Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.52k reviews by:
emilyctrigg
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an advanced audio copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.
Hidden pictures is about Mallory-- a young woman trying to get her life back on track after having gotten hooked on OxyContin. She lands a job as a nanny for a sweet, precocious little boy through her sponsor and it's basically a dream come true. At least until Teddy starts drawing creepy pictures of his imaginary friend, Anya, who seems to be a ghost haunting Teddy's family. Mallory decides she has to uncover what the heck happened with Anya and why she's attached herself to Teddy.
This was a super twisty-turny mystery that genuinely had me guessing throughout the book. There were tons of good surprises along the way. However, there were some... pretty disappointing twists in there too. I would call them problematic for several different reasons. I don't want to spell it out too much because it would definitely be spoiler-y.
Now on to the other things that bothered me:
So.... this book was obviously written by a white man. Tons of stereotypes about Latinx people, women, and children. Some examples: our MC going running at night constantly and not being nervous about her safety at all. This man has obviously never met a woman. She gets sexually harrassed once and just is like "oh it's probably nothing." Literally no woman is just like ehhh it's totally fine. They may *act* like it's okay for personal/professional reasons, but they don't just brush it off like it's perfectly acceptable.
Probably the worst thing though was when Mallory and her friend Adrian (Latinx man) get arrested by the police and he is belligerent and acting like everything is a misunderstanding and they're treating him too roughly. Again, this man has never met a POC.
I genuinely enjoyed the narration, and the pacing of the book was perfect. There were just enough reveals along the way to keep me engaged and guessing what was going to happen next. In hindsight, there were a bunch of instances of brilliant foreshadowing that should have clued me into some of the reveals. They were absolutely masterfully done.
The narrator did a GREAT job, and I would definitely buy more audiobooks just because they were read by this narrator.
However, super unfortunately, I wouldn't necessarily recommend the audio version over the print version. The print book has a ton of drawings that add a lot to the story. I actually ended up borrowing a print copy of the book from the library so I could look at the drawings as they came up in the story.
If you like an engaging, paranormal mystery, I would definitely recommend. However, it did leave a bit of a sour taste in my mouth due to some of the problematic twists.
Hidden pictures is about Mallory-- a young woman trying to get her life back on track after having gotten hooked on OxyContin. She lands a job as a nanny for a sweet, precocious little boy through her sponsor and it's basically a dream come true. At least until Teddy starts drawing creepy pictures of his imaginary friend, Anya, who seems to be a ghost haunting Teddy's family. Mallory decides she has to uncover what the heck happened with Anya and why she's attached herself to Teddy.
This was a super twisty-turny mystery that genuinely had me guessing throughout the book. There were tons of good surprises along the way. However, there were some... pretty disappointing twists in there too. I would call them problematic for several different reasons. I don't want to spell it out too much because it would definitely be spoiler-y.
Now on to the other things that bothered me:
So.... this book was obviously written by a white man. Tons of stereotypes about Latinx people, women, and children. Some examples: our MC going running at night constantly and not being nervous about her safety at all. This man has obviously never met a woman. She gets sexually harrassed once and just is like "oh it's probably nothing." Literally no woman is just like ehhh it's totally fine. They may *act* like it's okay for personal/professional reasons, but they don't just brush it off like it's perfectly acceptable.
Probably the worst thing though was when Mallory and her friend Adrian (Latinx man) get arrested by the police and he is belligerent and acting like everything is a misunderstanding and they're treating him too roughly. Again, this man has never met a POC.
I genuinely enjoyed the narration, and the pacing of the book was perfect. There were just enough reveals along the way to keep me engaged and guessing what was going to happen next. In hindsight, there were a bunch of instances of brilliant foreshadowing that should have clued me into some of the reveals. They were absolutely masterfully done.
The narrator did a GREAT job, and I would definitely buy more audiobooks just because they were read by this narrator.
However, super unfortunately, I wouldn't necessarily recommend the audio version over the print version. The print book has a ton of drawings that add a lot to the story. I actually ended up borrowing a print copy of the book from the library so I could look at the drawings as they came up in the story.
If you like an engaging, paranormal mystery, I would definitely recommend. However, it did leave a bit of a sour taste in my mouth due to some of the problematic twists.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an audio copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.
I don't really have much to say about this collection of poetry. Many others are praising this as an adult reflection on the teenage feelings of first love and first heartbreak. However, I see it as a juvenile and melodramatic retelling of emotions better left in the past. I didn't find them to be particularly well-written in general, but there were a few lines that I did enjoy.
Bella narrates the audiobook herself and her narration was just average. Nothing special, but nothing horribly egregious.
I'm sure that I am just not the right audience for this title since it seems to be well-received by many others on this site! Maybe I am just not bright enough for flowery writing and overly metaphorical prose.
I don't really have much to say about this collection of poetry. Many others are praising this as an adult reflection on the teenage feelings of first love and first heartbreak. However, I see it as a juvenile and melodramatic retelling of emotions better left in the past. I didn't find them to be particularly well-written in general, but there were a few lines that I did enjoy.
Bella narrates the audiobook herself and her narration was just average. Nothing special, but nothing horribly egregious.
I'm sure that I am just not the right audience for this title since it seems to be well-received by many others on this site! Maybe I am just not bright enough for flowery writing and overly metaphorical prose.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an advanced copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.
The art style in this series is just so darn cute. I absolutely love the art style, and it really lends itself to the time period of this book. Neil's story mainly takes place in the 50s and 60s and seriously.. this style couldn't be more perfect for this timeframe.
The story itself was cute-- a version of Neil's life that could be read to children. Not too scary, but still showing how serious NASA missions are and how brave Neil was to take them on.
There were a couple typos and weird words/phrases (like calling Neil a "hotshot test pilot"), but overall this was super cute and I would definitely buy this for a kid who is interested in biographies, space, or nonfiction.
The art style in this series is just so darn cute. I absolutely love the art style, and it really lends itself to the time period of this book. Neil's story mainly takes place in the 50s and 60s and seriously.. this style couldn't be more perfect for this timeframe.
The story itself was cute-- a version of Neil's life that could be read to children. Not too scary, but still showing how serious NASA missions are and how brave Neil was to take them on.
There were a couple typos and weird words/phrases (like calling Neil a "hotshot test pilot"), but overall this was super cute and I would definitely buy this for a kid who is interested in biographies, space, or nonfiction.