Jason RekulakRezensionen

2.5 stars. Nothing about this book was particularly remarkable. It was entertaining enough to get through but at no point was it scary or creepy. I felt the plot twists were extremely unrealistic and very corny, sometimes even just confusing. The author took too long to build to the climax but then inserted a cliche action packed resolution to tie things up. I could have done completely without the last chapter of the book as at that point, I just didn’t even care about the characters anymore. The whole concept of a spirit trying to communicate through drawings just started to get more and more stupid as the book went on. There was a point of the book where I felt the author just abandoned all mention of the spirit plot completely and pushed too hard to make sense of an otherwise ridiculous and unrealistic plot twist. As a huge lover of all things scary and horror related, I was not impressed with this book at all.

This was really unique.....the illustrations made it an exciting read.

I do have a few gripes.....the stereotypes in this book are relentless.....the upper middle class family are white liberals....the eccentric hippie psychic next door watches Fox news......the well off Mexican family owns a lawn care business, etc. While I realize that stereotypes exist because they can be true to a degree....I feel that a modern book shouldn't be perpetuating stereotypes. As someone who disproves stereotypes....I'm a born and bred Southerner who isn't racist, uneducated or poor......I just feel its time move past these preconceived ideas.

While the woke mob may take umbrage with the fact that gender dysphoria wasn't portrayed in a positive light..... I'm happy that Rekulak took the realistic and scientific route with this story.

Overall, this was a unique and exciting read that I enjoyed very much.

Read this one in a single sitting. A mix of an Ocean's Eleven style caper movie and and a sweet romance with a hefty dose of eighties nostalgia.

Light and fun. Good beach read, I think.

It had a YA feel to it but they wouldn't get all the old school references so I'm not entirely sure if it is officially on that category.

Stunned,Shocked and Amazed

I honestly didn't know !ugh about this book. I had heard a few reviews on it ANF decided to try it. I am so glad I did! This is a mind bending,heart touching book. I absolutely loved All the drawings ANF yet I still couldn't figure it out. It's not a long read and the story goes quick. Loved

Mert nincs karácsony Kevin nélkül. Helyes rajzok, kedves, egyszerűsített változat a kisebbeknek, akik még nem nézhetik meg, bárkinek aki nem bírja az erőszakot a filmekben, meg a szülőknek, akik inkább elolvassák ezt gyorsan, csak ne kelljen megnézni.

I was recommended this book with the implication that it was one of the scariest books they read. So I guess I may have gone in with certain expectations, only for them not to be met at all. I felt the interesting parts only accrued toward the end of the book. The characters rational was questionable throughout. No one seemed reasonable but the love interest who didn’t have much of an impact on the story.

It wasn’t a bad book. But wasn’t what I was looking for.

4.5 stars

I love how everything was explained and made sense - but the picture(s) of the woman being strangled was never explained! It said she was hit with a stungun, and went down and never got up. That's it. So what's up with the strangling?!

Extremely well written. I finished it in a day and a half because I didn't want to put it down. Never knew the direction the story was going to go in. Definitely a must read. #JasonRekulak

4 / 5 ⭐️‘s

“Hidden Pictures” by Jason Rekulak

“I see her every night,” Teddy says. “She sleeps under my bed so I can hear her singing.”

I had zero plans to finish this in one sitting but that’s exactly what I did.

It kept my attention so I continued listening (audiobook) and then it got really good and I just had to finish it!

The ending

This is the first time I have read Jason Rekulak. I loved this story. Ghosts and psychological horror what could be better!? Mallory Quinn, fresh out of a halfway house after 2 years of sobriety. Her sponsor was able to find her a nanny job for the Maxwell's, a wealthy family in Spring Brook, NJ. She will be taking care of 5-year-old Teddy. Teddy sees a ghost that has taken up residence in the house. Mallory wants to investigate this paranormality, but Teddy's parents do not believe in this ghost story. Mallory puts herself in a dangerous position with not only the ghost but with Teddy's parents too. Enter a crazy neighbor, and it's almost more than Mallory can take on. Can Mallory survive?

Edit: every time I think about this book it makes me more angry so I keep removing stars…
I wanted to give this 5 stars, I really did, but I just can’t. It didn’t live up to my expectations, but I fear that’s my fault.

Hidden Pictures starts in such a promising way. Mallory, following a stint in drug recovery, is hired to care for a couples' 5-year-old son, Teddy. Their bond is immediate, and she is allowed to live under the watchful eye of her sponsor in NA in a small cottage on their property. Then this story takes a strange turn when the child talks about Anya, his imaginary friend, and draws very creepy, explicit pictures. Another bizarre twist is when the father is found intoxicated and sleeping in Mallory's cottage. The next-door neighbor is apparently a psychic and a fount of information about the previous owners. Her fate begins a series of difficult-to-believe rabbit holes for me. I am not a fan of supernatural elements, so 2 stars is as many as I could manage.

scivola via senza intoppi questo gradevolissimo thriller

Creepy vibe from the child's drawings. Creepy vibe from the parents of the child that hires Mallory as a care giver. Then there's the beginning where Mallory is in recovery. Add that guest house sat at the edge of the woods. Makes for a creepy little read.½

Beautifully written. The twist absolutely blew me away. I had both happy and sad tears in the end. Best book I've read this year so far. Highly recommended!

It was meh.
The twists felt very obvious and the book didn’t present any new ideas.
(Spoilers)
The protagonist figuring out the truth because of transphobia felt very strange and dumb.

This is the "ghost story junkie's" kind of story in spades! A disturbing secret that has far-reaching consequences comprises this dark and unusual ghost story. Mallory Quinn is just recently out of rehab and is recovering from a tragedy. She has taken a job as the nanny for a well to do couple living in the ritzy suburb of Spring Brook, New Jersey. A series of strange events start to make her...as well as her employers, begin to question their own sanity. Teddy is her precocious and shy 5-year-old boy that she's in charge of. The child seems to be haunted by a ghost who uses his body to draw pictures. These pictures are far too complex and well-drawn to have been the work of any child this young. At first, the drawings are rather typical...rabbits, hot air balloons, trees.... then the illustrations take a sinister, dark turn, showing the grime, gory details of gruesome murders. The drawings start out as stick figures but soon grow increasingly more disturbing and much more sophisticated. By now the reader is so into the story that you can't stop. With the help of an attractive young gardener and a psychic neighbor and using only the drawings as clues, Mallory feels that she must solve the mystery of the house's grizzly past before it's too late. Jason Rekulak does a fantastic job defining all these characters and giving them believable personalities: The story is mostly told by Mallory in the first person. The Maxwells' slightly overbearing parenting style and passive-aggressive quips feel and sound, very familiar; and Teddy is so three-dimensional that he sometimes feels like a real child that you could reach out and touch. The is almost enough to make you believe in ghosts. As my grandmother used to tell us as children..."I don't believe in ghost but I'm very much afraid of them". You will be very much afraid of them.

3.5 maybe? i had such high expectations. I was suuuper hooked at the beginning. I loved the added drawings and the short chapters. but once I realized how the book was going to end (it did tie up well) it seemed to fall flat for me. maybe I’m not into supernatural content.

devoured this in a day and a half. it was very interesting and i love the atmosphere, had no clue where the book is going so the ending surprised me. this took me out of a month long slump so it deserves the 4 star rating

Creepy good

Wow, this book is the reason I love thrillers so much. From the start it provided me with such a thrilling story, that I was thrown for a loop when the story became something else entirely.
Fabulous!!!

So I was intrigued by this book because it has all the perfect elements of a fun horror movie: a kid doing something creepy, a babysitter nobody would believe, and a ghost. I mean what's not to love... you just know how it's going to turn out. Well, I was wrong... I thought I had figured it out, but it wasn't until like the last 5 chapters that I actually figured out a piece of what was actually happening. It had a huge plot twist that I didn't actually see coming, which is why I'm giving it 4 stars. While it had a plot twist and the creep factor to the max, especially with the drawings included, I had so many different issues with this book.

I did not like any of the characters... none of them were relatable or even made sense. Mallory is unlikable basically every time she thinks or opens her mouth. First off, she doesn't question ANYTHING really just takes it all in stride, and oh this kid is possessed by a ghost... let me tell my theory to absolutely everyone I know... whether they ask or not. She is unable to tell the truth about her past to Adrian, which was really just annoying. The Maxwell's just scream creepy and suspicious, but we don't even question anything they do... like ever. The characters aside the author was not very sensitive in writing certain topics and tried to get away with big topics by making it the identity of a character. I really just struggled to connect with this book. I honestly only gave this book 4 stars because I didn't foresee the ending coming from the beginning. It was a pretty slow read up until like the last 5 chapters, which had so many problems themselves.

“These pictures aren’t normal, sweetie. Something weird is happening in that house.”

The pictures are drawn by Teddy, the little boy that Mallory is a full-time babysitter for. And they are SUPER creepy! Probably my favorite thing about this book! The story is good, not amazing, and the twists at the end are good. But those creepy kids drawings, especially the way that Anya is depicted... yeesh...

I enjoyed this book. It’s not the best writing in the world or anything, but the pictures really made the story come alive. At first I was kind of blah about the whole gaslighting an ex-addict trope, but sometimes that trope works, which it did here.

In some ways I’m kind of surprised the woke mob hasn’t tried to come for this book, but I guess the perpetually offended usually stick to YA. Eventually someone will try to cause a stink about this book though, mark my words. Maybe the authors not-so-subtle political insertions will keep them at bay lol.

Either way, I will always think it was creepy and somehow also cute. I think it’s a must-read just for the drawings and the wild twists.

A true horror, no joke, this book is horrifyingly horrible. It's a grocery list for no chill bad writing. Let's see, we got leftist atheists who mold kids into gender at a young age(because for some reason that's a stereotype now), a good Christian nanny, lotta fatphobia, transphobia crumbs, cop support and their lovely stars and stripes tatts. Nothing like a positive nod to JKR and HP in a book to be really scary. Terrifying content in 2022.

I really liked the pictures the child drew included idea, but... It's pretty sad it was injected into this book of all books. I love the idea incorporated into a horror. This really should have been my jam.

It's everything I enjoy.

But it wasn't because of the direction they took it...

Solid child horror until it got political. Please keep your gross right-wing gender politics away from the children. Kid's can like whatever they want, it's not a gender thing. Yes, this becomes an atheists force a child to be trans plotline because why not? Damnit.

There's multiple Harry Potter refs, as stated above. It's 2022, he knows exactly what he's writing. "I don't have to be as good a writer as J.K Rowling" bitch, what? Get out.

Also it's 2022 and I can tell by reading the text, this cop has committed past acts of police brutality. He is not a good person. His constitution lines don't need to be welcomed. I'm sure he's totally a patriot. He's just the right type of person to be"patriotic".

We made a mistake voting this in, Goodreads. This ain't it.
We needed to do a second read before.

This is riddled with right-wing propaganda, there's everything sprinkled in that's terribly problematic and actively harmful.

I'm really tired of horror that has an agenda and refuses to simply be horror. Keep it spooky but don't make the plot twist be so damn stupid it makes readers fed up.

I think the nanny being a recovered drug addict after eighteen months sober felt... It just felt like she got kicked for no reason at all. The book pushes her this way and that, but...

The ending is so transphobic.

0.5 stars.½