de siècle Vienna: hysteria.

What this meant was and is a source of debate: Did her facial paralysis emerge from a biological condition? Was her intermittent deafness psychological — or something more metaphysical?

Her physician, Josef Breuer, taken with the engaging and beautiful young woman, began visiting her daily. Sometimes Pappenheim made up fairy tales, sometimes she spoke of her hallucinations. Together they traced the source of her trauma to her father’s sickroom and with the repressed unearthed, Pappenheim began to improve.

There was catharsis in this exchange. Pappenheim herself described the process, which came to be known as “the talking cure,” as “chimney sweeping.”

More than a decade later, Sigmund Freud included Pappenheim’s story under the name “Fraulein Anna O.” — a case in “Studies On Hysteria.” Later, Freud added apocryphal details to the case, including a pseudo-pregnancy that illustrated his theory of transference. Embellishments aside, Anna O. — psychiatry’s most famous inconvenient woman — entered the annals of history as a success story that helped birth psychoanalysis.

The trouble is, as Gabriel Brownstein writes in his fascinating “The Secret Mind of Bertha Pappenheim,” it was all a lie. Pappenheim was not cured. She continued to suffer long after Breuer gave up her case and ended up in a sanitarium, subjected to untold horrors, and addicted to the drugs that Breuer had prescribed her.

Her true triumph came long after she quit analysis. She emerged from this crucible in middle age, reinvented herself as an advocate and philanthropist and never again spoke of her time under Breuer’s care. She advocated on behalf of Jewish girls exploited by the sex trade, and opened institutions to house and educate them.

But “The Secret Mind of Bertha Pappenheim” isn’t just about one woman — not entirely. This is a memoir nestled in an investigation, hidden inside a mythology. And it’s really about the limits of knowledge: not just about what we know about Pappenheim, but about medicine specifically and about nonfiction in general.

Fittingly, Brownstein’s interest in Pappenheim began with his father, Dr. Shale Brownstein, a respected psychiatrist and psychoanalyst with a longstanding grudge against Freud. The night before he died, Dr. Brownstein gave his son an essay he had written about Pappenheim. And despite Freud’s warnings about burdening ourselves with our parents’ desires, the father’s obsession became the son’s.

Brownstein could have written a much easier book than the one he did. I haven’t even mentioned his third layer: examining Pappenheim’s case through new research on the diagnosis of functional neurological disorder — the modern equivalent, he argues, of hysteria.

F.N.D. is a controversial diagnosis, despite being taken more seriously in recent years. This is not a rare condition; it is the second most common reason for outpatient neurology visits. Yet for some doctors it’s a scarlet letter, a signifier that the patient may be difficult or malingering.

Brownstein argues persuasively that F.N.D. is as “real” as the defect that necessitated open-heart surgery in his childhood, an experience he chronicled in his lovely “The Open Heart Club.”

Like hysteria, this diagnosis predominantly affects women; Brownstein profiles several. One loses her ability to walk; another shakes uncontrollably. Each seems to struggle with profound traumas — incest; years of grooming by a teacher; the horror of a mother who watched her baby get crushed under the wheels of a truck.

Tests are clean; there are no lesions. No M.R.I. scan can pinpoint the cause. But emerging studies show that F.N.D. seems to be a breakdown in the systems of the brain. “Brain networks have become tangled, messages are not getting through,” Brownstein writes.

Brownstein’s passages about F.N.D. are the book’s strongest. “In cases of F.N.D., the distinctions between ‘mind,’ ‘brain’ and ‘body’ seem imprecise,” he writes. “They have lost their ability to perform. They are violating the script the rest of us follow, a script that says consciousness is separate from the flesh.”

I feel it’s important — and so does he — to relay the context surrounding the “horrible three years” in which the author wrote this book. After his father died, Brownstein’s wife, Marcia, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He wrote the book in hospital hallways, in the moments between tending to their children.

When she died, he found himself writing the book for her. “Her death revealed my life as unstable, and her loss made the world seem unreal.” He related to the way the feminist literary critic Elaine Showalter defines hysteria as a “narrative incoherence.”

Of course, this incoherence is present within the book, too. We are left with so many questions: Did Pappenheim have F.N.D.? What would it mean if she did? Does the talking cure actually have a place in medicine?

Brownstein is allergic to answers. He likens himself to a “conscientious archaeologist” and leaves it to his readers to draw their conclusions based on the specimens he places before us.

“I do not claim to have solved any great mysteries here,” he writes, “to have discovered what Anna O. really suffered, or to be able to tell you what F.N.D. really is.”

As frustrating as this can feel to the reader, perhaps the impossibility is the point. Real life, after all, is rarely clear-cut.

THE SECRET MIND OF BERTHA PAPPENHEIM : The Woman Who Invented Freud’s Talking Cure | By Gabriel Brownstein | PublicAffairs | 326 pp. | $32

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Hidden Pictures Paperback – June 6, 2023

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NATIONAL BESTSELLER · OPTIONED FOR NETFLIX BY A PRODUCER OF THE BATMAN GOODREADS CHOICE AWARD WINNER “I loved it." ―Stephen King 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.

Print length 400 pages
Language English
Publication date June 6, 2023
Dimensions 5.35 x 1.15 x 8.25 inches
ISBN-10 1250819350
ISBN-13 978-1250819352
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Editorial Reviews

"It's almost enough to make a person believe in ghosts..." ― Kirkus Reviews "The explosive third act gives this story a nail-biting ending sure to thrill. Paranormal perfection ." ― Booklist “Beautiful, terrifying, and surprisingly kind.” ―CrimeReads "I read Hidden Pictures and loved it. The language is straightforward, the surprises really surprise, and it has that hard-to-achieve propulsiveness that won't let you put it down. And the pictures are terrific!" ― Stephen King “Whip-smart, creepy as hell, and masterfully plotted, Hidden Pictures is the best new thriller novel I’ve read in years. Destined to be a classic of the genre.” ―Ransom Riggs, bestselling author of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children “Hidden Pictures is one of those rare gems that’s aware of the rules of the genre even as it breaks them and invents new ones. It’s a gas to read, full of wonderful new ideas, both literary and visual. This is one of those books you leave out long after finishing, just so your friends might see it and give you the chance to share it! Jason Rekulak is going to be telling us all stories for a good long while.” ―Scott Frank, Academy Award-nominated screenwriter and Emmy-winning director of The Queen’s Gambit "For a few days, my life was completely hijacked by Jason Rekulak's Hidden Pictures , one of the best and most inventive ghost stories I've read in years. The damaged but still fighting Mallory Quinn stole my heart and her plunge into supernatural wonder gripped my imagination. It's a beautiful dark rush of a novel. I'm already excited to read it again." ―Joe Hill “ Hidden Pictures isn’t a ghost story, it’s a scalpel that slices into our smug sense of self-satisfaction so deeply it hits bone. A perfect summer thriller complete with vengeful spirits, class warfare, and it even has pictures. What more could you want?” ―Grady Hendrix, bestselling author of The Final Girl Support Group

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Product details.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Flatiron Books; First Edition (June 6, 2023)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 400 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1250819350
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1250819352
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.08 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.35 x 1.15 x 8.25 inches
#78 in Murder Thrillers
#106 in Domestic Thrillers (Books)
#355 in Suspense Thrillers

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About the author

Jason rekulak.

Jason Rekulak is the author of HIDDEN PICTURES, THE IMPOSSIBLE FORTRESS, and (coming in October 2024!) THE LAST ONE AT THE WEDDING. His work has been translated into 30+ languages. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife and children.

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IMAGES

Hidden Pictures: A Novel, Book by Jason Rekulak (Paperback)
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Hidden Pictures Book 4 (Series 6)
Hidden Pictures 2003
Amazon.com: Hidden Pictures: A Novel eBook : Rekulak, Jason: Books
Jumbo Book Of Hidden Pictures 10/15/2017 (paperback)

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COMMENTS

Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak
Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak. On track for a university athletic scholarship her senior year in high school, Mallory had a golden life ahead of her. But a tragedy stopped her in her tracks and the injuries led to an addiction to OxyContin and more. Now eighteen months clean, Mallory is ready for her next rehab step, a live in babysitting ...
HIDDEN PICTURES
Given the lack of empathy in Claire's narration, most of the characters come across as not very likable, and the reader tires of her sneering contempt. Squeamish readers will find this isn't their cup of tea. Share your opinion of this book. A disturbing household secret has far-reaching consequences in this dark, unusual ghost story.
Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Hidden Pictures: A Novel
Hidden Pictures is a thrilling and intelligent horror novel. It's a well-crafted novel that demonstrates Jason Rekulak's mastery of storytelling, pacing, and character development. The supernatural elements of the book are well-conceived and deliberately shaped to compel the reader's interest.
Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak
Hidden Pictures was a fun and entertaining horror. Creepy, but not too creepy. Weird, but not too out there. Great to kill a couple of lazy evenings. And if that's what you are looking for, Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak is a great option. Tags: 5 Star Books Horror My Favorites Mystery Paranormal Thriller.
REVIEW: Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak
Jayne B+ Reviews / Book Reviews addict / Contemporary / Dark / Drugs / dysfunctional family / First-Person / horror elements / murder mystery / nanny / New-Jersey / Paranormal / present tense / Young-Adult 6 Comments. 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 ...
Is "Hidden Pictures" the Best Horror Novel of 2022?
However, when I noticed it'd won the 2022 Goodreads Choice Award in Best Horror, I set aside my assumptions about the seemingly derivative premise and bought a copy, hoping it'd impress me ...
Book Review: 'Hidden Pictures' by Jason Rekulak
I truly think that horror-thriller 'Hidden Pictures' by Jason Rekulak, the Edgar-nominated author of 'The Impossible Fortress,' is one of those twisty novels that is best read with as little beforehand knowledge about the ins and outs of the story as possible. It's entertaining and engaging as hell, with Rekulak deftly moving the story along ...
Book Review of HIDDEN PICTURES
Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak (with illustrations by Doogie Horner and Will Staehleill) is now available from Flatiron Books. Although I received a complimentary advance copy of this book, all opinions expressed in this review are my own, and I was not compensated in any way for this review or for any other promotion/publicity I've done ...
Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Hidden Pictures: A Novel
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Hidden Pictures: ... Hidden Pictures: A Novel › Customer reviews; Customer reviews. 4.5 out of 5 stars. 4.5 out of 5. 18,236 global ratings. 5 star 60% ... Book reviews & recommendations: IMDb Movies, TV & Celebrities: IMDbPro
Book Review: Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak
Review: Intense, eerie, and dark! Hidden Pictures is a haunting, character-driven thriller that takes you into the life of recovering addict Mallory Quinn who, after recently being hired to nanny the delightful five-year-old Teddy, whose love for drawing and his imaginative friend Anya become creepier day by day, discovers quickly that something isn't right in this seemingly perfect home of ...
Amazon.com: Hidden Pictures: A Novel: 9781250819345: Rekulak, Jason: Books
Hidden Pictures: A Novel. Hardcover - May 10, 2022. "I loved it." ―Stephen King. 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.
Hidden Pictures Review: A Riveting Supernatural Thriller
Hidden Pictures is a thrilling and intelligent horror novel. It's a well-crafted novel that demonstrates Jason Rekulak's mastery of storytelling, pacing, and character development. The supernatural elements of the book are well-conceived and deliberately shaped to compel the reader's interest. And that ending…damn!
Book Review: Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak (Illustrated by Doogie
And it's really disappointing, because Hidden Pictures started off as a really good horror. I mean, it was literally Goodreads Reader's Choice for Horror for 2022 . 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.
Hidden Pictures
It is exceedingly difficult to review this book without heading feet first into spoiler territory, so I am going to keep the summary of the plot both brief and vague. The first great strength of Hidden Pictures is the first-person narrative of the main character Mallory, a young woman in early recovery (18 months) from drug addiction. As a ...
HIDDEN PICTURES by Jason Rekulak
Published by Flatiron Books on May 10 2022. Genres: Adult, Horror, Thriller. Pages: 384. Format: ARC. Source: Publisher. Buy on Amazon. Goodreads. 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 ...
Hidden Pictures: A Novel by Jason Rekulak, Paperback
02/14/2022. Rekulak (The Impossible Fortress) uses horror as a lens to bring the dark underbelly of suburbia into focus in this gripping supernatural thriller.Narrator Mallory Quinn is a 21-year-old recovering addict getting a second chance as a live-in nanny to five-year-old Teddy Maxwell, a sweet-natured young artist whose wonderfully creepy pictures appear throughout the novel.
Book Review: 'Hidden Pictures: A Novel' By Jason Rekulak
An intense story you don't want to put down. The author includes the pictures that are being drawn, which helps the story out in a big way, as we're able to see the pics as Mallory sees them. It really enhances the story and is a nice touch. You can pick up Hidden Pictures in stores on Tuesday, May 10th from Flatiron books.
Hidden Pictures, a review by Shelley
The beginning of this book was SO good. I was really enjoying the creep factor of a child possessed and communicating through sketching. I liked that the nanny, Mallory, had a dark past so it made it easy to brush her off. It was engrossing and the pages practically tuned themselves. The character development was phenomenal and the cover is ...
Hidden Pictures: 'The boldest double twist of the year' The Times
Hidden Pictures is a thrilling and intelligent horror novel. It's a well-crafted novel that demonstrates Jason Rekulak's mastery of storytelling, pacing, and character development. The supernatural elements of the book are well-conceived and deliberately shaped to compel the reader's interest.
HIDDEN PICTURES: A Novel by Johanna Flynn
Gordon Carlson's Chicagoland neighbors know a sweet old man with a green thumb and a big heart. His pain and shame live in the hidden, ragged corners of his self-imposed solitude. One morning in 1996 begins like no other. A whirlwind of despair, desperation, and deceit forces him from the comfort of his lonely routine.
Book Review: 'The Secret Mind of Bertha Pappenheim,' by Gabriel
One loses her ability to walk; another shakes uncontrollably. Each seems to struggle with profound traumas — incest; years of grooming by a teacher; the horror of a mother who watched her baby ...
Amazon.com: Hidden Pictures: A Novel eBook : Rekulak, Jason: Books
An Amazon Best Book of May 2022: Rekulak runs his fingers down your spine with a pulse-pounding thriller, steeped in the supernatural and fueled by alarming twists. In Hidden Pictures, Mallory Quinn is an ex-drug addict with a chance at redemption working as a nanny for the Maxwell's, a seemingly perfect family living in an idyllic neighborhood.But when her sweet five-year-old charge begins ...
Amazon.com: Hidden Pictures: 9781250819352: Rekulak, Jason: Books
Hidden Pictures. Paperback - June 6, 2023. "I loved it." ―Stephen King. 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.

HIDDEN PICTURES

YOU'D LOOK BETTER AS A GHOST

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Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak – Book Review

Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak – Book Details

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Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak – My Review

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REVIEW: Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak

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