Reviews with content warning for Racism - Hidden Pictures: A Novel

Adding to my review a year in hindsight and after much discussion with my bookclub. This was such a fun read but the ending is so transphobic is undoes all of the stuff before it. A shame the author also like to shout out JK Rowling. A good premise that is let down by the ending.

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honeywine's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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sydoodle's review against another edition

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challenging dark hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

4.75

I did guess the twists, but they were still CRAZY like this book went hard. So good

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katelynprice's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

I could not stop reading this book and made my husband stay up late with me so I could finish it. 😂 The pacing was well done, and I actually got chills in a few different scenes. There are a few details that keep me from giving it a full 5 stars, but overall it was a fun and wild ride.

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sophieamreacher's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Wow what an intricate creepy book. Did not expect the plot twists at all and I love when I can look back and see the little clues. Really really good. The illustrations just added so much to it and made it feel real.

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jasreads__'s review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Tw: Substance addiction, recovery, kidnapping of a child (in some extent: Fatphobia, Racism & Transphobia)

Summary:
Mallory Quinn is a recovering addict who's looking for steadiness in her life after getting out of rehab. She takes a job of babysitter for the summer with The Maxwells: Caroline, Ted and their 5 year old son Teddy.

Finally getting that stability she's hoped for, great job, her own place to stay, income and getting her passion for running again.. But things start to go wrong shortly after bonding with Teddy who loves to draw her pictures and tell her about his mystery friend Anya. The pictures become darker and darker with a man, a forest and a woman being harmed.

The problem is Mallory is a recovering addict, so she has to figure this out on her own without raising too much attention to what she's doing.

Thoughts:
I understand peoples concerns with fatphobia, racism and transphobia and all other controversy but I think it's all based on the reader and how they want to react to it. As a queer person I didn't find harm in Spoilerlearning that Teddy was a girl and it was hidden. I know there's questions regarding what was the end goal for the parents but I think the parents didn't even know themselves what they were going to do! They just wanted a child of their 'own'. I don't think it was transphobic, it was just them trying to literally try and hide the fact they out of random had a 2 year old child and it was a girl - they needed to cover what they did even if it wasn't a masterfully crafted plan. I could go on as to why I disagree with some people but I want to leave that up to the reader. Our actual living world still isn't perfect and it needs to be worked on more yes, but I also believe we need to stop taking everything too intentional or too direct because again, as a queer person I'm not hurt by this book.

I enjoyed this book and read it within a day and stayed up much later just to finish this book. This story was sweet at times, whenever Teddy would burst into laughter I just could hear it in my head the sweet innocence of a young child. I did expect more spook to it as everyone claimed there would be some, but I found I wasn't really scared or spooked just intrigued to learn the story. I'm glad the story ended on a much happier note. Teddy Spoiler (Flora), Margite and József deserved a happier ending.

⤍ What I liked: The pictures were such a nice touch to the story, being able to see what was being drawn you were able to actually picture the shock on Mallory's face when you saw them because I was even shocked looking at them. I enjoyed the play on the recovering drug addict because although some people see it as unrealistic, it unfortunately is realistic for some.

⤍ What I disliked: While I did enjoy the addict part, I also found it weighed a bit too heavy on the book and that's why it only get's 4.5 stars for me. I also found it more mystery based than horror or thriller.

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czoltak's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I’m so torn over how to feel on this one, there were parts I liked but also a lot I didn’t care for.

What worked for me:

The actual drawings being included into the story
The representation of drug addiction recovery and its challenges
The originality of the overall story and its premise
The ease of readability (this was hard to put down as it was so fast paced and kept you wanting to know what was next)

What didn’t work for me:

While the plot twist was unpredictable and well developed, there were aspects of it that just didn’t sit right with me
Mallory not always taking her babysitting job seriously (napping while watching Teddy, leaving him with someone else, etc.)
The experimental study on gaze detection storyline that we never came back to (it was interesting but ultimately felt pointless as there was no follow up)
Unnecessary racism sprinkled into the story
Ted’s dynamic towards Mallory (especially towards the end)

Overall, I can see why so many people enjoy this and even why it won the Goodreads category for horror as it is very original, fast paced, and includes an intriguing mixed media element. However, there are definitely significant flaws with the story which is why I can see why people also really don’t like this and why it won’t work for everyone. I definitely wouldn’t recommend this wildly but it for sure has an audience. I’d be open to reading more from this author in the future.

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tallhousecookies's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

this book was like if a fox news anchor wrote a thriller. liberal atheists are the antagonists, transphobia abound.

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