Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak is a horror mystery novel that aims to bring the chills through the mysterious and sinister drawings of an innocent five-year-old. Once again, I got pulled into the web of a horror novel simply because I’ve always wanted to give it a second, third, fourth, fifth and so on chance to get me really scared. Hidden Pictures is more mystery than horror. It’s a slow burner of a story that made it a good weekend read, but the plot twist and ending didn’t live up to the hype.

I personally didn’t have an issue with the main character of Mallory. However, she’s your typical run-of-the-mill character that you’ll forget as soon as you finish the story. It’s great that she’s a recovering drug user and that she really is a nice person, but other than that, there’s really nothing more. I believe I would have given the novel an extra star or star and a half if a more creative plot twist was generated. There was even a part towards the end regarding the husband that made absolutely zero sense to include.

Hidden Pictures is another one of those pure definition of average. Nothing really stands out that you can remember, only that it does just enough to make you continue reading, and I guess the best part is that reading doesn’t feel like a chore. There were hardly any memorable quotes, so I wasn’t impressed in that category as well. All in all, this might have made for a better movie adaptation than a novel.