The Slender Man
This book was given to me in the YA group giveaway. First of all I want to say I think this writer has real potential. The plot is solid and he managed to set it up in a way that created mystery and tension which is not easy to do. However, some of the other issues in the book kept me from rating it higher.
The book needs a good editor. Both for grammar/style mistakes(example: there should be paragraph breaks for dialogue)and especially for content. There is too much superfluous information in the novel that loses the reader. For example, the author might want to think about completely dropping the first two chapters. We learn about the main characters flossing habits and how everyone's hair is cut but are not pulled into the story. He could lose readers here because there are too many banal things happening and too many characters introduced but little tension. Luckily, things pick up a bit in Chapter 3.
The voice of the main character comes off as too young for sixteen -- she has the feel of a girl. However, that probably would not have bothered me so much had we gotten right into the thick of the story and stayed there throughout.
From what I can tell, the author of this novel is young and therefore can learn from the editing errors in this book what not to do for the next one. Were this book tighter and more streamlined, it could be a nail biter!
