Title: Tenderness
Author: Robert Cormier
Publish Date: September 2004
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Pages: 240pp
ISBN: 0385731337
Classification: Fiction
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Age Range: 14 and up
Price: $16.95
Annotation: Eric is an 18-year-old serial killer and Lori is a fifteen-year-old runaway. They are both victims of sexual abuse who are quenching their needs for affection through murder.
Summary: Eighteen-year old Eric Poole has progressed from killing small animals to killing parents and unsuspecting young women. He has paid for these crimes by serving three years in the juvenile detention center. Lieutenant Jake Proctor has labeled Eric as mentally incapable of feeling and a psycho path. He believes Eric has committed at least three other murders, and will not be able to control himself. Upon his release, Eric encounters Lori, fifteen years old, whom he has met before when she was twelve. While on the road to hunt for Maria, a girl Eric met in the juvenile detention center. unveiling of Eric’s psychopathic desires and underdeveloped emotions.
Evaluation: A dark and gritty read that deals with major psychological issues rooted deep down within a serial killers mind. I thought the overall disturbance of the story to be quiet hard to read—killing kittens, oh my! However, Cormier allows the reader to venture into the dark world as to what and how things happened, which for me lead me to some creepy places and overall enhanced the story because it gave me the power to foresee the ugliness. This was definitely a novel I had to just put down and return reading when I was mentally able. The underlying theme, which so happens to coordinate with the title of the book, is for both characters to release their fixations and to be handled with love and tenderness. The ending was poignant and left me with an eerie feeling. Actually, the entire book left me that way.
Bibliotherapeutic Usefulness: Amazon:
- Being an outsider.
- Struggling with family pain.
- Having bad things happen to you and being confused about it.
Reason this book was chosen: After reading The Chocolate War, I decided I wanted to get another feel for Cormier’s work as I enjoyed his writing style. Tenderness focuses on an interesting subject: serial killing. The library record states, a psychological thriller told from the points of view of a teenage serial killer and the runaway girl who falls in love with him.
Similar Titles:
This book has been adapted into a film. Click HERE to view the IMDb page.
Awards:
Popular Paperback for Young Adults/Different Drummer, 1999
Here is the film trailer.
