Hidden Pictures by Jason RekulakMy rating: 1 of 5 stars
I wonder if this is what M. Night haters must feel like, thinking that every single twist ending of his is an utterly stupid one that wrecks the entire movie. This is my first Jason Rekulak novel, but I’m thinking this might be my last. Don’t get me wrong, it starts out pretty strongly, with a classic and cinematic setup of a babysitter horror story (slightly aged up), and I could’ve seen it giving a lot of vibes like Mama and (while it’s not exactly horror) Parasite. The drawings, increasingly detailed as the paranormal phenomena make themselves known, also recall the creepy photos of Miss Peregrine - so it’s no surprise that Ransom Riggs blurbed the book, especially since Rekulak used to run the very publisher that gave us Riggs’s first three novels. But then it feels really odd that Stephen King would blurb this book when it has an openly Christian lead character, when King famously likes to write Christians as villains. Maybe he thought Mitzi, the self described “Libertarian” neighbor, was a humorous caricature of the right wing (she certainly has an “I’m not racist, but…” kind of intro.) The book also subtly pokes fun at leftist parents, with Teddy’s having a tendency to look like they’re trying too hard to be “good people,” which I’m sure King could appreciate lampooning too because he himself certainly ain’t no perfect leftist (neither am I, come to that.) Unfortunately, while the twist ending makes a lot of subtle foreshadowing suddenly make sense, it feels so tacked on, with a whiplash to perfectly ruin a perfectly good paranormal mystery. It’s an absurd potboiler, guaranteed to piss off the reader for any number of reasons (leftists in particular will want to burn this book after reading), and certainly had me staring at the page all “wtf?!?!” Made no sense. Yeah, I don’t think I’ll be reading any more by this author anytime soon…
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