Hidden Pictures Summary by Jason Rekulak : A Tale of Addiction and Family Secrets

✨ Never Miss a Life-Changing Books Summaries ✨

Join 3,033 other subscribers

Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak: A Complete Chapter-by-Chapter Summary & Analysis

Introduction to Hidden Pictures Summary by Jason Rekulak

Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak is a gripping psychological thriller that delves into themes of addiction, recovery, perception, and hidden truths, all through the eyes of its complex protagonist, Mallory Quinn. The narrative unfolds as Mallory, a young woman fresh out of rehab, takes on a seemingly idyllic nanny job that quickly descends into a chilling mystery involving a purported haunting and deeply disturbing family secrets.

The book’s strength lies in its first-person perspective, which forces the reader to question Mallory’s reality and sanity, blurring the lines between genuine supernatural phenomena, the lingering effects of drug-induced false memories, and deliberate gaslighting.

In this Hidden Pictures Summary, you’ll uncover the spine-chilling twists, the unreliable memories of Mallory, and how her journey into the supernatural weaves with a dark family history that threatens to destroy everything she’s worked for.

Quick Plot Overview

Mallory Quinn, a 21-year-old recovering addict, takes a nanny job for the seemingly perfect Maxwell family in Spring Brook, New Jersey. She cares for their 5-year-old son, Teddy, who begins drawing disturbing pictures of a woman being murdered.

As Mallory investigates, she uncovers:

✔️ A supposed ghost named “Anya” communicating through Teddy’s drawings.

✔️ The Maxwells’ dark secrets, including kidnapping and murder.

✔️ A shocking twist: Teddy is actually Flora Baroth, a kidnapped girl whose real mother’s spirit is trying to expose the truth.

The novel blurs reality and the supernatural, making readers question whether Mallory is experiencing a haunting, drug-induced hallucinations, or deliberate gaslighting.

Hidden Pictures Summary by Jason Rekulak — Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak Book Cover

Hidden Pictures Summary Chapter-by-Chapter & Plot Summary

Mallory Quinn, a 21-year-old recovering addict with 18 months of sobriety, volunteers for a research study at the University of Pennsylvania where she is blindfolded and asked to identify when men are looking at her body. She achieves a near-perfect score, claiming to feel a “spidey sense” and hear a high-pitched sound, like a mosquito. However, her sponsor, Russell, later suggests this might be a false memory from her drug abuse, a coping mechanism to avoid painful truths. Mallory lives in a sober-living home in Philadelphia and works as a teacher’s aide, but seeks a fresh start.

Russell arranges a nanny interview for Mallory with Ted and Caroline Maxwell in Spring Brook, New Jersey, a seemingly perfect suburban town. Mallory is anxious about leaving Philadelphia and traveling in cars. Caroline, a doctor at a VA hospital, is immediately warm and welcoming, seemingly unfazed by Mallory’s history. She offers Mallory a beautiful guest cottage as her living quarters. The Maxwells have strict “House Rules” including no drugs, drinking, smoking, profanity, screens, red meat, junk food, or religion, emphasizing science.

Ted, who works in technology, is far more skeptical and grilling during the interview, questioning Mallory’s lack of college education, foreign language skills, and travel experience. He expresses concern about her drug history and sees her as a “gamble,” even rejecting her offer to take weekly drug tests. Despite Ted’s reservations, Caroline hires Mallory because their five-year-old son, Teddy, clearly likes her.

Mallory settles into her routine, finding joy in caring for Teddy. Teddy, described as “gifted,” has an imaginary friend named Anya, whom he uses as an excuse to avoid chores or dietary rules, claiming “Anya says Mommy should do that” or “Anya thinks tofu is garbage”. Teddy starts drawing disturbing pictures, initially of a man dragging a woman through a forest and burying her. He insists Anya tells him what to draw. Mallory becomes increasingly concerned about these drawings and the “high-frequency humming” she sometimes hears in her cottage, feeling like she’s being watched.

Mallory befriends Adrian, the landscaper, who works for his family’s business, Lawn King. She lies to him about being a Penn State cross-country athlete to maintain a positive image. Adrian observes Mallory running at night and comments on her speed.

Mitzi, the Maxwells’ eccentric next-door neighbor, warns Mallory that her cottage is haunted by the ghost of Annie Barrett, a woman supposedly murdered there in the 1940s whose body was never found. Caroline dismisses Mitzi as “cuckoo” and paranoid due to her alleged drug use and “energy readings”. Later, a “possum” incident where something scratches under Mallory’s cottage leads Ted to nail the access hatch shut, a detail that becomes significant later.

Mallory discovers a series of sophisticated, detailed drawings in the Maxwells’ recycling bin, clearly not drawn by a five-year-old. She theorizes Teddy is “channeling” Annie Barrett’s spirit. Adrian helps her research Annie Barrett, and his mother, a librarian, finds an old, self-published book of Annie Barrett’s abstract paintings, which don’t match the disturbing new drawings.

Mallory’s concern escalates when she hides a baby monitor in Teddy’s room during “Quiet Time” and witnesses him drawing with his non-dominant right hand, his eyes rolled back, amidst a strong ammonia smell. Teddy denies drawing the pictures and claims he only dreams about drawing with Anya.

When Mallory confronts Caroline and Ted with the drawings and her ghost theory, they dismiss her, suggesting she’s having false memories due to her addiction and accusing *her* of drawing the pictures herself. Caroline sternly tells Mallory to stop talking about ghosts and asks Ted to tell Teddy to stop drawing “scary pictures”. Russell confirms Caroline has expressed concerns about Mallory’s “strange” behavior, including digging through the trash. Mallory takes a drug test at Russell’s insistence, which comes back negative.

The situation takes a dark turn when Mitzi is found dead in the woods behind her house. Detective Briggs suspects a drug overdose, possibly heroin laced with fentanyl. Caroline tells Mallory she heard Mitzi arguing with someone before her death, then asking them to wait, suggesting a visitor. Adrian and Mallory find Mitzi’s notes from a séance, which include the seemingly nonsensical word “IGENXO”. They discover “Igen” is Hungarian for “yes” and realize the “X”s are separators, translating the message to “YES X BEWARE X THIEF X HELP X FLOWER/FLORA”. This suggests a warning from Anya in a foreign language.

Adrian travels to Akron, Ohio, to speak with Dolores Jean Campbell, who was potentially Annie Barrett’s daughter. Through Dolores’s son, Curtis, Adrian and Mallory learn the truth about Annie Barrett: she was not murdered. She was a British woman named Annie who had an affair with a Black man named Willie in the 1940s. To avoid the scandal and racism, her cousin George faked her murder using pig’s blood, and Annie eloped with Willie to Ohio, where she lived to be 81, having two children, including Dolores Jean Campbell (Flora’s grandmother). This shocking revelation means Anya cannot be Annie Barrett, forcing Mallory to rethink everything.

Back in Spring Brook, Mallory confronts the Maxwells, realizing they have been lying. New drawings on the walls of the den depict an angel with a stun gun striking Anya. Mallory recalls Caroline’s stun gun and her angel wing tattoo. Mallory realizes “Anya” means “mommy” in Hungarian. She exposes Ted’s lie about their Barcelona trip. Finally, Mallory reveals her suspicion that Teddy is a girl due to physical observation. Caroline confesses that Teddy was born a girl named Flora and that they raised her as a boy after she “identified as such,” claiming it was to protect her identity. Mallory deduces they kidnapped Flora, which explains the school’s persistent calls for vaccination records that they cannot produce.

Caroline, enraged by Mallory’s discoveries, attacks her with a wine bottle. Mallory fights back, biting Caroline’s arm. Ted intervenes, but then Mallory wakes up tied to a chair in her cottage. Caroline enters, dressed in latex gloves, and chillingly reveals her plan to murder Mallory by faking a heroin overdose, using a batch of heroin she says Mallory “stole” from Mitzi’s house, laced with fentanyl. She intends to frame Mallory for drug-related death, aligning with Mallory’s history and Mitzi’s recent overdose.

Caroline confesses the entire, horrifying truth: Struggling with infertility and an unhappy marriage, she encountered Margit Baroth (Anya’s true name) and her daughter Flora at a park. Caroline, believing Margit was a neglectful mother, attacked Margit with her Viper stun gun and then strangled her, after which Ted helped her bury the body and Flora’s belongings. They kidnapped Flora, dressed her as a boy, and faked a move to Barcelona, then to Spring Brook. Caroline admits that Margit’s spirit (Anya) followed them and tried to communicate through Teddy’s drawings. She reveals she murdered Mitzi because Mitzi’s Ouija board spelled out “ovakodik” (Hungarian for “beware”), making Mitzi realize the haunting was real and dangerous.

Caroline injects Mallory with what she believes is heroin and fentanyl. As Mallory loses consciousness, she sees Margit’s ghost, who offers a comforting, grieving presence. Just as Mallory accepts her fate, Ted appears, revealing he swapped the heroin with baby powder, saving Mallory’s life. He confesses he has been protecting Mallory and tried to scare her away during the interview.

He wants to escape with Mallory to Whidbey Island, leaving Teddy/Flora behind. However, Caroline, having anticipated Ted’s betrayal, shoots him. She then attempts to frame Mallory for Ted’s murder and for stealing Mitzi’s gun, revealing that Ted had installed a webcam (disguised as a smoke detector) in Mallory’s cottage to watch her.

Mallory escapes, runs to Teddy’s room, and carries him into the Enchanted Forest, pursued by Caroline. In a desperate moment, in a tree where they hide, Teddy (under Margit’s influence) grabs a broken arrow and stabs Caroline repeatedly in the neck, killing her. Mallory, covered in blood, then makes the difficult decision to take the blame for Caroline’s death to protect Teddy.

One Year Later:

Mallory writes this book for Flora, explaining the events. Ted died from his gunshot wound, and Caroline died from the arrow wounds. Mallory’s confession leads to an investigation where her seemingly wild claims are corroborated by concrete evidence: Teddy’s true anatomy, Flora Baroth’s missing person’s report, the Maxwells’ cabin purchase near Seneca Lake, their fake Spanish travel history, and Flora’s real father, József, confirming details about his wife, Margit. Adrian, who called 911 after finding Ted, also corroborates Mallory’s story.

Mallory moves in with Russell, continues her recovery, and plans to become an elementary school teacher. Flora (formerly Teddy) undergoes therapy, represses the traumatic memories of the final night, and gradually reclaims her identity as a girl. She learns her true parentage and that the Maxwells were sick people who kidnapped her. Mallory’s relationship with her own mother also heals; her mother has quit smoking, remarried, and is proud of Mallory. Mallory still has Dr. Lowenthal’s card from the UPenn study but hasn’t called.

A year after the events, Mallory and Adrian, now a couple, visit Flora and József (her father) at Baroth Farms. Flora, now identifying as a girl, no longer sees Anya. She is initially shy with Mallory but eventually gives her a hug and one last drawing, signifying a connection despite the trauma. Mallory knows that someday Flora will read this book to understand the full truth of her past.

Hidden Pictures Character Analysis: Who’s Who?

Character	Role	Key Traits
Mallory Quinn	Protagonist & unreliable narrator	Recovering addict, determined, protective
Caroline Maxwell	Antagonist	Manipulative, desperate for motherhood, murderer
Ted Maxwell	Complicit husband	Initially cold, later tries to help Mallory
Teddy/Flora Baroth	Kidnapped child	Gifted artist, unknowingly channels her real mother’s spirit
Anya (Margit Baroth)	Ghost of Flora’s mother	Communicates through drawings to expose the truth
Adrian	Love interest & ally	Landscaper, helps Mallory investigate
Mitzi	Eccentric neighbor	Psychic, murdered for knowing too much

Hidden Pictures Themes

1. Addiction & Recovery

Mallory’s struggle with sobriety makes her an unreliable narrator.
The Maxwells use her past against her, claiming her drug history causes hallucinations.

2. Truth vs. Perception

Is the cottage haunted, or is Mallory relapsing into paranoia?
The novel plays with gaslighting, making readers question reality.

3. Motherhood & Obsession

Caroline’s desire for a child drives her to kidnap and kill.
Contrasted with Margit’s ghost, who fights to protect her daughter.

4. Identity & Deception

Teddy is actually Flora, forced to live as a boy.
Mallory lies about her past to seem “normal.”

5. Supernatural vs. Reality

The haunting feels real, but is it just trauma and manipulation?
The twist reveals some spirits are real, but others are human evil.

Literary Devices & Symbolism

Symbols

The Drawings = Hidden truth trying to surface.
The Cottage = A beautiful facade hiding darkness.
Anya’s Name = “Mommy” in Hungarian, revealing Flora’s real mother.

Foreshadowing

✔️ Early mentions of “false memories” hint at gaslighting.

✔️ Caroline’s angel tattoo matches a drawing of an attacker.

✔️ Mitzi’s warnings about Annie Barrett lead to the real crime.

Unreliable Narration

Mallory’s addiction history makes her seem unstable.
The Maxwells manipulate her, making the reader doubt her.

About the Author Jason Rekulak

Jason Rekulak is the author of The Impossible Fortress, which was translated into twelve languages and nominated for the Edgar Award. For many years, he served as the publisher of Quirk Books, an independent press, where he acquired and edited multiple New York Times bestsellers

He drew inspiration from:

✔️ His mother’s work as a nanny.

✔️ His son’s cross-country running.

✔️ His daughter’s love of drawing.