Twists and turns and great writing. Keeps you guessing to the end. Likable characters that keep you deeply invested for all 300+ pages
Hidden Pictures: A Novel
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars | 72,181 ratings
Price: 17.71
Last update: 02-01-2025
About this item
2022 Goodreads Choice Awards, Winner
2022 Amazon.com Best Books of the Year, Long-listed
2022 Barnes and Noble Best New Books of the Year, Long-listed
2022 Chapters Indigo Best of the Year, Long-listed
“I loved it."—Stephen King
From Jason Rekulak, Edgar-nominated author of The Impossible Fortress, comes a wildly inventive spin on the classic horror story in Hidden Pictures, a supernatural thriller about a woman working as a nanny for a young boy with strange and disturbing secrets.
Fresh out of rehab, Mallory Quinn takes a job as a babysitter for Ted and Caroline Maxwell. She is to look after their five-year-old son, Teddy.
Mallory immediately loves it. She has her own living space, goes out for nightly runs, and has the stability she craves. And she sincerely bonds with Teddy, a sweet, shy boy who is never without his sketchbook and pencil. His drawings are the usual fare: trees, rabbits, balloons. But one day, he draws something different: a man in a forest, dragging a woman’s lifeless body.
Then, Teddy’s artwork becomes increasingly sinister, and his stick figures quickly evolve into lifelike sketches well beyond the ability of any five-year-old. Mallory begins to wonder if these are glimpses of a long-unsolved murder, perhaps relayed by a supernatural force.
Knowing just how crazy it all sounds, Mallory nevertheless sets out to decipher the images and save Teddy before it’s too late.
A Macmillan Audio production from Flatiron Books.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
Top reviews from the United States
Kindle Customer5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing!
Alissa Brianne4.0 out of 5 stars 4 ⭐️ for this twisty thriller!
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ I loved this book!
As a full-time working mom x2 with very little free time, I don’t have a lot of time to spend reading. However, I somehow managed to read this book in a little over 24 hours. I stayed up way past my bedtime to finish this book because I NEEDED to know how it was going to end! Props to the author for his intriguing writing style. I was pulled in right from the beginning.
Hidden Pictures follows Mallory, a recovering addict who is trying to secure employment to help her move beyond the halfway house she is currently living in. Her sponsor, Russell, sets her up with a live-in babysitting job for Carol & Ted. Carol works at the VA as a psychiatrist while Ted’s career isn’t revealed until much later in the story. They need a live-in babysitter for their 5 year old son, Teddy, before he begins kindergarten after the summer. Mallory & Teddy get along really well right from the beginning! They spend the summer having a lot of fun. As the story progresses, Teddy begins drawing pictures that are a little concerning. The pictures lead Mallory on a hunt for more information about an unsolved murder that occurred in the same house. The actual pictures included in the novel really added context to what Mallory was seeing.
Mallory’s backstory was both heartbreaking and eye-opening. Her addiction began like so many others’ has and it took her life on a downward spiral before she was able to pull herself out of it. The author did a great job of describing addiction and the hold it has on the addict’s life. I was rooting for Mallory from the beginning. It was easy to connect with her and want her to have a happy ending.
Mallory spends most of the book trying to decipher what Teddy’s pictures mean. What she finds out was not expected by anyone, least of all, me. I did not see that coming at all! It really caught me off guard and I had to pick my jaw up off the floor. Overall, Hidden Pictures was so very well written. The twists, mystery and paranormal components of the story made this one of the quickest reads for me in a long time. I can see why it was bestseller. I will definitely keep an eye out for more from Jason Rekulak!
As a full-time working mom x2 with very little free time, I don’t have a lot of time to spend reading. However, I somehow managed to read this book in a little over 24 hours. I stayed up way past my bedtime to finish this book because I NEEDED to know how it was going to end! Props to the author for his intriguing writing style. I was pulled in right from the beginning.
Hidden Pictures follows Mallory, a recovering addict who is trying to secure employment to help her move beyond the halfway house she is currently living in. Her sponsor, Russell, sets her up with a live-in babysitting job for Carol & Ted. Carol works at the VA as a psychiatrist while Ted’s career isn’t revealed until much later in the story. They need a live-in babysitter for their 5 year old son, Teddy, before he begins kindergarten after the summer. Mallory & Teddy get along really well right from the beginning! They spend the summer having a lot of fun. As the story progresses, Teddy begins drawing pictures that are a little concerning. The pictures lead Mallory on a hunt for more information about an unsolved murder that occurred in the same house. The actual pictures included in the novel really added context to what Mallory was seeing.
Mallory’s backstory was both heartbreaking and eye-opening. Her addiction began like so many others’ has and it took her life on a downward spiral before she was able to pull herself out of it. The author did a great job of describing addiction and the hold it has on the addict’s life. I was rooting for Mallory from the beginning. It was easy to connect with her and want her to have a happy ending.
Mallory spends most of the book trying to decipher what Teddy’s pictures mean. What she finds out was not expected by anyone, least of all, me. I did not see that coming at all! It really caught me off guard and I had to pick my jaw up off the floor. Overall, Hidden Pictures was so very well written. The twists, mystery and paranormal components of the story made this one of the quickest reads for me in a long time. I can see why it was bestseller. I will definitely keep an eye out for more from Jason Rekulak!
Carter Benton5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best thrillers out there
This was the first ever thriller book I have ever read, and it happens to be one of the best books I have ever read in my life. I have never once stayed up to finish a book but this one I may have stayed up until three in the morning to get it done because I could not keep my jaw off the floor when reading this!
Each page is something remarkable and I cannot be more impressed how the book has the actual drawings being discussed within the pages of the book! It just adds so much to the story and really sets the scene and helps the reader engage easier!
Looking forward to more thrillers from Jason!
Each page is something remarkable and I cannot be more impressed how the book has the actual drawings being discussed within the pages of the book! It just adds so much to the story and really sets the scene and helps the reader engage easier!
Looking forward to more thrillers from Jason!
Terry5.0 out of 5 stars What a Book!
Mallory was a runner in high school, the sixth fastest runner in her age group in her state. Her future looked bright. She had a full ride scholarship to a highly rated university until she suffers a common but painful injury and is given pain pills. She is injured again, and this time the pills aren't enough. She is introduced to much harder drugs, and soon is an addict. After a cab driver revives her when she eventually overdoses, Mallory fights hard to regain her sobriety.
Now 21, Mallory is due to leave the sober house where she has lived while transitioning from active addict to an addict who is 20 months sober. But she has nowhere to go: her mother has washed her hands of Mallory due to her addiction; as have all her friends.
Seeing her dilemma, her sponsor and new running coach, recommends her for a position as a nanny for a young child before the child starts kindergarten in the fall. She gets the job and her future looks promising.
Mallory is the kind of babysitter I would have wanted for my kids, even with her past as a drug addict. Her addiction history is buried deep in the book, and explains why her recovery coach was willing to recommend her for the job. My heart broke for her. It isn't the last time it was broken reading the book.
As she starts her new job, where her new employer is fully aware of her addiction and hard won recovery, Mallory falls in love with her new charge. As she and the child bond, Mallory sees her employers have the lifestyle she could have had, and lost due to her past.
The child starts giving Mallory pictures he draws during his Quiet Time (the Hidden Pictures in the title). They start as the typical scribbling of a young child, progressing to vivid and detailed works of art. Mallory soon realizes it isn’t her charge who is drawing them.
The drawings definitely add to the creepy atmosphere of the book as it pulls you deeper into the mystery of who drew them and why: Mallory's charge or the woman who allegedly haunts the house.
Mallory is a young woman I can identify with. The author brings her story to the reader as someone who deserves sympathy, especially as the book continues. She meets people in the neighborhood, including a man who is attractive and seems to admire Mallory. Mallory, ashamed of her past, tells a story to the new people in her life which is widely different than the truth. Her backstory, when shown to be false, slows others from whom she later needs help.
The parents are, at first, people who want only the best for their child. However, as the drawings become more detailed, the mother begins to change her attitude and hides the child's drawing material. I come to despise this woman.
As the drawings become more detailed, Mallory becomes determined to discover who is drawing them and why. She learns a woman was murdered in the small cottage at the back of her employers' property, and Mallory becomes convinced this is the key to the mysterious drawings.
This book has twists and turns that left me gasping as I turned each page, revealing more of the mystery of the drawings, thinking "No, that can't be right." After the first twist (I can't reveal because it would be a spoiler), which changed the mystery into something completely different than what I expected, and I was hooked.
The pacing of the story never lags. The author carefully hides the full plot until the last chapter which is one year later. The storyline is complete. The end was my last heartbreak. There is no happily ever after for Mallory. Although her future looks promising, she won't forget the summer she spent babysitting and the love she had developed with her charge.
Hidden Pictures was beautifully written. It keeps the reader guessing without the reader knowing they are guessing until he makes a twist or turn.
I can hear the book calling to me to reread it as I write. I will, as soon as the echoes die away. Readers of fast paced, non-stop guessing should add this book to their pile of To Be Read. I am sorry it took me so long to read it.
Now 21, Mallory is due to leave the sober house where she has lived while transitioning from active addict to an addict who is 20 months sober. But she has nowhere to go: her mother has washed her hands of Mallory due to her addiction; as have all her friends.
Seeing her dilemma, her sponsor and new running coach, recommends her for a position as a nanny for a young child before the child starts kindergarten in the fall. She gets the job and her future looks promising.
Mallory is the kind of babysitter I would have wanted for my kids, even with her past as a drug addict. Her addiction history is buried deep in the book, and explains why her recovery coach was willing to recommend her for the job. My heart broke for her. It isn't the last time it was broken reading the book.
As she starts her new job, where her new employer is fully aware of her addiction and hard won recovery, Mallory falls in love with her new charge. As she and the child bond, Mallory sees her employers have the lifestyle she could have had, and lost due to her past.
The child starts giving Mallory pictures he draws during his Quiet Time (the Hidden Pictures in the title). They start as the typical scribbling of a young child, progressing to vivid and detailed works of art. Mallory soon realizes it isn’t her charge who is drawing them.
The drawings definitely add to the creepy atmosphere of the book as it pulls you deeper into the mystery of who drew them and why: Mallory's charge or the woman who allegedly haunts the house.
Mallory is a young woman I can identify with. The author brings her story to the reader as someone who deserves sympathy, especially as the book continues. She meets people in the neighborhood, including a man who is attractive and seems to admire Mallory. Mallory, ashamed of her past, tells a story to the new people in her life which is widely different than the truth. Her backstory, when shown to be false, slows others from whom she later needs help.
The parents are, at first, people who want only the best for their child. However, as the drawings become more detailed, the mother begins to change her attitude and hides the child's drawing material. I come to despise this woman.
As the drawings become more detailed, Mallory becomes determined to discover who is drawing them and why. She learns a woman was murdered in the small cottage at the back of her employers' property, and Mallory becomes convinced this is the key to the mysterious drawings.
This book has twists and turns that left me gasping as I turned each page, revealing more of the mystery of the drawings, thinking "No, that can't be right." After the first twist (I can't reveal because it would be a spoiler), which changed the mystery into something completely different than what I expected, and I was hooked.
The pacing of the story never lags. The author carefully hides the full plot until the last chapter which is one year later. The storyline is complete. The end was my last heartbreak. There is no happily ever after for Mallory. Although her future looks promising, she won't forget the summer she spent babysitting and the love she had developed with her charge.
Hidden Pictures was beautifully written. It keeps the reader guessing without the reader knowing they are guessing until he makes a twist or turn.
I can hear the book calling to me to reread it as I write. I will, as soon as the echoes die away. Readers of fast paced, non-stop guessing should add this book to their pile of To Be Read. I am sorry it took me so long to read it.