I spotted this quite by chance, but given the spooky season is upon us, I added it to my library requests and got my hands on it yesterday. Then I read it in a few hours. Jason Rekulak’s Hidden Pictures is the perfect read in the lead up to Halloween. With the creepy pictures, strange happenings, local ghost story, and an unreliable narrator (or is she?), there is more than enough to keep you hooked, immersed, and eager for answers.

Fresh out of rehab, Mallory Quinn 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.

I appreciate the addition of other mediums of storytelling within novel, like picture, drawings, notes, diary entries, and so forth. Hidden Pictures has, of course, pictures, and they really make the reading experience so fun. Several times I found myself grinning at these picture, having turned the page and found a startling image staring back at me. The effect of these pictures is fundamental to the novel’s plot, and they are exciting to come across amid the tense prose. Not only that, but it makes the novel stand out, giving something extra to the reading experience while setting itself apart from others in the same sub-genre.

This story is fantastic; with so many elements and characters of interest, managing it all requires a great deal of skill. Keeping things intriguing and the reader on the edge of their seat is integral to this horror thriller, and Jason Rekulak achieves that easily. The atmosphere is tense and the pacing quick, the characters all have something going on and things just don’t add up. It really adds credit to the feeling of our protagonist being unreliable, even making her question what she’s doing. Every character felt well-established, well-rounded, and significant to the unfolding horror. Moreover, the way these characters interact with each other feels authentic and real, especially in Teddy’s case. Getting the right feel for how a young child acts around strangers is essential to making sure they they are a believable fully fleshed out character

I had such a great time reading Hidden Pictures, and it has been one of my top reads over the last few months. Fans of thriller, crime thriller, horror, thriller suspense, and paranormal thrillers will eat Hidden Pictures up. I’m handing it off to my mum to read, so we’ll see what the casual reader verdict is in a few days.