A review by monstersinspace
Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak

dark mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

1.0

For the first half of this book I was bored and found Malory fairly annoying. The constant commenting on other people's weight and life style was completely unnecessary and real judgmental coming from someone who used to do heroin. Like we get it, you found jesus and started running again, do we really need several pages discussing the calories in the lunch you are eating. Also, if you're going to have a character lie all the time stop having them talk about how much they hate lying. It was so annoying for Malory to keep going on and on about how guilty she felt and how perfect the timing was to not lie but then keep doing it. Another thing that annoyed me was the SUPER Christian overtones, the family was evil because the kidnapped a kid not cause they didn't believe in god I even had to Google the author in the middle to figure out if I had accidentally borrowed a Christian novel. The whole part of the husband being in love with Malory and wanting them to run away made no sense because I felt like he was barely in the book. Two awkward interactions don't really lead to a lets runway together moment and having him watch her sleep just seems like a cop out. The ghost being a different ghost was kind of a cool point and I feel like the clues worked well to lead to both conclusion. keeping Teddy as a boy even after they left upstate New York and no one was suspicious was just weird and  unnecessary, and that coupled with the constant reference to JK rowling makes me a little more then suspicious of the author's intentions.  </Spoiler>

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