Tenderness

Cormier's latest novel returns to the theme of damaged adolescents attempting to find a dangerous status quo in a hostile, conformist world. Eric Poole finds his tenderness with beautiful, dark-haired girls in the first moments after he has killed them. Lori Cranston seeks the tenderness she cannot get at home through her sexual obsessions with strangers - most notably with Eric. Her fixation with Eric saves him from discovery and arrest by his dogged enemy, Lieutenant Jake Porter, as he lures his latest victim to the forest. The tenderness of the book's title is skilfully rendered as a grotesque parody. Cormier avoids pathos but slides uncharacteristically into predictability: the sting in the tail of the book lacks the unexpected and explosive power of I Am the Cheese.