Review: Slender Man

Slender Man Slender Man by Anonymous
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A solid 4 Stars

Slender Man is a creepypasta/urban legend horror figure that may have origins in folklore. He's a spooky character who appears in forested areas (even those in urban settings) and who snatches children or young people. He is very tall, very thin, faceless, and has long arms that have been described by those unfortunate enough to have seen him as tentacle-like. Paying too much attention to Slender Man, whether talking about him, or trying to photoshop photos that look like he's in them, can attract his attention, drawing him near you. You really don't want him near you. Hence, if you're brazen enough to write a book titled Slender Man, it's probably better to do it anonymously. It will make it harder for him to find you.

Slender Man the novel is the tale of Matt Barker and his friend Lauren Bailey. Matt and Lauren have been friends since childhood and in that teen way, though they're close enough to be texting each other all the time, even though they are in the same high school (The Riley School) they don't really hang out. Lauren is quite popular and Matt is more low key. Their parents have been close for many years because their mothers were in grad school together. Lauren is a supportive beta reader for Matt's writing and encourages him to take the prospects of studying writing in college more seriously. Matt feels for Lauren because her dad, a well known gynecologist, is a real cad whose name has been associated with gossip column scandals with supermodels. Matt doesn't ask too many questions but does ask supportive ones. He and Lauren really care for each other. Yet, for all their quiet connectedness, they haven't shared with each other the fact that Matt has been having terrible nightmares for weeks and that Laura has been taking some mighty creepy photographs late at night. Both kids live at swanky Central Park West addresses. Central Park has some pretty nicely forested areas, especially near the reservoir. Funny how Matt has started dreaming about a lake... Funny creepy. He's only shared a bit of his creepy dreams with his friend Jamie, a friend who doesn't even know how close Matt and Lauren really are. Of course he hasn't really talked to his therapist about them... or his parents. And so when Lauren disappears in the middle of the night, one cool March evening, and Matt has his worst yet nightmare at that exact moment, you know things are about to get pretty scary. Matt gets frustrated with the lack of progress in Lauren's missing persons case and tries to investigate Lauren's disappearance on his own, with a bit of help and encouragement from a mysterious online friend, Ryan, who warns him again and again to... Be Careful.

Told in what I call the "modern epistolary format," with emails and text message exchanges and reddit threads, Slender Man tells a genuinely creepy story that is a perfectly scary YA Halloween read.

A bit of research shows that the true author of this book might be YA author Will Hill. But I wouldn't be surprised if he won't own it. After all... there are forests pretty much everywhere.

Thank you HarperCollins! I received a paper review copy of this book from Harper Voyager in exchange for an honest review.

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