Hidden Pictures By Jason Rekulak

Do you think imaginary friends are actually ghosts?  Get into it with Ashley and Emily as they discuss one of their favorite books Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak. We are using his new book The Last One at The Wedding as our November book of the month.

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Morbid Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/morbid/id1379959217

https://jasonrekulak.com/

Purchase The Last One At The Wedding by Jason Rekulak here https://www.thecreepybookclub.com/product-page/the-book

Show Notes:
0:00-1:30 Intro
2:00-4:00 Intro to the characters
4:00-7:00 Imaginary friends and ghosts 
8:30 Discussion about the pictures in the book
12:00 How this is a story of a mothers love 
14:00 Emily's Ouija Board story 
19:00 TEDDY isn't Teddy 
21:00 Why are the dads always gross
23:00 Why Emily hates the prologue 
24:00 Show notes 

Transcript

Project 30

 Hi, I'm Emily. I'm Ashley, and this is books with your besties. Hi Ashley, I am today let's talk about hidden pictures by Jason Rekulak and this is in honor of that for our November Book of the month, we are reading Jason Rekulak new release, The Last One at the wedding. So we're revisiting Jason Rekulaks first book, Hidden Pictures, which we absolutely loved, and it's spooky season, so this is great timing for a spooky thriller. One thing right out of the gate if you are an audiobook only person, I totally get that, but I do think it's worth borrowing the book. Getting the book because there are drawings throughout the book. And I did both. I read the book and saw the drawings. I did the audiobook, and I feel like without the audiobook, you're missing seeing the pictures, I don't know, what do you think about that? Yes, and we're going to get into full spoilers here. So so pause now if you want to come back to this later, because this is a great book to read in October, so you should go read it if you haven't yet. Okay. Yes, you need the pictures because I vividly remember I read this a year ago almost, and I remember looking at the pictures, and that was my first moment where I was just like, no. And the audio book does a really good job describing it. We'll get into it in more detail, but just seeing the drawings. Yeah. Oh my gosh. See, you're Emily is showing it to me right now. It's. It's like a drawing. If my kid did, I would send to you. And I would be like, professor, reader, is my child a serial killer? Well, I wouldn't know the answer to that, but I would never be around your child again. So let's let's start from the beginning. It's just good to go in order as we talk about the book, because you and I could go all over the place. Okay. It starts with Mallory Quinn, and she goes to a university and has heard about this study you can sign up for. So she signs up for it. She goes, they think she's a great candidate. They want her to come back and instead of coming back, she takes the money that they give her to not come back because unfortunately, she is an addict. And they get into how all that happened and how she started with oxy. But that's how the book opens and you're introduced to Mallory. Mallory is also a runner and has a coach and a mentor who's like her sober sponsor, who then alerts her to this job opportunity, which is being a nanny for a family. And she wants to know, have they heard about my past because she's been clean now for like 15 months. He says, yes, they want to interview you. So that's kind of the first, what, like 20 pages we learn about her history and that she's going to go meet this family. Right. Okay. And then and then she takes this job. Yeah. She meets the family. It's Caroline, the mom. Ted, the dad totally gives her the ick, and she can't really figure out why. And then the boy is Teddy. And Teddy is super fun and loves to draw. And immediately they tell her he has an imaginary friend named Anya, and she's like, oh, my sister had an imaginary friend, I get that. But then when he draws this picture right, Anya is a little bit scary looking like a death killer ghost. Yes. So Mallory takes the job. It's on like a big property, and she gets to live in a cottage outback. So she's in her own cottage, but goes to the house to watch Teddy. And that's where things start to get kind of creepy with noises in the cottage and Teddy starting to do these drawings, but Teddy tells her, I know Anya is not real. She says, you know, it's okay to have an imaginary friend. And he says, yeah, I know she's she's not real. So it's almost even more terrifying that he has this relationship with Anya, who he says he knows is not real. Okay, can I can we just pause here and talk about imaginary friends and kids? Do you think that sometimes they're ghosts? Yes. Listen, a child I know had an imaginary friend named Joe, I think. I think his name was Joe. And she talked about Joe for, like two years. First off, when she was at one of her houses, would take pictures. And she had orbs in the pictures. And so we were like, that's weird, that's strange. And she would talk to people on the camera like the baby camera. You could hear her talking to somebody anyway. She moved houses, but she had this friend Joe, and there were things that she did this child did that were like, she was absolutely terrified of dogs. And she explained that it's because her friend Joe, who died from choking or something like that when he was younger, had a dog, and he was very mean and very scary, stuff like that, that we were like, this is weird, very creative stuff in your head. And then Joe's just gone. But we definitely have like wondered some things. I listen to Morbid Podcast. If you don't listen to it, go listen to it. And they just had listener tales. And someone said that her son kept talking about seeing his grandpa in his dreams. And then seeing him in real life. And the daughter was like, no, there's no way, you know that. that can't be real. And the way he was describing this person, he was saying, she's like, that doesn't even look like your grandpa. And then he walked past and in a picture frame was a picture of her dad. And she was like. And he pointed and he goes, Papa, Papa. And she was like, oh my gosh, he is having some sort of a relationship with this person because he'd never seen this person in real life, but pointed at the picture and said, this is who I'm seeing. It's so strange when you hear those stories. I don't know what I believe. I just am open minded enough to know that I probably don't know some things or understand some things. There is maybe. What do people say? Like a thin veil between this life and whatever is next that goes to her with you? Oh yeah, I remember. So we went in New Orleans on a ghost tour, and what was so funny is it was supposed to be creepy, like a scary tour in New Orleans where you went to. We went to cemeteries and heard stories, and then we went to the Katrina memorial. Like the tomb of the unknown person. From Katrina, and the whole time I was sad. I was never scared. I was devastatingly sad. I was like, how do we tell the little children haunting this place to go to the light? Then do you remember we were standing by like an open body of water, that if you look in, I don't know, and I literally just hugged you and put my head on your shoulder. And I was like, I don't like this. I'm so sad. We were just like, I was just trying not to cry the whole time. She would be like, here. This is haunted by some people who were brutally murdered and never fully recovered their bodies. And we were like, why are they still here? I told I told a friend who was going to New Orleans to do a ghost tour, but I was like, don't do the one we did. And I don't know how to tell you what it was because Katrina just felt too fresh. I'm like, no, no, no, I want to hear about ghosts from like 1779, 1835, not Katrina victims. That was devastating. Devastating. And I was really more interested in, like, take me through a building where there's activity that is interesting, you know, and ghosty paranormal. And we don't know who it is or why. Right. Or it's a playful ghost or something. It's not these sad stories of death and loss and also Katrina that I mean, that was devastatingly sad and especially right now thinking about that with what people have been going through with from Halloween. Yeah. And then also now Hurricane Milton today to day Hurricane Milton is hitting and I'm so, so concerned. I have like. 15 reels or TikTok saved of people who are staying because I want to go back and check on them because I'm so concerned. Agree. My old soccer coach, who were really close with lives there and has been really transparent about we're staying, we feel safe where we are and we have set up a chain of people. So if she can't get in touch with one person, she can get in touch with someone else and then we just know how it's going for her. Yikes. Okay, back to the book. So the first picture that Teddy shows to she goes by either Quinn or Mallory in the book. The first picture he shows to her is literally someone dragging a person by their feet in the woods with black, tangled hair behind her, and that this is when Mallory is like, I don't feel comfortable about this. And then the next picture he shows her is a man digging a hole, and it's someone standing in it looking up. And at this point, Mallory is like, this is this is a problem. These feel these don't feel great. And she meets. Do you remember the neighbor she meets? The neighbor, Misty. Misty I oh, yeah, I do remember Misty. But those aren't the first pictures. They're not. No, they're like a ways in. See, here's the thing. The book is so clever. Some of the pictures probably aren't even really described in the audiobook. The first scary. The first pictures are like a goat, a tree, a bird bath. They're all cute. And then. And then that one I showed you. Where? It's just like him standing next to this terrifying ghost lady who looks like she's from the ring or whatever. And then there's a number of pictures in between that are like normal. So because I do remember this from the book, it's this slow progression. Like she he draws the scary picture, but everything else is really normal. And so she sort of blows it off. But the first time she's like, okay, wait, here's the person, you should go look these up. You guys. If you haven't, it is worth every penny. I don't know how to explain to people why you have to get the book and look at the pictures, because even now you and I talking about it, I'm like, no. On the audio books, they didn't. They probably just said, you know, he drew other images, but not. And then here's the I mean, these are scary. The ones of they're like little kid drawings, but this is a picture of a girl who looks dead with a broken neck and a hole and and a scary, smiling man dumping dirt on her. If my kid drew that, I would be like, who'd you marry? I would be like, therapy is today. Today we start. So when he does start with these creepy, insane pictures, she goes to the neighbor, Misty. And that's when Misty tells her that somebody was murdered in her cottage. That that's kind of the folklore of the town. That someone named Annie Barrett was murdered in her cottage, and they never found the body. Yes. And Annie is so close to Anya, she convinces herself Annie is Anya, and Annie is coming back to try and tell me what happened to her. This picture. So then there's this picture of Anya being strangled. I love what he writes here, but when I study this picture and see Anya with her eyes squeezed shut and two hands wrapped tight around her neck, well, I think all parents would agree this is pretty fucked up. They did not see. This is why you have to read the book. The words in the book. That's amazing. Isn't that amazing? I just I love his writing style. I think this is just a brilliant book. It is. And I am someone and I can't 100% say this, but usually the paranormal piece is a massive turn off for me. Same. We are not big fantasy readers. We don't love the not rooted in reality stuff. Like for palate cleansers. We read things like the Four Winds and American Dirt, really dark historical fiction type of stuff, but we don't. Neither one of us are big fans of something like paranormal, and this is so brilliant. That's what you got to be a good writer for me to love it. Like fantasy, like Harry Potter. Okay, love to the series. Loved Harry Potter, but it's an exception for me and that feels more fantasy for me. Harry Potter was a beautiful story of adolescence and growing up, and everything else was just a part of it. But usually in a book, if we think it might be a ghost or a spirit, I'm out. I'm like, nope, I don't like this explanation. It feels too easy. I saw I saw something recently that was like, if you're not super confused by like a third of the way into the book, are you even reading fantasy? And I was like, I relate so much when I've tried to read fantasy books, I get frustrated so quickly because I'm like, I don't know what that word means. But again, he is brilliant because it doesn't even feel paranormal. You know, by the time you learn who who it is that's kind of haunting and leading this whole thing. It's actually a beautiful story of a mother's love for her child. So let's get into it. Move it along. The pictures become more realistic. Yes, the pictures become realistic to the point that Malorie decides to put a baby monitor in Teddy's bedroom. She decides she's going to film him because she is convinced there's something going on. I need to figure this out. So she puts the baby monitor in there, and in fact, she sees him start to do a drawing and then lay on his bed, start to basically convulse. She tries to get into the room to make sure he's okay. She can't get in. There's this weird smell of ammonia coming out, and at this point, obviously she knows something more is going on than just Teddy doing these drawings, and she figures out Teddy's left handed. All of these drawings are done by a right handed person. So eerie. It's like a great little detail. Yes. And she tries to figure out where is this ammonia smell coming from? Because Caroline, his mom, says sometimes he wets the bed, which we know can be a red flag with some kids. That that can be right. Like a trauma response. If at his age, you're still consistently wetting the bed, well, he's five. Oh, yeah. I thought he was like ten. You're right. My kids. Yeah, I think he can wet the bed. But it is one of those things that they were connecting as concerning. Right, right. It was so frequent and. Yeah. Okay. And then in comes Adrian, the implied handsome lawn care guy who Mallory is like, oh, and he's like, oh. And they kind of start dating. And she starts to tell Adrian about what's happening, and he gets very invested in her story, and he really does believe her out of the gates that she's not doing the drawings. Teddy's not doing the drawings. It's this on your person. She trusts him enough that she decides to invite him over for lunch, and Caroline says that's fine. He watches Teddy. This is when you remember this. She goes over to Misty's house and they get a Ouija board. You never mess with a Ouija board. Did you ever do one in high school or middle school? Do you not remember my story? Oh, I just did when you said that. Oh, yeah. Okay. When I was 12. Uh, first off, I did Ouija board a number of times because in childhood we didn't have cell phones, so we just thought, let's summon the dead instead. And that seemed natural. And obviously my sickness with loving this kind of material came from early childhood. So we were always watching scary movies and doing Ouija boards and things like that. But when I was 12, I did a Ouija board with a friend and we ask, Who is Emily? Who am I going to marry? And it spelled. Steve. The only Steve I knew was this girl's dad. So it was like, obviously it's not him, but it was really weird. So my husband's name is Steve. We have been married 12 years, 12.5 years. I did not tell him that until our wedding day after we were married, because I didn't want to freak him out. And I think the scientific explanation would be that I was more open to him as a person, because I knew that I was seeking a Steve, and so I was more willing to marry him. But man, I dated a lot of people. I mean, no, but I did. I didn't meet him until I was 30. I dated a lot of different people and I was not closed. I thought that that was silly, you know, but still, I think I think that would be the explanation is that someone would say, well, you met a nice guy named Steve, and then you, you really set your, your mind on it. But he wanted to marry me too, right? I know I still can't believe this. Now. It makes me believe all of it. In the book it spells out just an acronym and they're like, what does this mean? I think the acronym is just a bunch of letters like I, g. And so it means nothing to them in the moment. But later when they figure out that actually she's Hungarian and doesn't speak English, they translate it to yes, beware thief, help flower, which they still doesn't make sense until the end. What? They figure out what flower mean? So what? What is it? What does it mean? Flower is short for Flora. So this is where I just feel like his absolute brilliant comes to play. So turns out Caroline and Ted tried to get pregnant forever, could not get pregnant. They lived in New York at the time, and while they were in New York, Caroline would see this on a person who she sees her with. Her daughter Caroline's very jealous of the situation because they can't have kids. So this is where Emily there's the picture she draws that has a hot air balloon and a little girl walking away from it. So they're at a park one day and Caroline sees Anya with her daughter. The daughter walks away. Caroline follows her because she's worried about her going missing. When Anya then comes to try to get her back, Caroline kills on you and kidnaps Flora, and Flora becomes Teddy when they reveal that when he gets that Teddy is a girl and she sees that it is another shocking gasp twist. And it's so brilliant because it's so simple. In the book, Caroline claims that she killed her. You know, she had that Taser because she gave Mallory a taser right when she moved in to be their nanny. She's like, if you need to run, this will keep you safe. Caroline's version is that Anya walked up to her, startled her, so she tasered her. But in the pictures it shows her choking her. But is it her that she did it? Caroline in the book. Caroline did it. And then Ted helps bury the body. The dab. Yeah. Okay. And then kind of stays with Caroline because he knows she's crazy and she has the secret on him. Got it. So that's why he was giving Mallory the IC when she was interviewing. Because he was trying to convince her not to take this nanny job. Because he knew Caroline was crazy. And then people are going to get so sick of me talking. But then the ending of the book I forgot is so fast paced. Yeah, it's absolutely insane. But it gets totally crazy. Mallory is in her place, and Caroline comes and tries to kill her because Caroline figures out what Mallory knows, and she tries to kill her by shooting her up with fentanyl, which is what she'd been addicted to in heroin. Ted knew she was going to do this, so changed it to baking soda or powder. One of them what had comes to save her. And then Caroline ends up shooting and killing Ted. Caroline runs after Mallory and Teddy. Teddy. I'm yelling into my microphone. Flora as his mom is trying to convince him to not go with Mallory. You're not safe with her. Jumps out of a tree and stabs her with like an arrow tree branch until she dies. But it's. But it's on. You took over her body, right? Yes. So it's like a mother's love. It's so crazy because it is so paranormal, like, so deeply paranormal. And I think it's such a brilliant book. And I loved it so much. It is really about a mother's love in so many ways that she came back to avenge him. And then he goes back to live with his birth dad and goes back to being Flora. It's the kind of twist you just wouldn't anticipate that Teddy was a kidnapped kid. Yes. And was a girl that was kidnapped. I do think when it comes to paranormal, I don't know. Are you into any of the Stephen King movies? Like. Like, did you watch those? I mean, I've seen some of them. I mean, a paranormal movie. I actually find two scary. I don't like horror. It like, freaks me out a lot occasionally. Like, I'm definitely entertained by that. I will watch a little, you know, social media reel on like Paranormal Activity or or I like, you know, a movie here and there, but it's books more that I don't love it. I agree, and I'm trying to figure out why this one, I liked it and I can get behind the he wasn't possessed in a I mean, he was doing scary things, but the whole reason why I'm like, well, that is so redeeming. Not the amount of murders, but it's also, though he roots it so well in reality. And the twist is not just that there's paranormal, it's actually not even central to the twist. Right? The paranormal part, that's what I don't like, I think, is when. So there's shows or books or anything, and their explanation is like, well, it's a ghost and you're like, well, that That's stupid. That's the whole. That's the twist is that's a ghost. Then I just feel like it's a cop out. It's not well done. It's the same thing in in a series. They can't figure out how to handle a conflict or a problem, so they just kill off the characters and then it's resolved. But that's dumb. It's. I love it when it's more clever. And this is clever because the whole book doesn't even have to have the paranormal part. So it's a fine addition to me. And I think the fact that it does end up being paranormal because it is so obviously written, but I was waiting for it to be like Ted or Misty or Adrian. I was waiting the whole time for it to be anyone but the paranormal explanation. And then it was, and it worked perfectly. But also, can we talk about men being men? I just had to shake my head. I'm like, of course. Ted tries to save her and says, I know you're in love with me. I'm in love with you. We're going to run away together. I'm like, why? Why the dad? Does he always have to remember she caught him in her cottage, in her bed with her bra. I'm like, God, why is there always one gross man? Well, also, I mean, he's not like the best guy. Like they're already established as maybe not the like, you know, top greatest folks. He's not. I did like, you know, I like this. I like that she was a runner. And one of the things Jason did, well, people are going to hate that I say this and be like, nobody cares about that but you. But he would say how far she ran and how fast she ran. And I'm like, those numbers make sense because sometimes authors do it and you're like, that's not a real time. Nobody runs a 555 pace. And she would be like, I ran 4.7 miles in, you know, 43 minutes. I'm like, that's correct. If we're lucky enough to talk to him, I'll have to ask him if he's a runner because it sounds like he might be. Oh goodness, Ashley, I know this does that him up for super high expectations for the book we have coming in the mail for people shortly. Yeah. Do we? I do we know anything about the book? No. All I know is it's by him. And we loved hidden pictures enough that I don't think we cared what it was about. And good reads. Its people absolutely love it. I don't like to know what they're about. Sometimes I like the cover. The cover photo looks great. The cover is beautiful, I just, I love not, but I love going into a book blind. It's my thing, so I don't I don't often read the synopsis and I hate when the prologues is gives a tiny spoiler. Do you want to tell about how you don't read the prologue? I know people got so mad at me for that. I started reading them because people were upset with me, but I swear I can't remember what book it is that. But there's a book that I read were in the prologue. Somebody dies and I'm like, well, now we know this person or this person are the bad guy, or this person or this person are going to die. And I was frustrated by it. I feel like I've learned through looking, you know, you and I often look at books because we're looking at what we want to read, what blogs are safe and what are not. I'm like, some have spoilers right at the top and it's just ruined books for me. I love the ones that have huge spoiler alert in red because it's it's hard to read a book when you know the huge twist or the ending. Yeah, I just I love the journey of a read so much. I don't reread books a lot because I don't like knowing what's coming. I love just the process, and I love reading someone's heart from start to finish without any kind of hints. All I'm going to say about this is that it says it's an edge of your seat thriller, and it's a brilliant suspense from a master. Woo woo woo hoo! So get it. Read it with us. Come back to hear our thoughts on it. That will be fun. I know you can. You can snag it actually on our website this month in October of 2020. What year is it for? So that tells you anything about how things are going. Also, want to make sure you know that we will link in the show notes. Please check our show notes for ways that you can give to Hurricane Helene victims and Hurricane Milton and the impact that that has. We will link for assistance for that as well. And if you're there, we're thinking of you. You. Thanks for listening. For more content, find us on Patreon at the Creepy Book Club. Happy reading!