Thank you Grover Press, #partner, for the finished copy of Slenderman in exchange for my honest review. I purchased the audiobook for my collection.
Publisher: Grover Press
Published: August 16, 2022
Summary:
The first full account of the Slenderman stabbing, a true crime narrative of mental illness, the American judicial system, the trials of adolescence, and the power of the internet
The Slenderman stabbing of May 31, 2014, in the Milwaukee suburb of Waukesha, Wisconsin, shocked the local community and the world. The violence of Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier, two twelve-year-old girls who attempted to stab their classmate to death, was extreme, but what seemed even more frightening was that they had done so under the influence of a figure born by the internet: the so-called “Slenderman.” Yet the even more urgent aspect of the story, that the children involved were suffering from undiagnosed mental illness, was often overlooked in coverage of the case.
Slenderman: Online Obsession, Mental Illness, and the Violent Crime of Two Midwestern Girls tells that full story for the first time in deeply researched detail, using court transcripts, police reports, individual reporting, and exclusive interviews. Morgan and Anissa were bound together by their shared love of geeky television shows and animals, and their discovery of the user-uploaded scary stories on the Creepypasta website could have been nothing more than a brief phase. But Morgan was suffering from early-onset childhood schizophrenia. She believed that she had been seeing Slenderman for many years, and the only way to stop him from killing her family was to bring him a sacrifice: Morgan’s best friend Payton “Bella” Leutner, whom Morgan and Anissa planned to stab to death on the night of Morgan’s twelfth birthday. Bella survived the attack, but was deeply traumatized, while Morgan and Anissa were immediately remanded into jail, and the severity of their crime meant that they would be prosecuted as adults. There, as Morgan continued to suffer from worsening mental illness after being denied antipsychotics, her life became more and more surreal.
Slenderman is both a page-turning true crime story and a search for justice.
My thoughts:
I first heard of the Slenderman case when I read a fictional account of a story inspired by this actual case. Carter Wilson wrote Mister Tender’s Girl back in 2018 and I absolutely loved that book. I’ve been meaning to read more on the actual case so when I was offered this book, I knew I had to read it.
This book does a deep dive into the case of the two girls who stabbed their friend. They had become obsessed with the online fictional character, Slenderman, and came under his influence. But it also goes on to show that there is strong evidence that mental illness is at play here.
This book was not easy to read at times, but it is readable and it is quite evident the author did a ton of research before writing the book. She gives us the events leading up to and after the incident, giving us the larger picture, rather than just focusing on the aftermath.
I love reading books like this, especially when I’ve already come to the book having a little knowledge about the subject. I’m glad I finally got to this one and it’s one I know I won’t be forgetting anytime soon – it’s just too horrific to forget!
Audio thoughts:
This was narrated by Therese Plummer and she does such a phenomenal job with the narration. She’s able to tell it in such a way as to keep the emotion just right – using appropriate voices for the young girls without sounding too babyish. Her affect mirrored what Kathleen wrote and it was perfection all around.
Purchasing from the link below supports independent bookstores and my blog!
