in a vivid, almost biographical style, hale describes the crimes of morgan geyser and anissa weier in exceptional detail, and touches on difficult questions about criminal responsibility, juvenile crime, and, most importantly, the blind eye that society appears to turn when faced with mental illness. we are taken through the childhoods of all three girls — morgan, anissa, and their victim, payton — through which hale skillfully builds an image of the foundation that would later give rise to the tragic events to follow. hale creates a fantastic sense of helplessness as we watch morgan’s unchecked mental illness push her towards slenderman, a creepypasta character that takes ‘proxies’ that must kill people themselves, and how this introduction by anissa inevitably leads to a downward spiral. hale continuously reminds us of just how much these girls were truly only twelve years old, such as through their misunderstanding of what would happen to them if they were caught, and, more troublingly, through their questionings. we are made to watch as, due to a lack of understanding, parents, teachers, and police officers handle a case of early onset schizophrenia in a horribly irresponsible way, leading to the inevitable deterioration of morgan’s mental health. we are shown how ready the public are to assign adult responsibility to two children barely past the age of pre-pubescence, casting aside principles of criminal culpability to accommodate the moral reaction to the brutality of their crimes.

while hale’s detailed account highlights the various problematic ways this case was handled, her approach lacked the analytical commentary that would have truly shone a light on where this case was handled poorly and why it is important for changes to be made. yes, children should not be tried as adults for their crimes because they lack the same capacity of reasoning and understanding — but why is this such an essential factor to prosecution? what is the purpose of criminal punishment, and how should culpability be evaluated? if hale had taken a broader look, linking this to the patchwork of similar cases that rest on the same flaws in the legal system, her work would not just have raised difficult questions, but would have confronted them head-on.