Book Review: Mister Tender’s Girl

MISTER TENDER’S GIRL | Carter Wilson
02.13.2018 | Sourcebooks Landmark
Rating: 5/5 stars

When Alice Hill was fourteen she was a lonely teenage girl who was looking for friends. When the Glassin twins asked her to come over and hang out with them, she didn’t hesitate to accept the invitation. The twins volunteered to walk Alice back home that fateful night and instead of seeing her home safely, they stabbed her repeatedly and left her on a bridge in a park to die. Alice was luckily found by a Good Samaritan walking through the park. What possessed these sisters to attack Alice? According to them, Mister Tender, the main character of a graphic novel authored by Alice’s father commanded them to kill Alice.

Mister Tender was a bartender – part human, part demon – and he was excellent at lending an ear to stories of woe. Then he’s convince his customers to do very bad things.

Alice’s life has never been the same since the night of her attack. Shortly after, her parents divorced and she moved across the ocean to live in the United States with her mother and brother. Once she turned eighteen, she changed her name. She’s spent years turning her body in to a fighting machine. None of these preventative measures can stop Mister Tender and Alice’s biggest fans from stalking her and finding her. Alice has just received a final draft of Mister Tender, which her now deceased father, never took to publication and a man going by Mr. Interested is tracking her every move. Can Alice escape from this nightmare?

What if some of the people you meet in the world already know you? Know everything about you, have been studying you, stalking you? And you have no idea. Like you’re a bug trapped under their glass lid, and all you do is wonder stupidly why you keep running into invisible walls. 

MISTER TENDER’S GIRL is an addictive, fast-paced, suspenseful read filled with captivating moments that keep the reader at the edge of their seat. Carter Wilson sucked me in within the first few pages and kept me up far past my bedtime desperate to know what was going to happen in Alice’s life next. The chapters are short, which lends to the quick pace of the read. While there are certainly some situations, which may make a reader question the reality of this story, I think that everything lends itself to a lighter crime fiction, suspense read. MISTER TENDER’S GIRL is perfect for someone looking for a fun and interesting tale inspired by the actual events surrounding The Slender Man. Now, if only someone would publish an actual Mister Tender graphic novel!