PopHorror Let's Get Scared
As I mentioned in a previous review, I’m currently working my way through the 32 finalists in the Books of Horror Indie Author Brawl. Daughter’s Drawings by Nick Botic is one of those 32 finalists, but it was on my radar before that. Since its release on July 7th, 2023, I’ve been hearing friends and strangers alike sing its praises. And now that I’ve finally read it for myself, I’m here to tell you that all of those people were absolutely right.
This is a truly excellent book.
Synopsis
“I think someone broke into your car.”
It was during a pit stop at a rural diner that we heard these words, and began the years-long terror that would change our lives forever. Someone had indeed broken into our car, but they had ignored the laptops and tablets and luggage.
All they took was our daughter’s most prized possession: a folder full of her artwork.
We didn’t know what to think when Katie’s works started coming back to us, one slightly-amended piece of art at a time. But when this connoisseur of our six-year-old daughter’s creations began bringing the subjects of our her drawings to life in twisted, disturbing ways, we knew that we were dealing with a danger worse than any of us could have ever imagined.
Based on the viral short story of the same name, Daughter’s Drawings is the “surreal, methodical, and tormenting” (Felix Blackwell, Stolen Tongues) tale of a strange stalker’s obsession and the horror of stolen innocence, a relentless onslaught of anxiety that dissects every parent’s worst nightmare and confronts readers with the question, “How far would you go to protect the people you love?”
Daughter’s Drawings hooked me right from the beginning, and once I started reading, I had no choice but to continue. I NEEDED to know what happened next. This book is a true worst-case scenario and it feels like it was ripped straight out of every parent’s nightmares. A fun family vacation ends with a psycho stalking the Botic family across state lines, for literal years, while becoming increasingly violent and threatening. All of this had me speed-reading toward the shocking finale. I felt like I couldn’t consume this novel fast enough to satisfy my need to know how it would end.
There was an almost palpable sense of dread throughout Daughter’s Drawings that really never let up. Even the seemingly normal, everyday, happy events that occur during the breaks in the torment felt tense, because I was always waiting for the next invasion of the stalker. It seemed he was always lurking just out of sight, ready to destroy the Botic family’s sense of peace and security at any moment. And with every return, he seemed to be growing more and more unhinged, the threat of nightmarish violence becoming more real with every passing day.
The characters in Daughter’s Drawings are incredibly realistic, and I suspect that’s because they are modeled after real people. Nick Botic casts himself as the main character, writing in first person as though we’re reading a private journal, or perhaps just glimpsing his own internal monologue. Many critics seem to dislike first person narratives, and while I agree that they can sometimes feel lazy, when they’re done right they are outstanding. This is one such case. The first person format works brilliantly to draw the reader in, making the terror and uncertainty your own, creating a truly terrifying novel.
You can pick up a copy of Daughter’s Drawings in ebook, paperback, or hardcover from Amazon, but I recommend hitting up the author’s website to snag yourself a signed copy.
