A review by its_kievan
Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak

dark mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.5

It just isn’t a very scary book, and the lacklustre central mystery  isn’t enough to make up for it. It seems like a lot of modern horror books - Hidden Pictures, Mister Magic, The Hollow Places - all follow the same pattern of one-dimensional characters fumbling their way through shoestring plots, littered with (and maybe this is just a me thing) endless brand name dropping. Dear writers, you do not need to specify that a character has a The LEGO Movie(TM) poster on his wall. You can just say poster. I promise it will make your prose better. Maybe I’m being a bit harsh on Jason Rekulak here; it might just be because I was really hoping for something better. Then again, he did write a book where the twist is that
a rich liberal family kidnapped a child and forcibly changed their gender
so maybe I’m being too kind. Also the pictures were kinda shit. Anyway, don’t bother with this book. Go read The Only Good Indians instead.

EDIT: After reading some reviews on Goodreads (yes, boo Amazon, but StoryGraph doesn’t let me sort by popularity) it’s looking more and more like the transphobic undertones were on purpose. So I’m happy to announce that not only is this a poorly-written book, it’s also a bigoted one. Good stuff.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings