Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak

112 reviews

ejsimpson's review

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Gaslighting, Drug use, Drug abuse, Addiction, and Grief

Moderate: Pregnancy, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Sexual harassment, Infertility, and Infidelity

Minor: Alcohol, Classism, Car accident, and Blood

orizenda's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I feel like there was potential here but the end just went off the rails for me

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Addiction, Murder, Racism, and Sexual harassment

kst's review

dark mysterious

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

I really enjoyed this book up until the big twist. I’d love to recommend the book to others, but the ending,

in the vein of the film Sleepaway Camp (1983)

, was just a bizarre and offensive choice for a book that was written/published in the 2020s. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Kidnapping, Murder, Transphobia, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Addiction, Infertility, and Grief

sarah_j90's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

5.0

I absolutely loved this book!! It's about a recovering addict Mallory who goes to work as a live in nanny for a little boy called teddy. Teddy loves to drawer but then his pictures start to take abit of a weird turn and Mallory starts suspecting it's not actually teddy drawing them after all. Add to this an 'imaginary friend' called Anya that tells teddy what to drawer and sleeps under his bed singing strange songs, a cottage that is still the centre of ghost stories from an incident that happened years and years ago and a very eccentric next door neighbour who claims to speak to spirits but only whilst high and this book is just incredible. It's got a nice little romance that runs through it and the character development is so good, and then the twist at the end ... No way I saw that coming!!! Plus the really great thing about it is the pictures are shown throughout the book so you don't need to imagine what they would look like you can witness them as the characters do. This is a real contender for my book of the year!!! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Gaslighting, Grief, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Kidnapping, and Violence

Minor: Child death

stephi's review

dark medium-paced

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

4.25

I especially liked the illustrations. I haven't read many books like this. I was bored midway through,but the end was great. Looking back, I realized I truly enjoyed reading this book

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction and Gaslighting

Minor: Infertility

aas's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Car accident, Gore, Kidnapping, Murder, Violence, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Drug abuse, Drug use, Death of parent, Grief, Infertility, and Infidelity

killmoore_'s review

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Ugh, this was so much fun.

The illustrations helped move this book right along - a few startled the hell out of me. 

A twisty turny plot that I -thought- I had figured out, and even though I was close, the delivery and total brutality still blindsided me.

A phenomenal, entertaining, super spooky haunting story that I already wish I could read again for the first time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Addiction, Child death, Infertility, Car accident, Mental illness, Gaslighting, Death, Kidnapping, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Gore, Grief, Murder, and Stalking

3readingcircus's review against another edition

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Addiction, and Drug use

Moderate: Gaslighting and Infertility

Minor: Sexual harassment and Racism

ktame001's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Gun violence, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Kidnapping

Minor: Fatphobia

voidcrawler's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

0.5

littered with right wing propaganda, primarily in the form of transphobia. sprinkle in some casual fatphobia, racism, and religious bigotry, and you have this book.

i’m now convinced booktok, especially the horror side of it, either don’t read the books they promote or they severely lack reading comprehension skills. everyone’s more obsessed with how “wOw fUcKed uP!!! 🥴” something is in terms of gore and jump-scares over the actual problematic shit in this book. bonkers, really, since so many horrortok creators are left-leaning and lgbtq+.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Addiction, Death, Death of parent, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Grief, Kidnapping, Racism, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual harassment, and Transphobia