Book Review: ‘Hidden Pictures’ by Jason Rekulak

Hidden Pictures is a standalone horror/thriller novel by Jason Rekulak.

The story follows recovering drug addict Mallory. Now sober for eighteen months, she is determined to keep her life on this upward trajectory. A new job in an affluent neighbourhood – nannying five year old Teddy – seems like the perfect stepping stone. Everything is going well until Teddy starts drawing pictures of his imaginary friend Anya. The problem? The pictures show that Anya is clearly dead. Teddy’s drawing supplies are confiscated but the drawings keep coming. To find answers Mallory must follow a dark path that leads her to question her own sanity.

The unique selling point of this novel is its mixed media text – something that is rarely seen in adult novels. Interspersed between the written text are the black and white illustrations of Teddy’s drawings, created by Will Staehle and Doogie Horner. These illustrations really elevate the novel. It’s one thing to be told that Teddy’s drawings look terrifying but by showing us the drawings the reader gets to feel Mallory’s fear and unease as we see, for example, a sweet child-like drawing of Teddy and Mallory…with the skeletal Anya hiding under the table. The art styles in the book are varied, from Teddy’s child-like drawings to the realistic images Anya creates when she takes control of Teddy’s hands. I really loved the interview at the end of the book between Rekulak, Staehle and Horner where they explain the behind the scenes process of matching the art with the story and thus bringing the whole novel to life.

Rather than being a throwaway part of her backstory, Mallory’s history with addiction plays an important role throughout the novel. Hidden Pictures is told entirely from Mallory’s point of view. One of the first things we learn about our protagonist is that her memory from her drug use days isn’t perfect – something Mallory freely admits. Here Rekulak deliberately creates an unreliable narrator. The stranger things get (curtesy of Anya) the more Mallory beings to question what is really going on – because how can the paranormal possibly be real? When you have a narrator who doubts her own memory, the reader has to do the same. The puzzle within this book is for both the characters and the reader to work out what is really going on.

Hidden Pictures is definitely one of the best thrillers I’ve read. The story and Mallory’s journey kept me engaged throughout and I couldn’t wait to see where all the twists and turns would lead. The illustrations in the book were the icing on the cake that added to the emotion of the story. Now that I know how it ends, this is a novel I would enjoy re-reading to find all the clues I may not have known the significance of the first time.

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