Slenderman Review

Online Obsession, Mental Illness, and the Violent Crime of Two Midwestern Girls by Kathleen Hale

Rating: Unable to rate

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.

---

The other day, I shared my thoughts on Slender Man. You can find my full review here. I read these two books side by side. It seemed fitting since they follow the same premise. An internet meme, a crowd-sourced horror story, a dark figure who bends reality, SLENDERMAN. And it definitely helped reading these two together! The fictional story mirrors similarities with the characters and how they thought of Slenderman to the girls in the real-life case.

I picked this up for my book club, and I was so excited to finally have a reason to pick it up. I remember when the myth of Slenderman started back when I was in school. So this was such a throwback for me. Slenderman was one that definitely gave me a fright back then, and if I’m honest, still does a little.

I remember when I first heard about this case, the Slenderman stabbing all those years ago. I was shocked by the details. So seeing this book, I was definitely curious to learn more about the case. 

This was hard for me to read. While I appreciate all the work the author went through for researching to get these details, and I know she stated at the beginning of the book that not everyone was willing to talk to her, but despite that, this definitely felt one-sided.

While there were clearly flaws in how the judicial system is in terms of mental health, after we move past the events of what happened, what these girls did to their best friend, it truly felt like the author was painting Morgan as the victim. Morgan was clearly disturbed and is finally getting help, but I had to remind myself while I was reading that she still stabbed her best friend. It was also disheartening to see how willingly ignorant her parents were with the information they knew. It definitely felt like this was an event that could have been avoided.

The entire case is heartbreaking and reminds us how impressionable young kids can be. As well as just how important mental health can be. Not something that should be ignored.

I do wish this true crime would be more unbiased and give more insight into Anissa and Bella. I felt it was too focused on Morgan. I still appreciate the attempt, and it gave me insight into this case with details I didn’t know before.

If you enjoy true crimes, you might want to consider picking this up. As long as you go into it with an open mind.