A review by lilmooniex
Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

Spoiler filled review/book summary

The story follows a person named Mallory Quinn who volunteered in a research clinic to get paid in amazon gift cards. They realized they weren't getting prescreened to participate and sniffs/ takes perc 40. The clinic experiment was to feel the male gaze while blindfolded she was the first person during all 3 rounds to actually guess with a 97% accuracy. She claimed it to be a spidey sense of hers and she could almost feel as it happened. The lady said she would get in touch but Mallory sold her phone later that night for oxy 80's. After getting clean she has many regrets and wonders what would have happened, she was never able to find any info on the lady at the college that focused on perception. Now she wonders if it was a hallucination from constant drug abuse. Russel is Mallory's sponsor he keeps her on track and does not believe that there was an actual clinic experiment she was part of. Mallory pulls up to Caroline's house where she is meant to babysit her child, Teddy. The child heard her clicking the doorbell and knew she was there even though it was currently broken. Teddy has a weird imaginary friend named Anya that he tends to draw. He says she sleeps under his bed where he hears her singing. It was difficult for her to get the job at first due to Caroline's husband , Ted or Mr. Maxwell, is being skeptical about hiring a prior drug addict. But with perseverance and making an impact on Teddy, Mallory got the job as a live in nanny. Caroline gave Mallory a stungun attachment to add to her key ring for self defense - foreshadowing ? Mallory gives up meetings after staying with the Maxwells feeling comfortable in her sobriety. Uh oh accident waiting to happen. She overhears Teddy to Anya again in secret and the photos he draws because of her becomes more vulgar. The next one is a woman being dragged by the ankles and Anya said it was not for Teddy's parents, that one was for Mallory. Teddy tells Mallory that the man Anya was with buried her in a hole and showed her the picture Anya instructed him to make.  Mallory heads over to the neighbor Mitzi's house and hears a bunch of conspiracies from the nutcase but she also tells her about children being able to channel spirits. She shows her the photos that Teddy is drawing and Mitzi offers to do a seance. Teddy drew another picture of Anya getting choked out. Mallory confronts Teddy's parents about the weird drawings he's been making and Caroline basically gets upset and tells her to mind her business and Ted basically agrees, telling her to leave all the worrying about him to Caroline that he was their miracle baby. Mallory was told by Teddy that Caroline told him not to show any more photos that photos could throw Mallory back over the edge of addiction. Lowkey Caroline is two faced, making up with her the next day and telling Teddy something different. Teddy hides his drawings in the trash and they have progressed to more realistic, Mallory reaches out to Adrian and he is seeking a picture of Annie Barrett to see if that is what Teddy is drawing. Mallory realizes that Teddy's drawings are getting more and more realistic and less like a 6-7 year old child, it is almost professional quality of the same drawing of a woman dragged and being tossed into a hole that a man had dug. Teddy denies drawing the new pictures. Caroline told Russell her sponser that she was worried about Mallory and saw her digging in the trash (she didn't know she was looking for the missing drawings Teddy threw away) Mallory took a voluntary drug test for her parole officer, it came up squeaky clean proving she is not currently using. The drawings keep appearing in Mallory's personal space when she isn't home and she still has no clue how it ended up there. Mallory sets up a camera to finally catch Teddy drawing during quiet time and there is a lot of weird time skips even though it is in real time and freezing before Teddy convulses on his bed. She finds out that Teddy is basically possessed and Anya uses his body to draw these elaborate photos and disposes of it before he can ever find it but she interrupted the process before it was complete, causing Teddy to actually see what happened and what he drew. Teddy is also a lefty but his elaborate drawings are made with his right hand. Mallory fell asleep leaving Teddy unattended for 4 hours, he played video games on an ipad in that span of time and she ended up drawing on the walls in place of Teddy when there was no paper available. Her fingers dark with Charcoal so Caroline and Ted finally have enough and say it's time for them to explore new opportunities and that they do not trust their son with her any longer. Ted and Caroline are kind've jerks from my perspective through Mallory's eyes but I understand seeing my walls all written up with weird shit. She was force drug tested and she passed of course which pissed me off all that just for her to fire her after watching her tinkle. She can sue them both for sexual assault as far as I'm concerned. Adrian gives Mallory time to explain everything in regards to her past drug use and abuse. She explains it all began when she was ordered to take her kid sister to an event with her friend, Mallory was so wrapped up in her phone since she couldn't make her track meet because she had injured herself, she wanted updates on who finished from her friend and ended up speeding up and ending up in the hospital. Mallory leaned on Oxy from all the broken bones and issues she had experienced after the car accident, becoming addicted. She leaned on asking her classmates for drugs in their parents cabinets then buying from a real dealer til it got too expensive, then she went with heroin. It was cheaper and felt almost the same. Adrian ends up believing her when he found a photo in his own home, realizing it was no way possible for her to drop it there. After visiting Mitzi's house to get the note they did from the seance, Adrian and Mallory find that Mitzi had passed away and police are at her home. They said she was found in the woods in her nightgown. They decode the note from Misty and it is a hungarian message from Anya, "saying to beware thief help flower." They align all the photos she drew through Teddy and herself, realizing that Anya's daughter was taken and Anya had been buried alive in a deep hole. Apparently Mallory figured out Teddy was actually a girl after the day of swimming and that he was the child that had been kidnapped, and Ted was basically pleasing with Mallory to leave well enough alone but she wouldn't. She kept pushing and Ted ended up cracking her over the head, locking her in the shed with her hands tied behind her back. Caroline was had heroin she had gotten from Mitzi that had to be mixed with fentanyl that caused her to overdose, Caroline is planning on forcefully injecting her and getting rid of her problem once and for all. Teddy's real mom's name was Margit and his real name is Flora. She was Hungarian. Caroline told her she was a bad mother by showing her but ultimately was happy to use the rabbit as a diversion because her mom had been ignoring her for hours at a time painting and had come up with a routine to sit outside with Flora on the blanket as she worked. After Caroline walked away with Flora for a walk to give her attention and was going to head back at some point she was caught and hit Margit in the head, she had a seizure. Mitzi never messed with drugs Caroline wanted to get rid of her after the spirit board kept guiding Mitzi to them. Caroline injects Mallory with Heroin mized with fent and she wakes up later thinking she was dead, Ted is untying her and basically professing his love. Misconstruing their relationship and thinking they could run away together. He claimed he replaced the heroin with baby powder. Caroline hears them running away together and shoots Ted multiple times through the shoulder and chest and while dying helps Mallory escape. Mallory makes a run for it, taking Teddy out of his bed in the process to help him escape and meanwhile Caroline is chasing them both through the woods with a gun. Teddy had conflicting thoughts but Margit (Teddy's real mom through possession) did not. Margit (Teddy) stabbed Caroline repeatedly in the throat with a spear arrow. Mallory took the blame for everything that happened while wading in the water with Teddy to wake him up from the trance. The book ends with a flash forward Teddy is now living with her father and decides to go by her birth name Flora. She may experience gender identity issues throughout her life because of Caroline's kidnapping and forcing her to become a gender she isn't. Flora is living with her father who is farm life through and through, it's definitely an adaptation from the previous life she had. She differentiates Teddy and herself differently. Mallory's mom reaches out to her after she saw everything on the news with Caroline being stabbed and her being a hero basically because it all seemed like self defense in her case as Mallory did not speak about the supernatural portions of the events and Teddy surely doesn't remember due to the possessions. They are finally in touch again (this part doesn't sit well with me after her mother cut her off completely now after everything she's searching for her daughter? Nope! But I guess that's maternal love. ) Her mom tells her that the lady from the experiment had been trying to reach out for years to give her the results and updates, Mallory didn't care at that point in her life and didn't want to be found. Mallory later tried to visit and it was extremely awkward and she realized she has no place in Flora's new life and reminded her of bad memories, she drew one last photo of Mallory and Flora together before hugging Mallory before she left and that was the end of the book. Adrian and Mallory are still a thing and Caroline and Ted are dead.

 

• This book was definitely different! Not my favorite read of the year but I'm still glad I read it. I love the illustrations it really adds to the book and makes it super unique. Wasn't the most exciting or shocking book but I still enjoyed the ride.  Would recommend to someone if they were interested in a quick, fun, and easy to read thriller. The characters aren't really that loveable or memorable though.