I had never previously heard of Jason Rekulak or his second novel Hidden Pictures until it reached the latter stages of the 2022 Goodreads Choice Award, eventually winning the horror category. It is rare for a horror novel to do so outstandingly well in a major book competition without it appearing on my radar, so I had to track it down to satisfy my curiosity. Interestingly, subsequent conversations with authors, bloggers and fellow reviewers revealed that others were equally mystified how a novel which had clearly picked up next to zero attention in the horror press could win such a big award.

The horror genre bubble is miniscule in comparison to the mainstream publishers which dictate the tastes of a massive percentage of the book buying public and as Hidden Pictures is released by Sphere, it certainly had one of the bigger boys promoting it. It also has this cool Stephen King quote on the front cover: “I loved it… the surprises really surprise, and it has that hard to achieve propulsiveness that won’t let you put it down.” Other quotes from Grady Hendrix, Ransom Riggs, and major UK newspapers The Times and The Daily Mail back up the fact it clearly did pick up mainstream coverage (even if it passed me by for whatever reason). Most years there is a breakout ‘supernatural thriller’ hit and Hidden Pictures is clearly that book for 2022, which it will surely carry into 2023 with the momentum gathered from the surprising Goodreads victory.

But is it any good and worth the hype? Yes, and definitely yes. This is exactly the type of thriller with a supernatural edge to it which would be popular with readers who are not attracted to more traditional horror fiction. Hidden Pictures does precisely what its publicity promises and is an amazingly easy-to-read dark thriller. I do not always agree with the endless cycle of Stephen King quotations which appear on new releases, but on this occasion, King nails it. This is a clever page-turner which is hard to put down, demanding 100% of your attention. As King alludes to, it does indeed include some very clever twists, plot shifts and very sneaky misdirection. For the most part it uses ambiguity beautifully, balancing a potential supernatural riff with a main character who is not quite an unreliable narrator. I read the 372 pages over three evenings and had an outstanding time with this novel and even if the idea of a ‘twist’ ending is overhyped, I was very satisfied with how things play out and did not feel cheated in the slightest.

It is exceedingly difficult to review this book without heading feet first into spoiler territory, so I am going to keep the summary of the plot both brief and vague. The first great strength of Hidden Pictures is the first-person narrative of the main character Mallory, a young woman in early recovery (18 months) from drug addiction. As a teenager, she had a promising career as a distance runner, which was cut short by an accident, then addiction to painkillers which spiraled to much harder drugs followed. When the novel opens, Mallory is about to be interviewed as a live-in nanny for four-year-old Teddy.

You might wonder why a rich couple (Caroline and Ted) might be interested in hiring a young drug addict to look after their kid, but Caroline works in the medical field and is keen to give Mallory a second chance, but her husband is more reluctant. Mallory loves Teddy and the summer house she is given to live in is perfect and initially everything goes like a dream. In the evenings, Mallory goes on long runs. She meets a nice guy and feels she has the perfect opportunity to rebuild her life and perhaps come to terms with the skeletons lurking in her closet. She also stops attending Narcotics Anonymous meetings but keeps in touch with her sponsor (like a counsellor) by phone and the odd meeting.

But things do not remain peaceful for long, as soon Teddy starts to draw disturbing pictures of an imaginary friend he calls Anya. It is quite clear to Mallory and to Teddy's parents, even in his crude childlike style, that the woman Teddy is drawing in his pictures is dead. Soon, the pictures begin to get more and more sophisticated and Mallory takes her concerns to Teddy’s parents. From that moment on, things begin to get extremely complicated and nothing is quite what it seems.

Hidden Pictures did a terrific job of keeping me on the hook and I loved the manner in which the drawings are added seamlessly into the story, magnifying Mallory’s paranoia. I studied them very carefully! The interactions between the four characters are also terrific. Ted and Caroline as Mallory’s employers hold all the power, but her obsession with the drawings trumps even that. Supernatural thrillers do not get much slicker than Hidden Pictures and I appreciated the twists lurking within the tightly written story. Jason Rekulak previously worked for the indie publisher Quirk Books, who have released fiction by many top horror authors, including Grady Hendrix and Clay McLeod Chapman, so undoubtedly Jason had a wealth of reading experience to draw upon when writing this excellent novel. It certainly shows.