Fantastically Dark Psychological Thriller
Fourteen years ago, Alice Hill was brutally attacked by two of her schoolmates, twin girls obsessed with Mister Tender, a demonic bartender character created by Alice’s father. After the attack, her father vowed never to create another Mister Tender graphic novel again. But there are people out there still obsessed with Mister Tender, and Alice, still bearing the physical and emotional scars of her attack, slowly starts to feel he shadowy presence of someone in the background. Someone who knows everything about her past, someone who wants to own her future…
First of all: hurray! A psychological thriller that bring me back hope for the genre! If you’ve been following my reviews you’re no doubt aware that I was getting mightily sick of the damaged heroine psycho trope of most thrillers on the market now, looking to pick up some lingering success from Woman on the Train or Gone Girl. Most fall disappointingly short, but Mister Tender’s Girl has that ineffable something, a spark of real suspense and credible characters that make the genre so much fun.
It doesn’t hurt that the story is based on a true story, the Slender Man stabbing that took place in Wisconsin in 2014. It might just be me, but the fact that something this messed up has actually happened grounds the story and makes it that much more compelling.
Wilson offers us a vastly damaged protagonist in Alice, but her paranoia and PTSD seem to have been earned, rather than tacked on by an author trying to make a main character different. This is a girl who has gone through hell–and has the psychological scars to prove it–yet is trying her best to deal with her past and succeed in the present. The plot twists and turns, as it should, but Wilson is able to keep the plot twists feeling organic. Remember folks, it’s not how many plot twists you have, but how you use them.
This is a dark, occasionally grim look at the fragility of a woman who’s life is falling apart, and who may never have been in control of it in the first place. Yet Wilson is able to set this fragility against a determination and strength that may save her, or may hasten her undoing. In short, this book has restored my faith in the psychological thriller genre.
An advance copy of this book was provided by the publisher via Bookish First in exchange for an honest review.
First of all: hurray! A psychological thriller that bring me back hope for the genre! If you’ve been following my reviews you’re no doubt aware that I was getting mightily sick of the damaged heroine psycho trope of most thrillers on the market now, looking to pick up some lingering success from Woman on the Train or Gone Girl. Most fall disappointingly short, but Mister Tender’s Girl has that ineffable something, a spark of real suspense and credible characters that make the genre so much fun.
It doesn’t hurt that the story is based on a true story, the Slender Man stabbing that took place in Wisconsin in 2014. It might just be me, but the fact that something this messed up has actually happened grounds the story and makes it that much more compelling.
Wilson offers us a vastly damaged protagonist in Alice, but her paranoia and PTSD seem to have been earned, rather than tacked on by an author trying to make a main character different. This is a girl who has gone through hell–and has the psychological scars to prove it–yet is trying her best to deal with her past and succeed in the present. The plot twists and turns, as it should, but Wilson is able to keep the plot twists feeling organic. Remember folks, it’s not how many plot twists you have, but how you use them.
This is a dark, occasionally grim look at the fragility of a woman who’s life is falling apart, and who may never have been in control of it in the first place. Yet Wilson is able to set this fragility against a determination and strength that may save her, or may hasten her undoing. In short, this book has restored my faith in the psychological thriller genre.
An advance copy of this book was provided by the publisher via Bookish First in exchange for an honest review.