Slenderman
A Tragic Story of Online Obsession and Mental Illness
Published on 1. September 2022
368 pages
978-1-4735-6231-8 (ISBN)
Description
'A compelling yet harrowing read' Daily Mail
'One of the best true crime books of the year' CrimeReads
The 2014 Slenderman stabbings in Wisconsin, USA, shocked the local community and the world. The violence of Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weiser, the 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 an internet meme, the so-called 'Slenderman'.
Slenderman tells the full story for the very first time. Morgan and Anissa's friendship could so easily not have taken the turn it did - but Morgan was suffering with early onset schizophrenia. She believed she had been seeing Slenderman for years, and that the only way to stop him killing her family was to bring him a sacrifice. Her victim miraculously survived the attack but was left deeply traumatised, while the severity of their crime meant Morgan and Anissa would be tried as adults.
Slenderman is both a page-turning true crime classic and a compelling search for justice.
'One of the best true crime books of the year' CrimeReads
The 2014 Slenderman stabbings in Wisconsin, USA, shocked the local community and the world. The violence of Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weiser, the 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 an internet meme, the so-called 'Slenderman'.
Slenderman tells the full story for the very first time. Morgan and Anissa's friendship could so easily not have taken the turn it did - but Morgan was suffering with early onset schizophrenia. She believed she had been seeing Slenderman for years, and that the only way to stop him killing her family was to bring him a sacrifice. Her victim miraculously survived the attack but was left deeply traumatised, while the severity of their crime meant Morgan and Anissa would be tried as adults.
Slenderman is both a page-turning true crime classic and a compelling search for justice.
Reviews / Votes
A compelling yet harrowing read that reveals how a seemingly innocent childhood friendship could lead to such a devastating outcome. * Daily Mail * One of the best true crime books of the year * Crimereads * Book of the week * People magazine * [Of the author's earlier work Kathleen Hale is a Crazy Stalker] Reminiscent of David Foster Wallace and Jon Ronson * Jesse Eisenberg * Kathleen Hale's Slenderman is a haunting, powerful, accomplished and necessary book that is impossible to put down * Sonia Faleiro, author of The Good Girls * Inside this intimate, plain-spoken masterpiece lies a haunted secret garden of feverish childhood fears and fantasies. It's a shadow world for which nothing can prepare you, and one which I doubt you'll ever be able to shake * Walter Kirn, author of Blood Will Out * Perceptively observed, compellingly researched, Slenderman is a fluent and stylish account of a childhood folie a deux and its tragic aftermath. Through careful first-hand research and personal interviews, Kathleen Hale exposes the destructive force behind this case--not the fictional supernatural Slenderman, but the monstrous failure of the judicial system when it comes to forensic mental health. Slenderman is a work of wise sympathy * Mikita Brottman, author of Couple Found Slain * Slenderman is a tour-de-force, a riveting and shocking read. On one level, it provides a remarkable reconstruction of a chilling crime, the stabbing of a twelve-year-old by two of her friends-a murderous assault that she somehow survived. And simultaneously, it is a frightful tale of how the state of Wisconsin dealt with the deeply disturbed young girls who committed the crime. The product of immense amounts of painstaking research, Slenderman is a gripping and utterly compelling account of two overlapping nightmares. You won't soon forget this book * Andrew Scull, author of Desperate Measures * A riveting and beautifully-written exploration of a tragedy, powered by rigorous reporting and equally rigorous sense of empathy. The Slenderman story that briefly obsessed the tabloids turns out to be about so much more in Hale's capable hands: Midwestern girlhood, early onset schizophrenia, the failures of our criminal justice system, and the uneasy power of childhood friendships * Rachel Monroe, author of Savage Appetites * As the first researcher into the case to draw extensively from transcripts of vital records, Hale has produced what stands as the most accurate account to date of this horrifying episode. This is a must for true crime fans * Publishers Weekly *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Ebury Publishing
File size
1,02 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-4735-6231-8 (9781473562318)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
09/2022
Ebury Press
€19.00
Shipment within 3-4 weeks
Person
Kathleen Hale is the author of two young adult novels and an essay collection. She has written for the Guardian, Hazlitt and Vice. A graduate of Harvard, she is also a writer and producer for Outer Banks on Netflix.
