Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel!
I was interested in this book because I'm a true crime junkie, yet, I didn't know much about this case except the basics. This is a well written and researched book that includes a lot of details about the Slenderman case. It explores mental health, toxic friendship and the dark side of the internet. I hoped this book would talk a bit more about the victim as well, however, I understand that the focus of this account was more on the lack of awareness in communities in general and the lack of mental health resources in the criminal justice system.
This is an incredibly sad and upsetting story, but I highly recommend this book to any true crime lovers who want more details on this case.

I truly wish we could give half stars as this book really should be a 3.5 star. It was interesting. I remember hearing about this case while it was fresh The book was well researched and gave a great account of Morgan's side. It was horrifying to see how poorly the mental health of a child with schizophrenia was handled by the adults in the criminal justice system. However I do wish there was more about Bella. Without input from her and her family the book felt very unbalanced. This is a book I highly suggest, not only because of the details given about the slenderman case but also because of how it point out the flaws with our justice system when it came to mental health and minors.

** Thanks so much to NetGalley, Kathleen Hale, and Grove Press for this ARC. Slenderman: Online Obsession, Mental Illness, and the Violent Crime of Two Midwestern Girls is out now! **

As a young midwestern teen when the Slenderman Stabbing occurred in May 2014, I was captivated by the horrifying story of two preteens in Wisconsin stabbing their friend multiple times in an attempted murder that they said was to pacify Slenderman, a character from Creepypasta. I had read several stories on Creepypasta and had never thought of them as having any real meaning. It was fascinating and heartbreaking to go back and read this comprehensive review of the case as an adult and a mental health professional - my heart absolutely broke for all of the children and families involved. I knew very little about Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity (NGRI) before reading this, and it was horrifying to see how poorly the mental health of an unmedicated child with schizophrenia was handled by the adults in the criminal justice system.

This was a much sadder book than I anticipated it being, and it focused much more on the children who perpetrated the stabbing than the child who survived it. A heartbreaking look at the intersection of mental illness and criminal justice, this book was captivating. It was also a little repetitive, and the same information was provided multiple times in different parts of the same chapter. I think it could have benefited from a little bit more polishing. With that being said, Hale clearly did extensive research when writing this. I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in true crime, mental health, or criminal justice.

This is the story of two 12 year old girls from West Virginia, who became obsessed with the fictional Slenderman, through the internet, and ended up planning to stab and kill their other 12 year old friend, to prove themselves to Slenderman. The victim , Payton Leutner, survived being stabbed 19 times. 😱 Unbelievable!! Both of the girls had undiagnosed mental illness. I actually don't remember hearing about Slenderman myself, but of course while reading I did some googling and watched some things on YouTube, down the rabbit hole! Lol!! This is such an insane crime, and the first I heard of it. I love true crime, so when I seen some other people on bookstagram read this, I immediately became intrigued, and I'm glad I read it. Out now!


Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the gifted copy. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

I live just 20 minutes from where the Slenderman case occurred and have always wanted to know what drove 2 children to so brutally injure another child who considered them to be her friends. While this book was packed with facts from police reports and court records, it felt very lopsided and opinionated. The main focus was on the primary perpetrator with some attention given to her accomplice. Very little was mentioned about the victim. The author wants readers to agree that the young women charged with attempted murder should have been tried as children rather than adults. While she made some convincing points, it took the focus away from the facts of the case and painted a very unbalanced and biased picture.

Kathleen Hale has provided us with an exceptionally researched document of what boils down to a broken legal system in the state of Wisconsin, against the backdrop of the well-known 'Slenderman' assault / attempted murder / trial. It's a painful read.

This is a tragedy for everyone involved, the families of the victim and the two perpetrators, a damning of parents' inability to recognize that their children are in danger in spite of warning signs for years. To be fair, we are all struck with "it can't happen to me" more often than we care to admit. But the three twelve-year-old girls are put through unbelievable suffering once events spin out of control.

I would argue that, no matter how well you feel you know the Slenderman case, this book will open your eyes to a whole new world and underworld that we can only thank our lucky stars we're not in. For now. Read this book.

This was a DNF for me. I’m not sure you can write a well balanced book about this crime when your primary source is one of the criminals, you have a clear vision to show them as a kind of victim, and the actual victim is alive and well (and not interested in talking to you). This just didn’t land well.

Incredibly detailed and researched. I remembered when Slenderman was everywhere on the internet, but hadn’t really heard about this case until very recently. Then, I saw that this book was coming out and jumped to read it. Absolutely phenomenal.

Thank you to the author, Grove Atlantic and NetGalley, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I had heard of the Slenderman phenomena and was very interested in learning more about the background story of the three girls. In particular, I wanted to understand how someone could let an invented story take over their life. However, I found the book very lopsided - this seems to be more the story (and defense) of Morgan Geyser, one of the two girls who stabbed the victim, and who was apparently suffering from undiagnosed schizophrenia since early childhood. Morgan and her family were willing to talk to the author. Neither of the two other girls nor their families were willing to talk to the author. Teachers and other witnesses also refused to talk to the author. Although she did impressively extensive research, this was not a full story and it shows. The perpetrator has been cast as the victim, by virtue of being placed at the center of the story and given a very sympathetic portrayal. This definitely did not sit right with me, given that the book leads you to expect at least an effort at objectivity. This might have worked better as a long-form journalistic piece.

Kathleen Hale’s Slenderman: Online Obsession, Mental Illness, and the Violent Crimes of Two Midwestern Girls (Grove, 2022) is a balanced, well-researched, and thoughtful account of an extremely sensational case and its even more sensational aftermath. What became known as the “Slenderman Stabbings” started with two pre-teen girls and an internet obsession with the horror website Creepypasta and the fictional character that was created there: Slenderman. Morgan Geyser became convinced that if they did not give Slenderman a blood sacrifice, he would kill everyone she loved. What was (shockingly) not recognized at the time was that Morgan was suffering from early-onset childhood schizophrenia. Her relationship with Anissa Weir, who was also suffering some serious emotional upsets, became a perfect storm: Anissa, who was extremely impressionistic, desperately wanted to please Morgan after Morgan told her about the blood sacrifice, even though her fear and panic about following through increased as they got closer and closer to the day. Morgan decided that in order to please Slenderman, they would have to kill someone who Morgan loved. Morgan decided that would be her childhood best friend, Payton “Bella” Leutner. Morgan and Anissa plan to kill Payton, but instead Morgan stabbed her nineteen times, and the two girls left her, alive, to bleed out in the forest. Immediately afterwards, Anissa and Morgan tried to make their way to Slenderman’s “mansion”. Luckily, Payton was discovered by a passerby and survived her injuries after a long stay in the hospital.
In my experience, many true crime books that cover cases that have been explicitly and garishly sensationalized by the media end up contributing further to this infamy. Hale’s text not only avoids this but gives her reader the knowledge that the media avoided because it didn’t fit into a click-bait headline. I not only learned a ton about this case that I didn’t know (even after watching HBO’s recent documentary on the case), but I learned so much about Wisconsin state law, schizophrenia, and the mental health care system in the United States. Hale very carefully depicts how the systems of law and healthcare in many ways work against each other to the great detriment of people who are found not guilty by reasons of insanity (NGRI). She also debunks many misconceptions of being found NGRI: many consider it a “get out of jail free card” when in fact, the sentencing in mental health facilities is usually longer for the offender than it would be if they were found guilty and sent to a prison. I was fascinated by the parts of Hale’s book that discussed these issues and it really sharpened my sense of the case.
Another thing this book does really well is tell the stories of all three girls. Hale extensively discusses Morgan’s mental health, her family, and her terrible mistreatment in both the mental health and justice system; the parts of the book that discussed the debate of whether or not Morgan should have been tried as an adult were enraging as a reader: Morgan was twelve years old when she committed the act. Not only is your brain not done developing at that age (the book does a great job of explaining the science on this), but Morgan was deep in psychosis at the time of the crime and pretty much divorced from reality. The book makes an important argument for why offenders like Morgan should not be tried as adults, and what the far-reaching consequences are when the justice system decides that they will be. This is crucial reading and explicitly explains how horribly Wisconsin state law fails those with serious mental health issues. The book also goes through Anissa’s traumatic path through the justice system, her mental health struggles, and follows Payton through her recuperation. Hale does well by all three girls: she does not shy away from their struggles and tries to get at the heart of each girls’ issues and way forward. These parts of the book are sensitive and thoughtful.
For its detailed research, its careful storytelling, and its powerful arguments, this book is a must-read for anyone interested in this case.

I felt like the book was written to be biased towards Morgan who committed the criminal offence rather to the victim who suffered the attack. Yes Morgan was mentally unwell but she should not be treated like the victim because of mental health. Honestly it was really upsetting to read the book where the actual victim is not even seen as a victim and moving away from the horrid act that was committed. Maybe it is because the victim, teachers and witnesses didn't want to comment or be interviewed by the author the book turned out this way. It didn't feel like the full story and therefore the bias came into play in the narration. The style and writing did not sit with me.

I was shocked at how much of this story which I had heard about in various podcasts, I had wrong. So much of the information out there is sensationalized. To the point, I hadn't realized the victim wasn't dead. While the story did cover the attempted murder that shocked the nation, it focused more on the perpetrator's undiagnosed mental illness. Also the cultural trends in identifying and dealing with mental illness in our judicial system. It was fascinating and I could not put this book down. I highly recommend it to anyone that has an interest in true crime as well as society and mental illness. I give this book 5/5 stars.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of Slenderman by Kathleen Hale. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for providing an ARC to review.

Thanks to Grove Press and NetGalley for an ARC of this title.

This does a fantastic job of building on the author's previous reporting on this case and painting a full picture of where the parties in this case came from, where they've been failed by both their families and the judicial system, and what all happened. I devoured this in one afternoon.

Slenderman, by Kathleen Hale

Short Take: I knew this story was crazy, but I never realized how sad it is.

(*I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*)

Hello my beloved nerdlings! We’re heading into the dog days of summer, and you know what that means - s’mores and boozy drinks around the fire pit! I am old enough to remember when ghost stories were also part of the “sitting around the fire” experience, but I think those days have mostly passed. These days, our creepy nightmares are only a click away, thriving on social media and dedicated websites. And perhaps the most famous case of an internet urban legend is Slenderman, and how that bit of creepypasta destroyed the lives of three young girls.

By now, I think most of us know at least some of this story. Three thirteen-year-old girls - Morgan, Anissa, and Bella went to a park the morning after a sleepover, where Morgan stabbed Bella nineteen times, believing that Slenderman, would reward her for doing so. Anissa had conspired with Morgan to kill Bella, and the two tried to run away to Slenderman’s mansion after the stabbing.

Bella survived, however, and both would-be murderers were tried as adults and subsequently sentenced to decades in adult prison. The media, of course, did what the media does. They started yet another “do you know what your children are REALLY doing” panic, and misreported many aspects of the case, such as stating that Bella had died. A few briefly touched on Morgan’s schizophrenia, but it was generally treated as an afterthought.

Ms. Hale, however, has done a deep-dive into who all of these girls really are, and what actually led up to the horrific event. Focusing primarily on Morgan and her background, there are two facts that are heartbreakingly obvious in hindsight: 1) This was completely preventable, but it happened anyway, because 2) Morgan was failed by every single adult, at every single possible turning point, in her young life.

Despite many, many, MANY warning signs and a family history of schizophrenia, Morgan was written off as an imaginative, if unruly (and occasionally violent-ish) child. She had bonded intensely with Bella, but Bella became less comfortable with Morgan’s delusions and began drifting away. Anissa, on the other hand, lonely and mostly neglected, was willing to play along and embrace Morgan’s beliefs to keep her friendship.

We all know what happened next, the crime and incredibly punitive sentences, but this book is also an unflinching look at what happens to broken children when they enter a broken system. Slenderman also made me ask myself a lot of hard questions - when is a child’s imagination potentially dangerous? How can we balance punishment for crimes and therapeutic interventions for troubled children who commit them? All parents have blind spots where their own children are concerned, to what extent should they be held responsible when a child does something horrific?

The first half of Slenderman is a quick, interesting read, as we get to know the children at the center of the case and their families. However, it gets bogged down somewhat in dealing with the aftermath of the attack and various legal proceedings. I get what the author was trying to do, pointing out all the ways in which the legal system is not equipped to handle mentally ill children. But I feel like a lot of the details were too repetitive, and the author editorialized quite a bit.

Despite the uneven pacing, Ms. Hale has done a masterful job in understanding, and explaining the incomprehensible. And although the author had nothing to do with it, I wish with all my heart that the story could have had a different ending.

The Nerd’s Rating: FOUR HAPPY NEURONS (and some puppy time. I could use a bit of light and hope right now.)

It’s a amazing to me what human beings are capable of. It’s terrifying as a parent to know that even with friends, your kids aren’t always safe.

I remember reading about the Slenderman case when it happened. I've always been fascinated with what was the reasoning that drove the two girls to plot and stab their friend - at 12 years old.

This story has layers upon layers of information about mental illness and how that relates to our online usage, not to mention what "tales" are believed by children. We could also go into a deep analysis of medication for mentally ill children and whether they could ever be functioning adults after committing a horrendous crime, but alas, it's too much to cover.

For the review, I'll stick to Kathleen's writing of SLENDERMAN. I learned a LOT. I remember hearing about the case and following it slightly in the news.

The book delves into what happened with a lot of details and WHY the stabbing happened. We also learn of the aftermath - the interrogations, the detention center, mental institution, therapy, court cases, medications (or not). We also learn a bit about what happened to all three girls' families in the years to come.

It was obvious Kathleen researched the case thoroughly. The details she wrote were helpful in seeing what really happened.

I wish she had been able to find out more about how the families are currently doing. I hope everyone involved has found a way to move on, but I'm sure it's still something they deal with each day.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for providing me an e-book copy of SLENDERMAN, by Kathleen Hale, to review.

I rate SLENDERMAN, by Kathleen Hale, four out of five stars.

Thank you for an advance reader copy in return for my honest feedback. I have always been interested in this case due to the podcast Crime Junkie and YouTube show Murder Mystery Monday. I also work as a therapist in a psychiatric hospital. I found the author's description of schizophrenia maintaining so much dignity for Morgan which I appreciated. The author went the extra mile to not stigmatize this already stigmatized disorder. Overall, great description of the case and I learned a lot.

Having lived in Wisconsin my whole life I remember The Slenderman stabbing. And have honestly always been curious about it.
My curiosity grew this past year with Morgan seeking release.
Slenderman is a very well written account of the girls life before, during and after the stabbing. It really brings you inside what was goong through their mind before, during and after.
I always wondered what happened to Payton after she physically recovered and was so glad to hear that she went on to college.
Definitely a must read for any true crime reader.

I thought it was a frightening insight into the dark side of human nature and insanity. I was especially disturbed by how truly disturbed people can draw others in..

Thank you Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for this advance reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

This book was really good. I've followed the case of the Slenderman stabbings since the incident occurred and I was worried that this book would just be a regurgitation of everything I already knew about the case, but I was pleasantly surprised to find a lot of new information in these pages. This book was well researched and well written. I've seen some reviews stating that the author was more sympathetic to Morgan and Anissa than she was to Bella, their victim, but as I see it, Bella may have been the stabbing victim here, but this book was more about the injustice of the Wisconsin judicial system and what happened to these two twelve year old girls. These girls were children and thrown into an adult system before they even knew what had happened. Morgan suffered from severe, untreated mental illness and although she was indeed the perpetrator, she was also a victim herself of a cruel and unjust system where judges are more worried about reelection than actually helping these two children. These girls did a terrible thing to their friends, but they weren't the monsters that they were made out to be. Focusing solely on Bella's trauma wouldn't be telling the whole story. Kathleen Hale went above and beyond to tell this story, which at it's core had three victims. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I hope Morgan and Anissa can continue to get the help they need and I wish nothing but the best to Bella in the future. There were no winners in this story. Sad and tragic, but true life. Four stars.