Tag: Horror

Hidden Pictures

Jason Rekulak terrifies readers with his 2022 horror book Hidden Pictures. The story of a young woman (Mallory) fresh on her journey of addiction recovery when she becomes a full time nanny for a 5 year old boy (Teddy) in an affluent neighborhood. Things are looking up for Mallory until she starts to notice’s that Teddy’s drawings and behavior are beginning to become more sinister and terrifying by the day. With the fear that something supernatural may be influencing the young boy, Mallory turns to her new neighbor and landscaper to discover what is really happening in Teddy’s drawings.

While reading the book’s summary, I was very interested in seeing how it would turn out. After reading, I found it more and more difficult to sympathize with the characters or their choices. The main character Mallory as well as the two parents; Ted and Caroline; were almost caricatures in their behaviors (especially in the creation of their house rules for Mallory). Rekulak’s depictions of these three characters created a dichotomy between the hyper religious Mallory and the overly strict atheist parents.

Overall, Hidden Pictures was unremarkably similar to almost every “creepy kid” horror book or movie. I wish Hidden Pictures had a little extra to set it apart from other books in the horror/thriller genre.

What did you think of Hidden Pictures? What did you think about the twist ending? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below!

Little Girls (A Ghost Story)

The ghosts of a woman’s childhood come back to haunt her in Ronald Malfi’s 2015 novel Little Girls. After the death of her father, Laurie Genarro along with her husband (Ted) and daughter (Susan) travel to his home out of state to prepare clean it out and prepare it to be sold. After arriving, Laurie finds that her father’s dilapidated home isn’t the only ghost from her past waiting for her. She soon finds that her daughter’s new friend bares a striking resemblance to a young girl who tragically passed away and quickly finds that all her childhood woes have followed her home.

Malfi’s development of Laurie and Ted’s relationship was hands down my favorite part of the book. Malfi’s depictions of their personal insecurities with in their larger marital issues added conflict and tension to the story. This conflict also helped highlight Laurie’s deteriorating mental state and helped to elaborated the ghosts haunting her conscious. The book wouldn’t have been the same without it. Without the failing relationship between Laurie and Ted, the story would have fallen apart.

My biggest complaint of the book was that there wasn’t a clear villain. In the last 75% of the book, Malfi constructed so many improbable plot twists in his storyline that it was very difficult to anticipate what could happen next. Each initial plot point was turned on it’s head and a new monster emerged.

I typically enjoy a slow and suspenseful build in my horror novels but Malfi’s work fell flat. An exceptional amount of detail was crafted in each flash back and with in character dialog, as a reader you could very easily create a mental image for every moment of the story. However, all this description took away from the plot of the story and ultimately there wasn’t a clear conclusion and left more questions than answers.

I’d love to hear what you thought. Did you read Little Girls? What did you think of the ending? Tell me about it in the comment section below.