Hidden Pictures

I quite enjoyed the book. The way the author took me through the story was great. It is an easy read, meaning I was able to glide page after page and absorb it all. The story itself was interesting and the main characters were flawed. Certain reviewers keep calling this "problematic" which is ridiculous. I don't want every character to be some pontificating blowhard. Characters that are imperfect are interesting. And the author isn't promoting them, he just wrote them as clearly...imperfect. The book was quite good start to finish.

It was transphobic and problematic. don’t listen to Book tok on this one

I read the entire book over a weekend and loved every minute. There were unexpected twists, honest commentary on addiction and very realistic treatment towards those who suffer from addiction. The characters are deep, well developed, and you really get to know them. I found myself emphasizing with the protagonist, but beginning to doubt her at the same time. Lengthy reviews are great, but this book is even better.

Overall I enjoyed the book. I was consumed after seeing the kids first drawing and I had a hard time putting the book down. I liked Mallory and I liked seeing her grow and change. The idea of Anya and Annie and there was a good twist. I also liked the idea of seeing the kids art and as the art developed. The art was definitely the creepiest part in my opinion. After I had started reading was when I saw reviews saying the ending/ twist was transphobic I was nervous to finish, but I had to know what happened to Anya/ Annie. And when I first read the twist I was trying to see how that made the most sense at the time, but honestly I didn’t view it as enough to completely disregard the book. But then at the last few pages Mallory has someone tell her not to write like j.k Rowling and that’s what made me feel like the twist was written from a bad place. I feel like there was definitely political and religious bias that shouldn’t have been brought up, but I guess overall I am not upset that I read the book but I don’t see myself recommending it.

I loved this book!!! I’ve read books where they started off slow, but the progression of this book made me want to hurry to the next page. The illustrations or amazing and give the greatest (and much needed) visuals to readers. I hope Jason Rekulak puts out more books like these. The suspense, the thrill….I’m still at a lost for words.