This book was amazing. I read this book in one sitting from cover to cover. I went in blind, so I did not know that there were any supernatural elements. I have recommended this to my book club and raved all over social media. Highly recommend.

This book was fantastic! I loved all the twist and turns.
It was a bit of a mystery and ghost story. Just enough
ghost to keep me on the edge of my seat. Can't say enough
about this book. Thanks Flatiron books and Net Galley for the
Arc.

This was a quick listen, with great character development, as well as creepy aspects making the listener questioning everything. Filled with twists, turns and paranormal elements this book keeps you guessing and creeped out.

The narration was spot on and the pacing was great. The narrator keep the listener on edge and engaged in the story the entire time.

The only down fall, and I did not find this out until reviewing the book, is that there are pictures in the physical copy that add to the experience. I wish I had known that while listening.

I want to thank Netgalley, and Macmillan Audio for an advanced listening copy of this book in exchange for a review.

Mallory Quinn's life was on track for success. After receiving a full athletic scholarship for a prestigious university, an injury interrupts her plans. The injuries and the desire to heal quickly cause Mallory to develop an addiction to Oxycontin. Now a year-and-a-half sober, Mallory gets a job through her sponsor looking after five-year-old Teddy for the Maxwell family, hoping to get her life on track going forward.

The Maxwell family seems to be well-off, loving and caring, living on a sprawling estate. But soon everything turns out to be not as it seems. Teddy's hobby of drawing turns dark when he begins to leave sketches of dark things, including a woman being abused and murdered. Coupled with these dark drawings, Teddy's emotional state begins to take a turn for the worse. Seemingly supernatural events begin to occur as well. Mallory tries to express her concerns to his parents, but who would believe a recovering drug addict?

I really enjoyed this book. It wasn't quite what I was expecting, but to me that is a sign of a good book. I don't read a lot of books with supernatural elements, but this one wove in the supernatural in a plausible and realistic way that I could appreciate. I definitely didn't guess the twist at the end and where this story went. I definitely will read more from this author in the future. Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this title.

Hidden pictures by Jason Rekulak
I have been seeing this book everywhere!
This was a really thrilling book with paranormal elements.
I enjoyed the main plot of the story and connected with the main character.
Overall this was an ok thriller for me, but I look forward to reading more from this author in the future.

I enjoyed this one way more than I thought I would. It was full of twists and the story kept moving. I will definitely be recommending this one to friends.

Wow!! I did NOT see that twist coming at the end! This was a great book and not easy to guess where the story was hidden. I loved all the twists and turns of the story! The Maxwells were both super-duper messed up and I am glad they got what was coming to them in the end and that there was a happy ending to this story. I love a good happy ending and this book and one on many different fronts!

While Horror is not normally a genre I read, this book read more like a mystery with a little supernatural on the side. Good storyline, likeable characters and a twist at the end!

Well, that was disappointing. I enjoyed The Impossible Fortress more than I thought I would. But this...this was not good. For being touted as Rekulak's first adult novel, it still read like a young adult novel. The writing was juvenile. It started out interesting enough but got so messed up and unraveled that it was not enjoyable by the end. I'm still willing give his next book a try. The narrator was great though!

𝙁𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙅𝙖𝙨𝙤𝙣 𝙍𝙚𝙠𝙪𝙡𝙖𝙠 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.

This book has been everywhere lately and I’m so glad it’s getting the recognition it deserves. I was having the hardest time deciding what my overall thoughts were as this book was completely different from other thrillers I’ve read.

I’m going to try to be as vague as I can be because I recommend going into it not knowing much.

This book had some creepy moments, some scenes scared me and that doesn’t happen a lot in books for me.

Those pictures were so spooky and I do believe that they made this whole book a lot better. I highly recommend reading this one physically or at least having a physical copy because those pictures are so good and terrifying.

I know Teddy had some creepy moments, but I just really enjoyed the connection with Mallory.

Although I didn’t love that ending, I still believe it worked so well. I don’t want to give anything away because the book is worth the read, but I wish it took a different direction.

I highly suggest you check this book out, the pictures themselves are worth it. I feel like this story would make a perfect creepy movie. I definitely will be checking out this author’s future work. Highly recommend!

Thank you Macmillan Audio, Jason Rekulak, and Netgalley for this audio in exchange for an honest review. I loved the narration! This to me is more of a psychological thriller with super natural elements. Loved the story line and yes, definitely a worthy read/listen. 🌟🌟🌟🌟1/2 solid stars.

A huge thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for this ALC narrated by Suzy Jackson. Creepy, mysterious, dark, chills down my spine …. Yes this book was all of that and more!! I could not listen to the first half fast enough. I listened in the dark throughout the night and finally at the half way point had to force myself to turn it off to get some sleep for work the next day! Kids drawing scary ass pics … sign me up and let’s dive deep into their scary journey. And the twist at the end, say what?!? I did not see that coming at all! Twist and turns we’re great!

The narrator also did such a great job narrating and keeping me up late into the middle of the night freaked out!! I did go into this book with extremely high hopes because many of my friends raved about this book and let me tell you they weren’t wrong!!! So good!! I highly recommend the audiobook for sure!!

This one was everything I was wanting in a paranormal horror story and then some! I really enjoyed experiencing the story from the perspective of Mallory and the added element of a possible unreliable narrator was a definite bonus. I could picture the entire Maxwell property and some of the scenes creeped me out so bad because I felt as if I was right there with them.

This was a great spin on the "creepy kid" troupe and I was a huge fan of the twist in the last 50-ish pages, it completely took me off guard and I was picking my jaw up off the floor after. Highly recommend picking up the physical copy of this one, the artwork is completely flawless and takes the entire story to another level.

Five super strong stars-highly recommend reading this one if you enjoy any kind of paranormal element to your horror or thrillers.

I love psychological thrillers and this was a wonderful mix of psychological thriller plus horror. I enjoy horror but not extreme horror. This book had a great storyline and some great twists that surprised me. The horror is definitely mild. I loved the main character and enjoyed the fact that there were both likable characters and unlikable characters. I also love that there wasn't a bunch of switching back and forth between characters and different POV like other thrillers have. Overall great read and I will definitely look forward to reading other books from this author

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an advanced audio copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

Hidden pictures is about Mallory-- a young woman trying to get her life back on track after having gotten hooked on OxyContin. She lands a job as a nanny for a sweet, precocious little boy through her sponsor and it's basically a dream come true. At least until Teddy starts drawing creepy pictures of his imaginary friend, Anya, who seems to be a ghost haunting Teddy's family. Mallory decides she has to uncover what the heck happened with Anya and why she's attached herself to Teddy.

This was a super twisty-turny mystery that genuinely had me guessing throughout the book. There were tons of good surprises along the way. However, there were some... pretty disappointing twists in there too. I would call them problematic for several different reasons. I don't want to spell it out too much because it would definitely be spoiler-y.

Now on to the other things that bothered me:
So.... this book was obviously written by a white man. Tons of stereotypes about Latinx people, women, and children. Some examples: our MC going running at night constantly and not being nervous about her safety at all. This man has obviously never met a woman. She gets sexually harrassed once and just is like "oh it's probably nothing." Literally no woman is just like ehhh it's totally fine. They may *act* like it's okay for personal/professional reasons, but they don't just brush it off like it's perfectly acceptable.

Probably the worst thing though was when Mallory and her friend Adrian (Latinx man) get arrested by the police and he is belligerent and acting like everything is a misunderstanding and they're treating him too roughly. Again, this man has never met a POC.

I genuinely enjoyed the narration, and the pacing of the book was perfect. There were just enough reveals along the way to keep me engaged and guessing what was going to happen next. In hindsight, there were a bunch of instances of brilliant foreshadowing that should have clued me into some of the reveals. They were absolutely masterfully done.

The narrator did a GREAT job, and I would definitely buy more audiobooks just because they were read by this narrator.
However, super unfortunately, I wouldn't necessarily recommend the audio version over the print version. The print book has a ton of drawings that add a lot to the story. I actually ended up borrowing a print copy of the book from the library so I could look at the drawings as they came up in the story.

If you like an engaging, paranormal mystery, I would definitely recommend. However, it did leave a bit of a sour taste in my mouth due to some of the problematic twists.

Wow. What an epic book. So i was drawn in from the start. Loving the ghostly aspects and the creepy drawings and dying to get to the bottom of this stories. And then a freakin bomb drops! Omg what a twist! Did not see any of it coming at all! Completely shocked me and i was so here for it!!

I loved this book. I love when a thriller has a little sweetness to it as well with a little romance added in. I loved the character development.

This one hit me in some feels too. As someone who’s dealt directly with the impacts of addiction, some parts wrecked me and got me emotional. I think this book was just so good!

I listened to this book on audio, and it was a lot of fun!

I feel like I missed out a little on the drawings in the book, but overall, was worth listening to. I felt that the author did a great job with the twists and turns, but it read slightly YA to me. Definitely worth reading - would be a great summer/vacation read!

This one was in general a miss from me. While it had effective moments of tension and a decent (if not wholly believable) twist at the end, the characters never felt like real people and there was just odd moments from the author.

In this novel, Mallory, a recovering drug addict is hired as a nanny for a rich family in an affluent neighborhood. Weird things start to happen around the 6 year old boy Teddy - who starts drawing pictures of what appears to be a gruesome murder. Is her new home haunted? Can she save the child from the darkness that appears to be creeping in? DUN DUN DUN.

Ok anyways, one of my biggest problems is simply believability. Without going into any spoilers, shit goes down that in no way would happen if anyone simply acted like a regular old human being. There is absolutely zero reason for Mallory to have been kept on as a Nanny for as long as she did. Not only from erratic behavior but simply even not following basic rules. Even following certain reveals does not clarify anything and honestly just muddles the waters even more.

Another issue is Mallory herself who feels like a character strung together with some scotch tape of ‘interesting traits’ that never actually mesh or feel real for her as a character. Mallory is a recovering addict but that seems to just be so she can be easily dismissed as trust worthy and has absolutely zero impact on her as a person. She’s living next to a drug dealer and literally never struggles with thinking of using drugs except one time where she looks in a medicine cabinet but then quickly says no. Despite all the shit that is happening around her. Like I guess, good for her and her recovery but it made it feel like a prop rather than an affliction she was actually dealing with.

Speaking of her addiction which was to opioids, the author has her tell the story of her ‘downfall’ into drugs. Mallory mentions getting a back injury and getting prescribed oxy. That is the end of the story to millions of people who have struggled with drug addiction but NO. We can’t have that happen to our main character. Instead the back injury is just the reason she was missing a running meet and driving her sister around when they were in a crash and her sister died and she got injured and prescribed MORE oxy. So with her mother blaming her for her sister’s death and the pain she was in from being double injured made her an addict. Maybe because I have had family fall to this crisis but it felt honestly disrespectful that this whole backstory was needed. The first part of the story was all that is necessary to millions.

The second was her religion. She mentions it and apparently that means she’s…more inclined to believe in ghosts? There is a literal line where she is talking about telling the parents about a potential haunting and she says “but they're atheist”.....I don’t know if I am just not understanding religion versus atheism correctly here but I feel like your belief in hauntings does not come down to whether you pray or not. Maybe I’m confused? Anyways her religion is really never brought up except as a prop again. She doesn’t even go to church because the people there are ‘all old’ (what?).
Also that dead sister thing is literally never brought up or seems to affect her character in any way. So another prop.

There are genuinely creepy moments and I think the writing itself is actually pretty good at keeping pace and moving forward but I just couldn’t enjoy the story with all of these issues.

Thanks to Netgally for a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review. This book was narrated by Suzy Jackson who did a great job!

Thank you Netgalley and MacMillan Audio for this advance listener copy in exchange for my honest review.

Shut up and take my money! This book was one of the best I've read in a long time. I'm disappointed to find out that this is the first thriller/mystery from Jason Rekulak. I'm really hoping for more soon!

This book had absolutely everything I love in a story. There was mystery, paranormal stuff, suspense; the whole nine yards. And it has me really never wanting to be a babysitter. What's with all of these horror stories lately about maids or nannies? Keep them coming. I love the genre.

Mallory Quinn has taken a job as a nanny in a small New Jersey town. She's fresh out of a halfway house, just over a year sober. She soon realizes that there is an entity attached to her new home and possibly her new charge. She finds herself in a race against time to discover the truth behind the spirit.

I couldn't get enough of this book. I will be purchasing the hardcover edition because I hear that there are really cool drawings within and this book is definitely worthy of a second go-around. The story was stellar from page one. I could relate to Mallory and her struggles as I, too was addicted to opiates for years. I really liked her character and I couldn't help but find myself rooting for her. The twists at the end were mind blowing. I didn't see any of them coming. This was a very good, very unpredictable book. It was a great addition to the "au pair" genre of literature. Kind of a nod to the classic The Turn of the Screw. Great book and great audio to it! Five very enthusiastic stars for this one!

TW: drug addiction, racism, gaslighting, cheating, murder, gory scenes, infertility

*****SPOILERS*****
About the book:Fresh out of rehab, Mallory Quinn takes a job in the affluent suburb of Spring Brook, New Jersey as a babysitter for Ted and Caroline Maxwell. She is to look after their five-year-old son, Teddy.Mallory immediately loves this new job. She lives in the Maxwell’s pool house, 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.As the days pass, Teddy’s artwork becomes more and more sinister, and his stick figures steadily evolve into more detailed, complex, and lifelike sketches well beyond the ability of any five-year-old. Mallory begins to suspect these are glimpses of an unsolved murder from long ago, perhaps relayed by a supernatural force lingering in the forest behind the Maxwell’s house.With help from a handsome landscaper and an eccentric neighbor, Mallory sets out to decipher the images and save Teddy—while coming to terms with a tragedy in her own past—before it’s too late.
Release Date: May 10th, 2022
Genre: Thriller
Pages:384
Rating: ⭐ ⭐

What I Liked:
• It's a creepy plot
• The writing style is good
• That the ending was a real ghost

What I Didn't Like:
• It's Lego not Legos!
• A lot of plot holes
• Too many dreams
• Insta-romance
• Ends with a letter telling us what happened
• How perfect Mallory is

Overall Thoughts:
[Random thoughts while reading]

Who let's their kid sit on the toilet for 10 or 15 minutes not using the bathroom? That's how you get hemroids.

So she can't have coffee because she's an addict and the caffeine, but she's drinking tea.

I know it's trivial but it's not Lego's, it's Lego bricks.

[End randomness]

Books make it seem so easy to find a hot man that's interested in you. Right off the bat she meets someone and he's like in love with her. He's so obsessed with her he drives 7 hours away after knowing her a few weeks. He's totally okay with that she lied to him and embarrassed him with his parents and really is a drug user in recovery. I hate the insta love romance in books and I honestly don't feel like this book needed it. Shit is every man in love with Mallory? Does she have the golden vagina or something? Even Ted is in love with her and has planned for them to run away.

Neither a stun gun nor a TASER device is designed to knock someone out or render them unconscious. These devices work by locking up the body's muscles by "jamming" the electrical signals of the central nervous system. Once the stun gun or TASER stops cycling, the affected person is able to move again. So can we please please please stop adding this into books!

So Caroline's plan is make out like Mallory overdosed on hieron but what about the marks on her head from being hit? Or the marks on her wrists from being bound? How about the mark from the taser? Police just ignore those things? It's a dumb plan.

If you stole a child after murdering their mother would you hire someone to take care of that child so you could work? Would you do all of that and hide that they are really a girl without even explaining what's going on to the person watching said child? And then Caroline explains that she wanted a distraction for Teddy so (s)he would stop hanging with his ghost mom. Like what?

When Maeget gets hit with the taser her body reacts how a normal person's would react but why when Mallory is hit she looses consciousness? Like dear author make up your mind.. Does it knock you out or just make you spasam?

Mallory is one of those girls that is perfect. Despite being an addict in recovery she is a great swimmer and runner (6th in Pennsylvania during high school). All the men want her. She's just naturally a mother like figure who Teddy loves from the moment they meet. She's not even punished for murdering someone. She makes giving up drugs look easy with no cravings. Her sponsor loves her. The research doctor from the beginning of the book has been searching this whole time for her too after meeting once and doing an experiment that's never explained to us the point of.

Fun fact; There's an old superstition that back in Europe they would murder the child if their mothers died. They were scared that the child would be haunted and new parents would be tormented. So it was easier to murder the children.

Final Thoughts: Gosh, this book started off so good. There were creepy ghost moments. A child drawing scary pictures. And a couple that seemed almost TOO perfect. Sadly for me I felt I left this book with too many questions and not enough answers.

I didn't like any of the characters. Teddy/ Fiona just seemed to have the mental personality of a much older child then 5 years old. At certain points they read as 10-12 years old.