Hidden Pictures
by Jason Rekulak
Blurb:
Mallory Quinn is fresh out of rehab when she 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.
My Reaction:
I found this an enjoyable paranormal thriller. It made a change to get a Christian main character. It's been a long time since I've read anything (written in the recent past) that didn't portray Christians as either boring simpletons or evil hypocrites, so this was a nice surprise.
Judging by some of the reviews I skimmed after finishing the book, this novel has struck a nerve with some readers, to an amusing degree. I guess a book has to be 100% "woke af" to pass the smell test. (Purity spirals are so much fun.)
I, on the other hand, thought the author did a decent job of not being totally skewed in one direction or the other, politically. I'm bemused that people read this and thought it was "right-wing propaganda" full of "conservative dog whistles", because that's not at all how it came across to me. I didn't agree with or like everything in it, but on the other hand, it didn't slap me across the face with so many obnoxious political opinions that it was impossible to enjoy the story. It walked the line better than many other recently published books I've read.
I wouldn't say this was amazing, unbelievably good, or mind-blowing. On the contrary, some of the twists are predictable, and at times I found the writing style a bit odd, almost as though it were written for a slightly younger audience—but it was an entertaining read, all the same. The drawings add an interesting element, too.
This would probably ordinarily be a 3 or 3.5 for me, but I'll bump it up to 4 just because I appreciate reading about a Christian character presented as a normal person.
