When two twelve year olds attempted to stab their friend to death due to a delusional belief in Slenderman, the case made headlines across the world. However, the defendents’ mental health issues made navigating the legal system more difficult.
Hale extensively interviewed Geyser, her family, and her legal team for this book, as well as drawing on court records and interviews given elsewhere by Weier and Leutner among others. As such, Geyser is the central figure of the book, and her struggles navigating the legal system as an underage and mentally ill prisoner are extensively explored. The author also does an excellent job of depicting the kind of community that the crime took place in, as well as how truly young and childish both the perpetrators and victim were.
However, the book does suffer for not being able to get Weier and Leutner’s sides of the story firsthand – while the author does give us some of their sentiments in their own words as drawn from other sources, I think the book would have been stronger if we got a better sense of both of their attitudes and experiences navigating the legal system themselves. The book also ends rather abruptly.
Since the book was published in 2022, there’s been further developments in the story that could impact how the author covered it. I’m especially curious about what Hale’s take would be on Geyser’s 2025 escape from the group home to which she was released after treatment at Winnebago.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.
