ARC Review: Pictures of You, by Josh Malerman

Title: Pictures of You

Author: Josh Malerman

Publisher: Del Rey

Genre: Horror

Date of Publication: September 8th, 2026 

Number of Pages: 288

See it on Goodreads: Pictures of You

*Disclaimer: I have received a free copy of this book via NetGalley. Thank you to Del Rey for providing me with this copy.

Summary

A woman becomes the unknowing subject of an artist’s dangerous work in this intense Hitchcockian thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Incidents Around the House.

After a magical night out on the town with her boyfriend Jack, Emily wakes alone in a huge bed in a beautiful, well-lit room. But the pink ceiling, the mauve walls, and the deep, dark corners are nothing like the hotel she and Jack rented.

More worrisome yet: Emily has no memory of this place from the night before.

Where is she?

A woman’s voice directs her to remain in bed.

Just so...

And beyond the end of the bed, a picture frame upon an easel—a frame with no canvas, no painting, no art.

Only... there is the silhouette of a person Emily does not recognize. A person emanating demand, danger, evil. And the way the woman talks... and the things she says... She’s acting as if Emily herself is the painting. The still life. The art.

Emily is as scared as she is confused. But it’s immediately clear Jack’s life is on the line with her own. And if she attempts to escape the bed and the wood frame of this nightmare masterwork, neither will survive the experience.

Emily is fierce, independent, brilliant, but to get out of this, she’ll have to think like an artist herself.

The clock is ticking.

For Emily.

For Jack.

For being forever trapped.

Review - A Brushstroke of Horror

When I received the email from NetGalley informing me that I would receive an eARC of Josh Malerman’s upcoming novel, I almost shrieked with excitement. It’s no secret that horror has taken over my reading in the past year, and my fascination with it doesn’t seem to falter.

But this time, there was also an additional reason for me to being so excited about Pictures of You. This novel is about a woman trapped in a painting, and a painter using a frame without a canvas. If you’ve seen my recent reading audit, you can easily understand that I should love a book with such a premise – and maybe I should be looking for more horror about art/art as horror, in general. This is also the reason why I couldn’t even wait for Summerween to read it, like I’d originally planned.

Let me tell you, Pictures of You has one of the strongest premises I’ve read in a while. Jack and Emily are a fairly new couple, on a weekend away. After a night out, Emily wakes up in a strange room, wearing a strange dress, completely disoriented. And to make things even weirder, there is a strange yet familiar woman in the room with her, looking at her through an empty frame, claiming that she’s on the verge of creating her masterpiece. Jack, on the other hand, wakes up in their hotel room alone, but with both their mobiles right there.

One element of the book I really enjoyed is all the talk about art, in general, but also about artistic expression and the creation of art, in particular. This is something that I usually go out of my way to find in books (and until now, mostly in nonfiction books), so it was amazing to find it here.

However, this turned out to be the only element of the book that I really liked. I’m sad to admit that Pictures of You didn’t really work for me, even though I read it pretty quickly, wanting to find out what would happen.

First things first, I’m not sure I was able to connect with any of the characters. Both Emily and Jack didn’t seem really developed. Reading from them, felt exhausting at times as they seemed to be going around in circles without taking any action. I’d lost count of how many times I wanted to scream at Emily to just run for the door. Furthermore, I’m not sure that I enjoyed Jeff’s (the policeman’s) POV. I didn’t particularly like his voice, and I didn’t feel that he didn’t add much to the story.

But I could have easily get past all that if the reveal felt more satisfying. The moment we learned who Helen (the painter) was and how she was related to Emily was the moment that turned me off the most. Without giving much away, I would have liked to see her actions be more extreme in the past, and more deliberate in the present.

The more I think of Pictures of You, the more I believe that it would have been better as a novella. It would have made the story tighter and made it feel less repetitive.

Despite my criticisms though, I can’t say that I regretted reading it. Josh Malerman is always one of the authors that I will read, and I would have picked this one regardless of receiving the ARC. If you enjoy reading about art and the exploration of the artistic process, this book has something to give you.

Read more of my reviews here.