“I see her every night,” Teddy says. “She sleeps under my bed so I can hear her singing.”

Back in January I read Strange Pictures by Uketsu and loved the concept, so when I came across this one featuring a story revolving around images I had to get it and see if it was just as good as the Uketsu book, and I can tell you, it was. What a ride!

In this one we meet a woman named Mallory. Mallory hasn’t had the easiest time, she was a drug addict, things went really bad for her, and she is now hoping to recover and find a job, maybe go back to college, do all the things she loved before everything went to hell. And in this book we follow her as she takes a babysitting job at a rich couple with their kid Teddy. Right from the start we learn that Teddy has an imaginary friend, or well woman, who sings under his bed and is always around. We also see Mallory and the parents’ reactions to it. I am not sure if I would have stayed haha if I had learned my charge was seeing things. But Mallory doesn’t really have any other chances so she takes it. And from that moment things interesting. Not just in regards to the spookiness but also in the parents.

Mallory was such a fun character though, due to her past, also unreliable. Her past, her reluctance to tell all the deets, not to mention the ghost/imaginary friend and things appearing at the little cottage she inhabits near the house, you never knew if it was all true or not. I did have a suspicion that she was a true good egg and not fooling us, but I have just read too many books like this and have been flipped around many times due to the MC, so I was ready. But again, I loved Mallory and loved that she was trying hard to find her footing again, make her life OK again, set everything right. I loved how she was with Teddy it was really sweet and I love how dedicated she became. Not even giving up when things got really scary and the parents more unpredictable. A lot of people would have ran, but she stuck around.

I am glad that as the book continued we got more deets on what happened to Mallory and why she turned to drugs.

I loved the addition of a dash of romance. Hello to Adrian. I wasn’t a fan how Mallory wasn’t honest with him, I could understand, but things really escalated and I just wished she had found the courage sooner. But I did love how they grew closer and closer, and even when things got really weird Adrian stuck with her. It was really sweet and I was actually rooting for them to get together.

The addition of pictures/drawings was just perfect. I loved how they gradually got better and better and more and more creepy. I loved seeing them form a story and I was curious to see what it would lead us to. I won’t spoil anything, but be prepared for a ride because HOLY HECK.

And the ending was just a rollercoaster. So many things happening. So many things coming to light. So much creepiness. So much WTF. I loved every moment!

The parents weren’t always my favourites. The dad especially was hard to love and the mom also had her moments. The author really wrote them well, and when things came to light, it just all clicked together on why they were like this.

I also loved the last part of the book with the interviews and how they got to make the pictures in the book along with the process for the cover. However, my cover is vastly different from the cover they are talking about which had me laughing. I get why this part was added to the new edition, but maybe an update would have been handy?

All in all, this was a freaking ride. Ghosts, mystery, twists and turns, and more. I would recommend this one to everyone!