Welcome to Litsy!

Creepy story, concise writing, PICTURES!!! Thoroughly entertaining!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was a quick and gripping read - perfect for Halloween season! Fun Fact: this author is from my town in Central Jersey, so some of the local nods (RU-Rah-Rah) and allusions to the Middlesex Greenway were fun lil‘ Easter Eggs of sorts.

When Mallory, a young heroin addict in recovery, is hired to babysit 5-year-old Teddy, she hopes it will be a new start. As Teddy's drawings become increasingly dark and elaborate, showing technical skill far beyond his years, Mallory becomes convinced something supernatural is at work, but will anyone believe her? A tense, highly readable and fast-paced thriller--with illustrations! The pictures really brought the story to life.

I ended up enjoying this book more than I expected from the beginning. It seemed the sequence of events escalated a tiny bit slowly. My personal barrier to this story was the MC‘s age. As I get older, I find it hard to relate to a main character who is barely 21. The ending of the book was a complete shock! If you like ghosts, Ouija boards, and solving puzzles, this book is for you! 

Full review at abookandadog.com/blog/hidden-pictures

Here‘s my #bookhaul from BN this weekend. I spent 39 years in my hometown, and they get a BN after I‘m gone 🤪. We made the trek home to see @Allyneedsbooks and it was just perfect ❤️🫶🤟

Amazing read! Unexpected ending!

Really enjoyed this! It took turns I wasn‘t expecting and kept me on my toes throughout. That‘s what I want in a mystery-thriller.

I read somewhere that someone mentioned not flipping ahead thru the illustrations and I wholeheartedly agree. It‘s definitely better to come to each one blindly. There are a lot of them and they‘re fantastic! I tried the audiobook but quickly abandoned it because I wasn‘t getting to see the illustrations.

Sunday morning, my favorite ☕️🐾

I have one pup snuggled up on my right side and one pup snuggled up on my left side. I have a book and some coffee, and my house is nice and quiet. It‘s a good time over here.

Currently 2/3 thru Hidden Pictures! Enjoying it!

I really enjoyed the book had a nice paranormal spin to it even thought it doesn‘t say that in the description. Don‘t jump ahead to look at the pictures or look at them ahead of time they help tell the story.

Supernatural twisted mystery/thriller!

MC is an x-junky for reasons. Teddy is a 5 yr old troubled little boy who is drawing creepy images. MC becomes Teddy‘s nanny, just the normal life she needs to recover and enter back into society but the lies multiply … and Teddy‘s pictures become something he couldn‘t possibly have drawn …

Great audiobook!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Such a quick, easy, entertaining read! I knew a twist was coming, but did not get it right. (27)
⭐️: 3.75/5

Next up #kindle

This book honestly has stuck in my brain waves since I finished it! To begin with it was kind of slow but from the ending was awesome and it was such an underrated twist!!
3.75⭐️

#Readaway2024

This was really good—dark & twisty & a good thriller with paranormal elements worked in. I liked the MC, Mallory, a recovering addict who gets a job as a nanny for the summer for a family. Her charge, 5-year-old Teddy loves to draw & when the drawings start getting better & creepier, Mallory suspects something supernatural is going on. The drawings in the book are creepy (there‘s a great afterward with the author & illustrators) ⬇️

Now this was a book I quite enjoyed! The images throughout.... creepy.... I loved it!!! I studied child psychology, so this novel really held my attention. 4 🌟

Happy New Year, we all have Covid 🦠 reads.

“Hidden Pictures” revolves around Mallory Quinn, a 21-year-old recovering addict who becomes the nanny for Ted and Caroline Maxwell‘s five-year-old son, Teddy. During her summer watching Teddy, Mallory begins to suspect that Teddy is in danger and that she is either in the middle of a supernatural conflict or suffering mental instability, possibly because of her drug use.

Well, this book certainly had one almighty twist.
A ghost story mixed in with psychological thriller.

3.5/5 🌟

This book offers a fast-paced, engaging narrative that's more thrilling than frightening. It's an easy and entertaining read, yet, as with many books in the horror/thriller genre, it does require suspending belief to fully immerse yourself in the story.

Rekulak wrote an incredibly exciting story full of twists that I simply did not see coming. It was phenomenal! And the brilliance of adding the illustrations by Doogie Horner and Will Staehle was top notch. Such a stellar way to really help this novel along and to give the reader an all encompassing perspective on what the characters were seeing themselves. I loved it! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I actually couldn‘t put this book down for the life of me. I read this in a sitting and rated it 4.5 stars! A paranormal/true crime thriller that will have you hooked from the start! The illustrations were so well done and were the perfect addition to the creepy atmosphere of the story. Thanks to whoever recommended this to me for my #12bookchallenge! Book 121 of 2023 😊

Characters were pretty realistic and interesting, I liked Mallory.

This book was intriguing enough but somehow pretty similar than some other books that I have read. That means that this wasn't really unique or special.

This was entertaining book to read and I had fun while reading.

I liked this ok: a recovering opioid addict becomes a nanny for a child who draws increasingly disturbing pictures that seem too advanced for their age. But maybe I wanted more creepiness? In any case, there seemed to be some missed opportunities or maybe I am just poisoned by my #scarathlon expectations 😝 👻
#Spookyghostclub book 2: 82 word search words, readathons to be added later in comments

Tomorrow is my first day off in 3 weeks, and my last day off until sometime in November, so, of course, I‘ve been sick all day. I‘m hoping it‘s just allergies 🤧 and I‘ll wake up tomorrow feeling ok.
I‘m really enjoying this spooky read for my IRL bookclub (that I WON‘T talk myself out of attending) while snacking and watching the MLB playoffs ⚾️
Any other baseball fans here? Who are you rooting for? If you say the Rangers, I‘ll be your BFF 🥰

Cool coincidence!! It‘s a perfect Saturday here in the sip!! Reading, football, gorgeous weather, cars, my love!

Happy Caturday!! 🧡🎃📚 🏈 🐈‍⬛

Y‘all this book!! It is so intense and my heart is racing! I‘m pretty sure I‘ll have nightmares tonight, but I can‘t stop reading it!! ✏️ 📝 🪨 👀 🏃‍♀️ 😱

#LitsyLoveReads

“But I‘m always happy when the weekend is over and I can finally go back to work.” These words will never come out of my mouth 😂😂 maybe when I was younger!!

Happy Friday!!

#Adayinthelifeoftux
#Catsoflitsy

🐈‍⬛ 🖤

When your book and bookmark matches 🖤☠️💀

Starting this one with a book club on Fable! The link is below if you would like to join!! 📷 🖤

Check out Thriller Lovers Book Club on Fable! We‘re reading Hidden Pictures. Join us!
https://fable.co/club/thriller-lovers-book-club-with-sydney-405036205025

Amazing!

I'm about 3/4 of the way through and this book isn't even a fraction as scary/horror-ish as I was led to believe. Maybe things pick up right at the end? And am I the only one who feels like the wife is batcrap crazy? She keeps switching moods from one extreme to another

#Movie2BookRecs @Klou
Movie: V/H/S

2023 7/10 full of surprises!! Enjoyed this book!

#Bookmail
#TBR

It‘s coming a flood here and I love thunderstorms ⛈️ ☔️

Hidden Pictures is a serviceable… horror? thriller? mystery?

Not quite sure where it falls. It has some spooky moments but it doesn‘t linger on them long enough to be horror. Rekulak‘s style is simple and safe but the final act is bogged down by way too much exposition.

It‘s saved by its use of artwork to propel the story; it‘s a creative and original conceit. Honestly, I wanted to keep reading the book simply to see the awesome illustrations.

Twisty! An easy horror read; nothing groundbreaking but a good ride.

I have not been successful in trying to get any time reading in lately but I'm making time today.

Couple chapters while little man munches some breakfast with his tablet. So far this morning I have learned that I race cars wrong, the tv has to be on cartoons even though he isn't watching it and I'm never allowed to be the blue truck. But he went potty by himself so I'm taking what I can get today 🤣

#PickYourBattles #SendCoffee

I didn‘t even know about this book as found a random review on social media. It seemed interesting so I started to read it and I really enjoyed it. Good characters, supernatural type plot and overall a fun read

Attempting to get a few pages in while the psychos psycho 🤣🤣

https://youtu.be/8EnG8_oZcu4

Just a friendly reminder that this book is transphobic and why.

(BTW, this booktuber is great.)

I'm really torn with this one.
I picked it up because it won the Horror category (not really horror) for Goodreads Choice Awards and Stephen King blurbed about it.
All good signs.
I read the book knowing nothing of the plot and found myself thoroughly entertained.
I was set to rate this 4 or 5 stars.
Then I watched this video (SPOILER ALERT) and everything changed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EnG8_oZcu4

Read this in 24 hours - couldn‘t put it down !

I love a good ghost story mixed with a mystery and this was one. A quick read for me and I loved that there was artwork dispersed throughout. It really brought it to life.

First read of the year 🎉 Completed during break but just getting back to social media.
I had gotten this on audio book when someone told me it was you really had to have a physical copy of, and they were right!
Clever and spooky and just keeps moving. I would say this is more of a mystery sundae with supernatural sprinkles as opposed to horror. But still very good and well worth the hype.

Great twisty turny book!

Edit: I did want to add that having JK Rowling and H Potter
mentioned in a book published in 2022 is not good,
This author could have picked another children‘s author and book
like Percy Jackson and/or Rick Riordan..
I still enjoyed this book but it did annoy me a little..
maybe he supports JKR?

Read for some reading challenges.

5/5

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I loved how quickly this book moves. And the illustrations are incredible! I love a book with something extra lol the ending was bonkers but super entertaining. I will definitely pick up his other book.

First book d finished for the New Year. This was a good, suspenseful ghost story. It was more thriller than horror. The illustrations were integral to the story. The ending had a few twist that caught me off-guard.