"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. On May 31, 2014, in the Milwaukee suburb of Waukesha, Wisconsin, two twelve-year-old girls attempted to stab their classmate to death. Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier's violence was extreme, but what seemed even more frightening was that they committed their crime 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 suffered from undiagnosed mental illnesses, often went 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 illnessafter being denied antipsychotics, her life became more and more surreal. Slenderman is both a page-turning true crime story and a search for justice"-- - (Baker & Taylor)

Using court transcripts, police reports, individual reporting and exclusive interviews, this page-turning true crime story recounts the attempted murder of 12-year-old Bella Leutner at the hands of two girls who believed they needed a sacrifice to keep Slenderman—a figure born on the internet—at bay. - (Baker & Taylor)

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

On May 31, 2014, in the Milwaukee suburb of Waukesha, Wisconsin, two twelve-year-old girls attempted to stab their classmate to death. Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier’s violence was extreme, but what seemed even more frightening was that they committed their crime 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 suffered from undiagnosed mental illnesses, often went 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 seen Slenderman long before discovering him online, 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 party. Bella survived the attack, but was deeply traumatized, while Morgan and Anissa were immediately sent to 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.

Kathleen Hale is the author of two young adult novels and one essay collection. She has written for the Guardian, Hazlitt, and Vice, among others, and is a writer and producer for Outer Banks on Netflix. She was born in Wisconsin and lives in Los Angeles.

Booklist Reviews

Hale's telling of the shocking 2014 crime known as the Slenderman Stabbing is a page-turning true-crime story as well as an eye-opening look at the treatment of convicts experiencing mental illness. Twelve-year-olds Morgan and Bella live in Waukesha, Wisconsin, and are best friends. Bella is actually Morgan's only friend, apart from the ones in her head, until she meets Anissa, who introduces Morgan to the fictional stories online about an evil character known as Slenderman. Believing he's real, and it's the only way to appease him, Morgan and Anissa hatch a plan to kill Bella in order to keep themselves safe. Most of the book details the events after the girls' arrest and focuses on the insistence to try them as adults, the trial and appeals, and Morgan's schizophrenia, which blossoms into full psychosis after the attempted murder. Hale is no stranger to controversy, and some readers may be turned off by her seeming empathy for Anissa and Morgan, which reads at the expense of Bella. Otherwise this is an engrossing account that is sure to include new information even to those familiar with the shocking story. Copyright 2022 Booklist Reviews.