A sinister artist forces a woman into captivity to achieve her "vision" in Pictures of You, an intricate and surprising work of suspense from Josh Malerman (Unbury Carol; A House at the Bottom of a Lake).
Emily awakes the morning after a night out with her boyfriend, Jack, unsure of where she is. Even more disturbingly, she doesn't recognize the dress she's wearing. She can see the silhouette of a woman watching her through an empty frame. The woman warns her not to move and tells her that Jack will come to harm if Emily leaves "her piece." Trapped in a crazed version of a masterpiece with no hint of what will happen to her when it is finished, Emily must figure out how this would-be artist thinks and manipulate her way into a chance at escape.
The novel begins in medias res, disorienting readers in a way that's similar to how Emily feels under the effects of what she soon realizes is more than a hangover. Pictures of You's chapters alternate between Emily after she wakes in the strange room and scenes from the night before, which she spent out on the town with Jack. Hints emerge that the artist's abduction of Emily wasn't an arbitrary choice. The pre-kidnapping chapters provide glimpses of Emily and Jack's relatively new but increasingly serious relationship, intensifying the stakes for both of them to make it through the ordeal safely. Malerman's thriller presents a case of obsession that would do Patricia Highsmith proud. --Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library