Mister Tender's Girl is a well written dark, suspenseful thriller. Right from the beginning the story pulls you in. It held my interest throughout and kept me guessing until the end.

Alice Hill was 14-years old when she was viciously stabbed in the park by twin girls who claimed Alice was a sacrifice for Mr. Tender, a graphic novel character created by Alice's father. Mister Tender was a handsome, charming bartender - part human and part demon, and he was excellent at lending an ear and convincing his customers to do bad thing. "How far would you go?" would be his question. After her attack, her father had ended the series and refused to draw the character again. Years later, living in a new country under a new name, Alice receives an unfinished Mister Tender graphic novel in the mail. A past she thought she had ran away from, Alice finds out someone has been watching her all this time.

Great characters and a great plot. I highly recommend this book. Look forward to reading more from this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for supplying me a copy of Carter Wilson's "Mister Tender's Girl" in exchange for an honest review.

Mister Tender’s Girl by Carter Wilson is a thriller that is loosely inspired by a true story. Now having vague memories of the event I believe this book was based on I had a feeling that this would be one good read that I would enjoy and thankfully I was not wrong.

The story starts off introducing Alice Hill who bears the scars from an attack over a decade before not only on the outside but the inside as well. At just fourteen two girls whom she’d thought were friends viciously attacked Alice blaming the fictional graphic novel character called Mister Tender that Alice’s own father had created.

Now after years of battling her demons where she’d hit rock bottom with drugs and addiction Alice has finally straightened out her life owning her own home and coffee shop. But just when she begins to feel she has things worked out her world is again rocked when reminders of Mister Tender begin to show up and Alice realizes she has a stalker that knows her every move.

From the very beginning this book was one that was completely gripping as the intensity slowly ramps up for the main character. The more you learn about Alice and her past along with her present the more intense the story becomes waiting to find out just who has been stalking Alice and following along with her life over the years.

The only reason for me this one did not rate at a full five stars was the ending left a little to be desired. Everything wrapped up quite nicely with what is sure to surprise readers as far as the who and why’s are concerned but it felt as if it lacked a bit of spark overall in the total execution, if that makes sense. Overall though the book certainly had my attention and kept the pages turning so I’d definitely check out something else by this author in the future.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

There were so many aspects of this book that I really, really liked. I loved the anagram, that was way cool. The website and the stalking gave the book a major creep factor which was right up my alley.

However, and this is not a bad thing towards the author - just a heads up (imo), tiny warning. A small part of the book dealt with self harm (cutting) that came in towards the end. That just makes me super queasy, I just don't get that, not at all. I realize it's a thing but I don't care to read about it while I am wanting to be entertained. Fortunately, that was a very small part. I just wanted to warn those of you who feel like me and would appreciate the heads up.

This was my first book by this author and it definitely won't be my last. My aversion to a detail he chose to use did not alter my feelings for the rest of the book.

Huge thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark and Net Galley for introducing me to this author by providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

Fourteen-year-old Alice Hill was a victim of Mr. Tender, which is ironic because Mr. Tender is a fictitious character in a graphic novel written by Alice’s loving and benevolent dad. He’s a bartender who likes to ask people, “What would you be willing to do to get what your heart desires?” Obsessed by the idea of pleasing Mr. Tender and goaded by a supposed message from him, Alice’s friends – twin girls her age – attempted to kill Alice with a kitchen knife.

Fourteen years later we meet Alice, who has survived but at a terrible price. She experiences severely disabling anxiety attacks and mourns the loss of her family. After the knifing, her mother blamed her father and moved Alice and her brother from London to the U.S.A. Her father has met an untimely death in London, and now Alice finds she has once again become a target.

This is a true thriller full of scary events and situations that make you glad you’re not Alice. At times, though, it can be hard to read about her anxiety attacks and the depths to which she has fallen and continues to fall. Drugs, alcohol, death, and more become almost routine to her as she tries to put an end to her continued persecution. Some of the dysfunctional people around her begin to tip their hands early, but not all. It’s hard to call this an enjoyable book, but it was definitely one I could not put down. A little slow in the beginning, it eventually took off and is worth wading through to get to the good parts.

I was given an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is a very interesting and unusual book. I didn’t see a lot of the twists coming, which is always a pleasant surprise. It uses the Slender Man tragedy as a jumping off point, but the novel really makes this story it’s own. Well written and the characters are very real. It’s a good book for people who really like to read as well as people who read occasionally for light entertainment. – one small piece of information, although the protagonist is a British female, the voice of this book is very American and masculine. That does not take away from the book but it was definitely not expected and it took me a while to figure out why I was discombobulated by the voice.

Well, this book made me lose a lot of sleep: had. to. finish! An intriguing dark tale, full of twists & turns that will pull you right in & make ya say “What the....?” Check this original thriller out, y’all.... it’s worth the loss of sleep!
Thanks to netgalley & the publisher for giving this opportunity.

Oh. My god. This book was not at all what I was expecting. I could not possibly express that enough. It was so much more.
The characters, the crimes, the stories, but mostly the writing! Beautiful but not pretentious in its presentation, this book is the book I wish I had written. I sincerely thank Carter Wilson for giving us this book! I'm having both my book groups read it as soon as it comes out.
Much much thanks to herbalist and the publisher for the chance to review this early.

*4.5 stars

"If you get the sudden urge to start trusting someone, be smart and do away with it," advises Ferdinand the Penguin in the epic adventure story Reginald Hall tells his children, Alice and Thomas, each night as he tucks them into bed.

From that story which he called Chancellor's Kingdom, he creates a series of popular graphic novels based on an evil character in his fable. The character is named Mister Tender; he is a charismatic and handsome bartender who pours his customers their drinks while slowly learning their deepest secrets, what they most desire. And then he asks, "What would you be willing to do for it?" And their answer inevitably is, "Anything."

And then there comes the terrible evening when fourteen-year-old Alice goes into the park with her friends, the Glassin twins. The girls stab her nearly to death and later claim they were told to commit this dastardly deed by Mister Tender, who promised them they'd be famous. The girls are judged sane enough to stand trial and are sent to prison.

Alice survives, barely, but has terrible scars, emotional as well as physical. Her mother decides to leave her husband and England behind and takes her children to live in Boston to start a new life where no one knows them. Reginald never writes another book and is ironically fatally stabbed outside his publisher's office.

With her inheritance, Alice, now twenty-eight, has opened a coffee house in Manchester, NH. Her carefully-constructed life begins to slowly start unraveling however when she discovers that someone is stalking her and knows intimate details of her life. He calls himself Mr. Interesting and has even created a website devoted to Alice. One thing Alice knows for sure: she will never again be a victim!

When asked if his story is based on the Slender Man stabbing which occurred on May 31, 2014, in Waukesha, Wisconsin, Carter Wilson says "it was inspired by that. When I first read the news article about the Slenderman crime, I got about two paragraphs in when I stopped reading, because I knew I wanted my next book to be framed around that idea. Mostly, I wanted to explore what that girl (the victim) turned into as an adult. How did she cope with what happened to her? That turned into the major theme of MISTER TENDER'S GIRL."

Many thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the opportunity to read an arc of this thrilling new novel.

Its so hard to review and describe this novel! I would just have to say wow and wow. This book was a thriller but was so much more. It seemed so real and disturbing and it was hard to sleep while I was reading it. The visicousness of the classmates who attacked Alice was awful enough but then her inability to escape her past 10 years later was even worse. This story was so intense and mind blowing at times and that was a good thing. I will not spoil this novel but I will say that I highly recommend it to anyone who loves a good thrill ride and who wants to be on the edge of their toes. Carter Wilson knows how to lure the reader in to a new world. I would like to thank net galley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. I truly enjoyed this story and I think it would be the perfect story for anyone who needs to escape and who likes to be scared. A true 5 stars out of 5!!

It’s a shame this book contains so much profanity that is sure to turn many potential readers off. The cursing runs the gamut from the f word to words that people who have faith in God find offensive. That includes me. At times, it was very much overdone.

The story itself is actually well-written; it drew me in from the beginning, I really came to like the main character who was a victim at a young age and came from a dysfunctional family. It had many of those, “oh no!” moments where you really feel sorry for this person who has struggled to pull her life together after.


As the story continued, I came to suspect a certain character in the book and did not find the ending surprising.

Alice may have survived the attack but she's living - or surviving- with the aftermath. This well written and nicely paced psychological thriller spools out details of what happened when her classmates stabbed her in the name of Mr. Tender. This loosely follows a real case. And now, all these years later, she's got a stalker. Her family has fallen apart (really fallen apart) but she's holding it together- she's got a small business and her own rituals. It's hard to review this sort of book due to spoilers but it's really good. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. I'd not read Wilson before but he's definitely got a good touch, not only with plot but also with his smooth writing. This is a page turner.

Phenomenal!! Plenty of intrigue, suspense and horror. Received an ARC from NetGalley for an honest review. First heard of the book from BookishFirst reading the First Impression and was hooked. Didn’t win the Giveaway from BookishFirst, but requested from NetGalley and received. Started off as the same premise of the real life stabbing of young girl by two friends in the Slender Man case, but quickly morphed into its own story. I feel for Alice who is a loner with no one to turn too. The family dynamics is crazy. Her brother is non-functioning, her mom is barely keeping it together and her dad died tragically the way she was attacked. We don't meet him, but his spirit had to be destroyed knowing that the character he created is what a psycho used to attack his daughter.
Mantra and advice from Ferdinand throughout the book, “And what did the Penguin always tell you, Alice? Don’t trust anyone”. Ferdinand is the Penguin in the bedtime story that Alice’s dad tells Alice and her younger brother Tommy, in his story of the Chancellor’s Kingdom where they fly to safety on the Penguin’s back. Alice is a owner of a coffee shop who keeps to herself but soon realizes that there is an online community of crazies that have been secretly watching and following her even after she fled England to Manchester, NH. She doesn’t know who to trust as in the Mantra, don’t trust anyone Alice. Alice just about loses her mind following leads back to London to where she was stabbed, visiting the sick twins and other clues. At different points throughout the book, I thought I knew who it was, but was surprised at every section. Excellent. I really enjoyed this book.
Phenomenal!! Plenty of intrigue, suspense and horror. Received an ARC from NetGalley for an honest review. First heard of the book from BookishFirst reading the First Impression and was hooked. Didn’t win the Giveaway from BookishFirst, but requested from NetGalley and received. Started off as the same premise of the real life stabbing of young girl by two friends in the Slender Man case, but quickly morphed into its own story. I feel for Alice who is a loner with no one to turn too. The family dynamics is crazy. Her brother is non-functioning, her mom is barely keeping it together and her dad died tragically the way she was attacked. We don't meet him, but his spirit had to be destroyed knowing that the character he created is what a psycho used to attack his daughter.
Mantra and advice from Ferdinand throughout the book, “And what did the Penguin always tell you, Alice? Don’t trust anyone”. Ferdinand is the Penguin in the bedtime story that Alice’s dad tells Alice and her younger brother Tommy, in his story of the Chancellor’s Kingdom where they fly to safety on the Penguin’s back. Alice is a owner of a coffee shop who keeps to herself but soon realizes that there is an online community of crazies that have been secretly watching and following her even after she fled England to Manchester, NH. She doesn’t know who to trust as in the Mantra, don’t trust anyone Alice. Alice just about loses her mind following leads back to London to where she was stabbed, visiting the sick twins and other clues. At different points throughout the book, I thought I knew who it was, but was surprised at every section. Excellent. I really enjoyed this book.

I don't think I've ever used the word "exquisite" when describing a book, but that's the word that comes to mind now. This book is exquisite in all respects.

The writing style: perfection. I was lost in the words. I wanted to read faster, to find out what happened, but I also wanted to read slower, to savor each phrase.

The characters: each one is complex, unique, and oh so real. I cared what happened to them. I felt their pain, their hope, their fear.

The plot: are you kidding me? Wow! I read more than 100 books a year, yet I have never read anything that even comes close to this story. It's intense, believable, powerful, and unputdownable.

This book is so much more than a typical thriller. The subtleties in the content bring the story to life far beyond a mere reading experience.

An excerpt from Mister Tender's Girl was available as a First Impression on the BookishFirst website. I read it, thought "Oh my God!", and immediately went to NetGalley to see if it was available to request. It was, and I was fortunate to receive a review copy. So thank you to BookishFirst, NetGalley, and Carter Wilson for this book. It blew me away.

Alice has one mission in life and one mission only. She just wants to live and forget about the horrid past. She wants to forget that she was almost murdered by two obsessed fans of a graphic novel written by her father. She learns that she can't always run away from the dark past. Sometimes it lingers.

I really enjoyed the story. It was intense. It was provoking. It was thrilling. It's amazing how somebody can go through so much in their life and still find the will to keep on living. Find the will to fight through the panic attacks and just keep on journeying forth. I found the realistic touches around all of the ordeals in the book amazing! I was even a bit uplifted and inspiring.

I have to be honest though, I didn't care for the first part of the book. I felt it was very sloppy and not written out well. It's hard to connect with anything in the first part of the book. I was in love with the idea of the story though and I decided to keep reading it. Even though I wanted to put it down several times. I am glad I resisted. I'm glad I kept reading.

I do recommend reading this book. It's very intense and thrilling. You'll be guessing until the very end. I feel like this book could use a bit of a polish and connection in many places. But all in all, it's a terrific book. Definitely worth the read for thriller and horror fans. I guess I should say it's great for mystery lovers as well!

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read Mister Tender's Girl. For those who have followed the story of the Slender Man, this book will get you going.
More a YA but scary and dark.
good read.

Wonderful book! I really enjoyed it! It lived up to my expectations! I loved Alice; she was such a complex character who knew what she wanted and what it took to get it. Full review to come.

Edit:

Obligatory Statement: I received an e-arc of this from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wow. That was a roller coaster of a novel.

I had read an excerpt of this novel on BookishFirst and I was just hooked. I really wanted to know how this book character inspired the stabbing of Alice. The best part of this story since of course, it was a thriller, was how the main antagonist related to Alice which I am not going to spoil but I will say that I definitely did not see it coming.

Alice as the main character was interesting and knew what she wanted in life. And that was to live a quite normal life with her coffee shop and to have no one ask her about Mister Tender. But hey we can't always get what we want. Now, one issue that I did have with Alice was her nonchalant way of dealing with a characters death. I understand that we all have different coping methods but I was expecting a bit more humanity. Her mother was a bit overbearing at some points, but I mean Alice was almost killed once and then Alice's father was also killed so it makes sense. Now Alice's brother, Thomas, was spunky and I do feel bad for him because he is ill and his mother does not let him do a lot on his own.

Now for the one character that never speaks, Mister Tender does play a large role in the book as he is somewhat of an antagonist. I do also wish that there were excerpts of the comics that were included in the book. This visual imagery would have been nice to get a visual idea of what the Alice and the author characters are looking at and it makes the story feel more tangible. However, I did read an ARC so maybe in the finished book, there will be the comic panels.

I am sorry that this review seems a bit sparse but I don't want to spoil anything because it would take away from the thriller aspect of the book.

Thank you again to the publisher for providing me a copy to review.

If you were intrigued by the "Slenderman" crimes, you should pick this up. It's fictionalized, but really delivers on what it would be like to survive an attack like that.

"My father created Mister Tender, and Mister Tender nearly killed me."

This book is 60 chapters of bone chilling twists and turns! Not only is it a terrifying thought that people can be so obsessed to kill because of a fictional character, but it is absolutely incredible that this story is based on a true crime.

Alice is a strong, but fragile character. I felt her fear and paranoia and then her anger and resolve to not be the victim anymore. The events leading up to the finale are excruciatingly intense and this book is the epitome of what a psychological thriller should be. If you like fast-paced, psychological thrillers with some graphic depictions, reserve it today. It goes on sale in February 2018. You won't regret it!!

Holy cow I am blown away. I would have never even come across this book had I not been following another blogger The Suspense is Thrilling Me and happened upon their review. Goodreads tells me it took about ten days to finish, what it doesn't tell anyone else is that in that ten days I also finished two other books and only got the chance to read this one on my phone either at night or before work. So in all actuality it's almost like it only took me two or three days!

This book took all sorts of twists and turns, not just occasionally but through it's entirety. From Alice discovering she's being stalked, to her confronting people from her past, to her impromptu oversea's trip and subsequent visit to the girls that started her misery. All of it twisted this story into the perfect thriller for me. Another thing I absolutely loved was that every character written was extremely believable. They all behaved how I imagine people put in these situations would actually behave (more or less). But the thing that absolutely sold me on this book, the thing I'm praising above all else, the flipping ending. I didn't see what was going to happen until right before she took her walk.

The only thing about this book that truly bothered me was the last three pages. The big showdown was phenomenal and I loved everything leading up to it but after the huge climax those final couple pages felt like a let down. That's the only reason this book received a four and a half star rating rather than a five star.

The Bad News: This book was NOTHING like what I had expected it to be.
The Good News: It didn't even matter what I expected because this book far surpassed what I would have wanted anyways.

Mister Tender's Girl is a fantastically written, fast faced, and insanely twisted ride that had me flipping the pages almost faster than I could read. I am new to Carter Wilson's writing but I have a feeling that after reading this one, I am going to want to go back and read some of his other books.

ABOUT THE BOOK
One may assume that this book is about the near death experience that the heroine, Alice, experiences after she is repeatedly stabbed by two of her classmates who are using her as an almost human sacrifice for Mister Tender. You may also assume it follows Alice when she is a young adult- before and after- these being stabbed. This however is NOT the case. For me, I picked up the book because I thought this was what it was about but I was seriously wrong.

Alice was stabbed and nearly killed and readers will learn about it in depth as the story progresses. But it is not a young adult thriller and doesn't follow Alice in her teens. It actually follows her as an adult, 14 years later, when she thinks all of this is behind her. Unfortunately, she is dead wrong. Mister Tender is back. He's stalking Alice and sending her into panic inducing states. But not only this, she is trying to come to terms with her brothers illness, her fathers death, and her mothers decent into insanity (well, what I would call insanity because I got to know her through the book).

Even more, readers will follow Alice on her journey to discover the truths and lies that have been turning her life inside out. And what a twisted, roller-coaster ride this is!

For some, you may not like Alice as she is almost devoid of any personality because of what happened to her as a kid. But others, like me, will love the intricate mind of her character, and find themselves sympathizing with her and wanting to help her out on the journey that has been waiting for her nearly half of her life.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
I really LOVED this book. It's unique, thrilling, filled with suspense, and unputdownable. The author was clever in turning what appears to be a "Slender Man" book into something so unique, yet so close, to the original story that it's hard to separate the two. There are some similarities, yet so many differences that it stands perfectly on it's own whether you know the Slender Man story or not. It's truly a gem and I hope many readers will give it a chance.

One of the drawbacks that I felt for the story (although it didn't stop me from stamping 5 big stars on the story) is that I wanted MORE of what happened to Alice when she was stabbed. A little it more of a backstory may have changed the whole story, but it's what I was suspecting so I was a little let down when it wasn't truly incorporated. Perhaps if the author did some past and present shots? That would have been really cool. Regardless of this though, I still really enjoyed this one and couldn't put it down for a minute. I think many readers will feel the same.

If you're looking for a dark and twisty ride, one with characters who remind you of the heroines from Sharp Objects and Dark Places, then this is your kind of book. I highly recommend it.