Tenderness: A Novel - Hardcover

Cormier, Robert

3.69

2,943 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385322860 ISBN 13: 9780385322867

Publisher: Bantam Dell Pub Group, 1997

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

Recently released from juvenile detention for the murder of his parents, eighteen-year-old Eric takes to seducing and killing beautiful girls before meeting the runaway Lori, whose own demons are put to rest as their relationship develops.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:

With Tenderness, the accomplished author of teenage fictions, Robert Cormier, gives his enthralled readers a thriller with a difference. Eric Poole, latterly an imprisoned serial killer of beautiful young girls towards whom he feels great "tenderness" (having started his killing career by doing away with his mother and loathed step-father) meets his equally disturbed delinquent match in the lovely young teenager Lori Cranston, who becomes emotionally fixated on him. It looks as though she too will have to be taken care of by him in the usual way until her disarmingly generous love for him begins to make him experience emotions he has not felt since he was a baby in his mother's arms. Robert Cormier's deft portrayal of the psychology and developing emotional life of these two hardened young people as they dodge the law adds an unusual depth and yes "tenderness" to this riveting thriller with a totally unexpected twist in the end of its tale. --by Tamsin Palmer

Review:

*" Cormier is in top form in this cilling portrait...a sense of 'tenderness' pervades this gripping tale."
--"School Library Journal," starred review
" Cormier's latest is a mesmerizing plunge into the mind of a psychopathic teen killer that is both deeply disturbing and utterly compelling."
--"Booklist"
" A serial killer; an aging cop with a hunch; an impulsive 15-year-old runaway: Three familiar characters are spun by a master of suspense into another disturbing study in emotional dysfunction."
--"Kirkus Reviews"
" Rarely has Cormier's irony been darker...readers will stay on the edge of their seats."
-- "Publishers Weekly"

"From the Hardcover edition."

*"Cormier is in top form in this cilling portrait...a sense of 'tenderness' pervades this gripping tale."
--"School Library Journal," starred review
"Cormier's latest is a mesmerizing plunge into the mind of a psychopathic teen killer that is both deeply disturbing and utterly compelling."
--"Booklist"
"A serial killer; an aging cop with a hunch; an impulsive 15-year-old runaway: Three familiar characters are spun by a master of suspense into another disturbing study in emotional dysfunction."
--"Kirkus Reviews"
"Rarely has Cormier's irony been darker...readers will stay on the edge of their seats."
-- "Publishers Weekly"

*"Cormier is in top form in this cilling portrait...a sense of 'tenderness' pervades this gripping tale."
--School Library Journal, starred review
"Cormier's latest is a mesmerizing plunge into the mind of a psychopathic teen killer that is both deeply disturbing and utterly compelling."
--Booklist
"A serial killer; an aging cop with a hunch; an impulsive 15-year-old runaway: Three familiar characters are spun by a master of suspense into another disturbing study in emotional dysfunction."
--Kirkus Reviews
"Rarely has Cormier's irony been darker...readers will stay on the edge of their seats."
-- Publishers Weekly

*-Cormier is in top form in this cilling portrait...a sense of 'tenderness' pervades this gripping tale.-
--School Library Journal, starred review
-Cormier's latest is a mesmerizing plunge into the mind of a psychopathic teen killer that is both deeply disturbing and utterly compelling.-
--Booklist
-A serial killer; an aging cop with a hunch; an impulsive 15-year-old runaway: Three familiar characters are spun by a master of suspense into another disturbing study in emotional dysfunction.-
--Kirkus Reviews
-Rarely has Cormier's irony been darker...readers will stay on the edge of their seats.-
-- Publishers Weekly