This mystery/horror follows recovering addict Mallory as she takes a new job babysitting a 6 year old boy, Teddy. Mallory has been sober for 18 months and her sponsor knows a family out in the suburbs who just moved back from overseas and is in need of a babysitter for the summer. Mallory and Teddy hit it off immediately and strike up an adventurous summer filled with swimming, walking the trails in the woods behind the house, and playing out imaginary games. During 'quiet time' Teddy likes to draw and his drawings are nothing out of the ordinary for a six year old, at first. But as time goes on, Teddy's artwork becomes increasingly sinister including a drawing of a man dragging a woman into the woods. With these more sinister drawings, the details are too fine for even the most gifted of six year olds and Mallory starts to think there might be some supernatural force behind everything. But Teddy's parents are very much non-believers of anything that can't be directly explained by science so it is up to Mallory to find out the truth behind these drawings that seem to be depicting an unsolved murder from years ago.
TW/CW: drug use/abuse, opioid addiction (character in recovery), death of a child, death of a sibling, child abduction
I absolutely loved the characters in this story. This is a very closed-circle story. Mallory spends her days with Teddy and then lives in the guest house. She is in a new area so doesn't have an established friend group and most of the time, if she isn't with Teddy she's alone. Since we don't have a whole lot of side characters or side plot going on, the core characters are really key for this story to work. Rekulak does a great job of establishing some pretty key character details right at the beginning and in such a way that I never questioned them. For example, Teddy's parents are very science-focused so when Mallory starts suspecting something supernatural might be going on, she (and the reader) already know the parents would not be on board with that theory. I can't personally speak to how accurately Mallory's recovery and addiction is shown but I found it was brought up realistically in a number of situations. I find that with a lot of addiction/recovery main characters, the stories are taking place either when they're still using or just after they've gotten sober. In this case, since Mallory is 18 months sober, we see a different aspect of recovery that I find isn't often shown. She's pretty solid in her sobriety but also knows what she needs to do in order to keep her life moving in the direction she wants. I've mentioned in past reviews that kids are a hard sell for me in books - they're either too perfectly cute or weirdly underdeveloped. I think Rekulak knocked it out of the park with Teddy. He read very realistic to me and had a nice balance of being cute and also annoying that I find six year olds have. I do think Teddy might be a bit more sophisticated than most six year olds, but I didn't mind it since I felt that it really aligned with the parenting rules we saw early on.
The pacing was great. I was a little worried at first that the story would drag with most of the days being Mallory and Teddy playing together but most of the days are pretty well skimmed over. We get one chapter where we get their general routine and then after that the story skips around to the important moments. This was a great choice, especially since the story takes place over the course of 2-ish months. Once the mystery investigation was in full swing, the pacing really picked up and it felt like Rekulak was in my head because he knew exactly when I was getting bored with the mundane babysitting activities and there were times where we didn't see much of Teddy on page at all, instead skipping right ahead to either the evenings or weekends where Mallory could investigate. I found the actual mystery to be really well plotted as well which helped propel the story forward. I do wish we had gotten some more small town rumor type hints just because I love that trope.
The horror elements were fantastic and I think they would adapt really well to a movie/limited series. Creepy kids and their creepy drawings are a well-used horror trope but I think Rekulak put just enough of a twist on that trope to make this feel a little fresh. Teddy never really felt 'creepy' while reading and instead would drop these info-bombs that he saw as 100% factual while the adults around him were the ones a little weirded out. For example, when Teddy explains to Mallory where these drawings are coming from he just answers so matter-of-factually because he doesn't see it as anything out of the ordinary. Then, Teddy would go back playing like normal and Mallory would just be in shock for a minute trying to make sense of what Teddy just told her. As the plot progresses, the horror elements increase in severity and they really added to the sense of urgency for Mallory to solve the mystery. With the supernatural horror elements, I loved how there were some rules implied earlier in the book and those rules held throughout the story.
The ending reveals were bonkers and are 100% the make or break part of the book. After finishing, I was skimming through reviews and all of the lower-rated reviews specify that the 80% mark is where the story went off the rails for them and they didn't like where the reveals went. The reveals really worked for me but I can understand why these other readers weren't on board. I thought I could guess where things were going, but I was completely off base - which I loved! After finishing, I tried to think back and see if the ending was something that could be guessed and I think maybe certain really detailed-orientated readers might be able to see where this was going but I think the majority of readers will be surprised. There was one particular aspect that, once it was revealed, made me nervous to see how the book was going to handle that detail going further. While I can't definitively say it was handled well (as I'm not a part of the particular group), I can say that it felt to me handled in a very realistic and respectful manner. I also enjoyed the amount of wrap-up we get at the end that directly addresses this one particular reveal and the fallout from it. We do get a pretty long and specific villain monologue at the end which was probably my least favorite part of the ending but the actual details given were entertaining and twisty enough that I still overall enjoyed it.
Overall, this was a very entertaining mystery/horror. I loved the supernatural/creepy kid horror elements. The mystery was engaging and the pacing was on point. The ending reveals were a bit off the rails but it really worked for me.
Thanks to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for the ARC
Expected publication date is May 10, 2022
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