⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 / 5
Mister Tender's Girl is fiction, but is actually inspired by the true story of The Slender Man stabbing. If you aren't familiar with it, two girls were arrested for stabbing another girl 19 times as a tribute to the internet meme "The Slender Man". The girls were all 12 years of age. If you've never seen the character, it's creepy AF and I don't recommend looking it up. But that's up to you of course.
Mister Tender's Girl is the story of Alice who gets stabbed at the age of 14 by two girls seemingly possessed by "Mister Tender". Mister Tender is a half man/half demon who works as a bartender in London, and enjoys getting people to commit violent crimes with promises of what they want most in the world as a reward. Mister Tender is a fictional creation of Alice's father no less, and appears in graphic novels that are ended when Alice gets out of the hospital after the stabbing.
We catch up with Alice at the age of 28 in Massachusetts where she is now the owner of a coffee and sweets shop called the Stone Rose. Where it appears that Mister Tender is back.... among other problems resurfacing from Alice's past.
Mister Tender's Girl was an incredibly fast read, and has super short chapters which helped me breeze through it. I had such a hard time putting it down, and it was SO close to being a 5 star read for me. The book is told all from Alice's viewpoint which I think worked perfectly. I don't think I would have wanted any other viewpoints besides hers anyway.
Not gonna lie to you though, the end of this book was pretty damn disturbing. It actually kind of threw me off and was a tad gory. The book in general was at times a bit gory and made me cringe. Just wanted to throw that out there! I don't really care about the gore, but that's just me. It really wasn't that bad besides some visible cringing on my part.
My biggest issues were that the whodunnit didn't end up being as exciting as I was hoping it would be, and I was saying "DUH" in my head to some things that Alice was just figuring out. Those two things are really what brought this from a 5 to a 4.5 for me. At the very end I was just kinda like "OH".
Final Thought: There are plenty of surprises in Mister Tender's Girl, and a lot that I didn't have figured out. Just because I wasn't super impressed by the "whodunnit" does not mean that you won't be! If you love a good mystery and don't mind a little gore then this book is definitely for you. I also realized after reading this that Carter Wilson is local to me. So bonus points to you if you live in Colorado and read it.... you're welcome. ;)
Mister Tender's Girl is fiction, but is actually inspired by the true story of The Slender Man stabbing. If you aren't familiar with it, two girls were arrested for stabbing another girl 19 times as a tribute to the internet meme "The Slender Man". The girls were all 12 years of age. If you've never seen the character, it's creepy AF and I don't recommend looking it up. But that's up to you of course.
Mister Tender's Girl is the story of Alice who gets stabbed at the age of 14 by two girls seemingly possessed by "Mister Tender". Mister Tender is a half man/half demon who works as a bartender in London, and enjoys getting people to commit violent crimes with promises of what they want most in the world as a reward. Mister Tender is a fictional creation of Alice's father no less, and appears in graphic novels that are ended when Alice gets out of the hospital after the stabbing.
We catch up with Alice at the age of 28 in Massachusetts where she is now the owner of a coffee and sweets shop called the Stone Rose. Where it appears that Mister Tender is back.... among other problems resurfacing from Alice's past.
Mister Tender's Girl was an incredibly fast read, and has super short chapters which helped me breeze through it. I had such a hard time putting it down, and it was SO close to being a 5 star read for me. The book is told all from Alice's viewpoint which I think worked perfectly. I don't think I would have wanted any other viewpoints besides hers anyway.
Not gonna lie to you though, the end of this book was pretty damn disturbing. It actually kind of threw me off and was a tad gory. The book in general was at times a bit gory and made me cringe. Just wanted to throw that out there! I don't really care about the gore, but that's just me. It really wasn't that bad besides some visible cringing on my part.
My biggest issues were that the whodunnit didn't end up being as exciting as I was hoping it would be, and I was saying "DUH" in my head to some things that Alice was just figuring out. Those two things are really what brought this from a 5 to a 4.5 for me. At the very end I was just kinda like "OH".
Final Thought: There are plenty of surprises in Mister Tender's Girl, and a lot that I didn't have figured out. Just because I wasn't super impressed by the "whodunnit" does not mean that you won't be! If you love a good mystery and don't mind a little gore then this book is definitely for you. I also realized after reading this that Carter Wilson is local to me. So bonus points to you if you live in Colorado and read it.... you're welcome. ;)