'One man’s search for the truth about one of the most intriguing urban legends ever—the modern bogeyman, Slender Man—leads him down a dark, dangerous path in this creepy supernatural fantasy reminiscent of Night Film, House of Leaves, and Illuminae, that will make you question where the line between legend and fact begins
'A young man is desperate to find his missing friend . . . desperate enough to resort to the darkest means. But just how much is he willing to pay the Slender Man in order to save her?'
Chances are pretty good that if you've been on social media during the last decade you'll have heard about Slender Man. Beginning life as an online spooky story, the modern day myth has gone on to be the subject of games, movies, and books. Slender Man from Harper Voyager and it's unnamed author, uses the mythology of Slender Man to tell a slow building and chilling story.
Set within the bustling heart of New York City, a place one would not expect a story about Slender Man to be set, the book follows Matt Barker, a teen whose friend, Lauren, suddenly goes missing one night. Plagued by strange nightmares, Matt begins to try and figure out what happened to Lauren, stumbling across something that he never expected.
Slender Man chooses to ignore the standard novel narrative structure, and is instead presented as a collection of journal entries, social media conversations, and transcripts of audio recordings and interviews. This format made the book stand out straight away as something slightly different, and it must have presented a number of challenges for the unknown author.
Despite the limitations placed upon them by this format, the book managed to tell a well crafted narrative, including more details and characterisation than you'd first expect, and managing to be incredibly creepy in places too. It also used this format to make the reader think one thing, whilst doing something else entirely, something that you only realise come the end of the book. I won't say too much about this so as to not spoil any plot points, but the way the book has been structured means that the author is able to play a nice little trick upon the reader, and means that the book will read differently a second time around.
The use of emails and journal entries reminded me of older horror books such as Dracula and Frankenstein, with their narratives being relayed to the reader through personal correspondence. Whilst harking back to these literary classics, it also made me think of modern horror films, particularly found footage films. Slender Man felt like the written version of a found footage movie, where we're guided through the story by the central character and their point of view (camera being swapped out by written documentation). As such, it puts you into their shoes more than a standard novel does, even a first person book, and really makes you feel the disturbing nature of the events Matt is going through.
The book is also quite subtle in how it plays its horror, and the first third of the book doesn't really have anything supernatural going on at all. I thought that perhaps there would be no 'real' Slender Man in the book, but would rather be an exploration of modern internet mythology and how it can affect people; much like documentary film Beware the Slenderman did with the real world stabbing of Payton Leutner. However, this is not the case, and the book chooses to spend time setting up the characters and the story before introducing the horror elements.
Slender Man itself is done well within the book, and it's never 100% clear if the events we're being witness to are completely real or not. It plays into the psychological aspect of the entity, and you begin to question whether or not it might all be delusions inside Matt's head. The book leaves enough real evidenced that it might actual be happening that by the time you're finished reading it you'll have to make up your own mind.
Slender Man was not what I was expecting going into the book, but I was impressed with the story it managed to tell. Not only was it engaging and interesting, with some great creepy moments, but it managed to tell its story in a different way that made it stand out. We don't know who wrote the book, which helps add to it's found footage style feel, but whoever they are, they did a damn good job.
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