Hidden Pictures
A wildly inventive spin on the supernatural thriller, about a woman working as a nanny for a young boy with strange and disturbing secrets. Mallory Quinn is fresh out of rehab when she takes a job as a babysitter for Ted and Caroline Maxwell. She is to look after their five-year-old son, Teddy. Mallory immediately loves it. She has her own living space, goes out for nightly runs, and has the stability she craves. And she sincerely bonds with Teddy, a sweet, shy boy who is never without his sketchbook and pencil. His drawings are the usual fare: trees, rabbits, balloons. But one day, he draws something different: a man in a forest, dragging a woman’s lifeless body. Then, Teddy’s artwork becomes increasingly sinister, and his stick figures quickly evolve into lifelike sketches well beyond the ability of any five-year-old. Mallory begins to wonder if these are glimpses of a long-unsolved murder, perhaps relayed by a supernatural force. Knowing just how crazy it all sounds, Mallory nevertheless sets out to decipher the images and save Teddy before it’s too late.
Themes & atmosphere
What you might want to know about Hidden Pictures
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Newly sober Mallory takes a nanny job in a quiet New Jersey town. The little boy she watches is sweet, but his drawings, of a dead woman in the woods, get sharper and more specific by the day.
Yes. Hidden Pictures is psychological horror about a babysitter watching a five-year-old whose drawings begin to depict events the boy could not know. The novel includes actual illustrations between chapters that build the dread.
Yes. A film adaptation has been announced. As of 2025, the project is in development with no confirmed release date.
Hidden Pictures was written by Jason Rekulak, published in 2022 by Flatiron Books.
Hidden Pictures is 408 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Hidden Pictures takes most readers 6 to 9 hours to finish.
Hidden Pictures is a standalone novel by Jason Rekulak, not part of a series.
Hidden Pictures is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.