Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak

50 reviews

lakinlindsey's review

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Kidnapping, Car accident, Gaslighting, Drug use, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual harassment

Minor: Infertility

venusmage's review

medium-paced

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

2.5

It’s a dull ghost story through 4/5ths of its length, then has a “shocking” twist that feels both out of left field and half-assed.  With how silly the story here is, I wish the book leaned into the camp. Instead it takes itself seriously despite lacking atmosphere, scares, or complexity. There’s some good ideas - like the classism critiques and the entitlement of certain parenting styles - but ultimately doesn’t do anything with it. Instead it falls back on cliche and arguably sexist tropes that this author does not have the skill to pull off. A decently interesting setup and main character feels wasted here. 

An additional nitpick is regarding the book’s art. This is coming from someone with a degree in the fine arts, so this may not bother the average reader, but it’s still worth mentioning. A big gimmick with this book is that it features many illustrations at the heart of the story’s mystery. Some childlike, others more mature and artistic. I think the childlike drawings serve their purpose fine enough while also being a little forgettable. The “better” drawings, though, took me out of the book’s world several times. In the book’s afterward the author interviewed the two artists. The more complex drawings are supposed to evoke a mixed media collage kind of feel - almost abstract (they specifically reference the astoundingly talented illustrator Dave McKean as inspiration) -  but ultimately they look like amateur photoshop paint overs. They come off cheap and rushed rather than having an intentional artistic direction. From what little I read it seems the second artist is usually more of a designer and cover artist than an illustrator, and it unfortunately showed through here. His work on the cover looks great, but the interior art was so low quality I first mistook it as being done by a non-professional. 

In the end, I’m sad to say the additional art in the book is a fun idea that really doesn’t add anything. The story isn’t enough to make the pictures feel like anything more than padding. I almost wonder if it would’ve been better if the author was forced to describe the artwork instead of showing it, to let the audience conjure something in their minds; but the book doesn’t have a lot of descriptive language that stands out enough for me to believe it would have worked, either.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Drug abuse, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Classism, Sexism, Violence, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Racism

youthofpandas's review

dark mysterious fast-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

2.5

Didn't enjoy it much until about 2/3rds in, thought the characters were weak and the mystery didn't hook me, but then things finally started happening. While I didn't think it was the most gripping plot nor did I feel rewarded for thinking about the clues brought up, it was more interesting than the first half. The writing style isn't anything complex but it is easy to read, like a bad low grade horror movie you can eat popcorn to and turn your brain off for a while.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Addiction, Violence, Drug abuse, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Drug use, Car accident, Death of parent, and Kidnapping

Minor: Police brutality, Racism, and Infertility

annahamburger's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Car accident, Drug use, Grief, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Drug abuse, and Classism

Minor: Confinement, Dysphoria, Infertility, Transphobia, Sexual content, Religious bigotry, Alcohol, Cursing, Dementia, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Blood, and Infidelity

its_kievan's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

1.5

It just isn’t a very scary book, and the lacklustre central mystery  isn’t enough to make up for it. It seems like a lot of modern horror books - Hidden Pictures, Mister Magic, The Hollow Places - all follow the same pattern of one-dimensional characters fumbling their way through shoestring plots, littered with (and maybe this is just a me thing) endless brand name dropping. Dear writers, you do not need to specify that a character has a The LEGO Movie(TM) poster on his wall. You can just say poster. I promise it will make your prose better. Maybe I’m being a bit harsh on Jason Rekulak here; it might just be because I was really hoping for something better. Then again, he did write a book where the twist is that

a rich liberal family kidnapped a child and forcibly changed their gender

so maybe I’m being too kind. Also the pictures were kinda shit. Anyway, don’t bother with this book. Go read The Only Good Indians instead.

EDIT: After reading some reviews on Goodreads (yes, boo Amazon, but StoryGraph doesn’t let me sort by popularity) it’s looking more and more like the transphobic undertones were on purpose. So I’m happy to announce that not only is this a poorly-written book, it’s also a bigoted one. Good stuff.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual harassment

Minor: Rape

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

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

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

alisonfaith426's review against another edition

mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body shaming, Addiction, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Racism, and Transphobia

Moderate: Alcohol, Classism, Cursing, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Dementia