I Am the Cheese by Robert Cormier
Review by Lauren
Source: copy from library; all opinions are my own
Official Summary: A boy’s search for his father becomes a desperate journey to unlock
a secret past. But the past must not be remembered if the boy is to
survive. As he searches for the truth that hovers at the edge of his
mind, the boy—and readers—arrive at a shattering conclusion.
Review: I Am the Cheese is a difficult book to review, as I don’t want to give anything away. Let’s just say that I read this when I was younger and really loved it, so I decided to re-read it for my YA Literature course. We had to pick a Dystopia novel from a list and this was on there. I couldn’t remember a lot of the details, so it was almost like reading the novel again. I really loved it the second time too, and I never would have thought “this is dystopia” if it weren’t for my class. It’s not as obvious as a lot of dystopia novels these days, but I think that makes it more interesting for the reader, and even perhaps a bit more frightening.
The basics of this book is that Adam Farmer is riding his bike from Massachusetts to Vermont to visit his father in the hospital. The book goes back and forth between his journey and a recorded conversation between A and T. A is trying to remember details of his past and fill in the blanks, but it’s almost as if his subconscious doesn’t want him to know certain details. I know this sounds fairly vague, but it’s best to go in with as little knowledge or expectations as possible. I love the official summary of this book because it’s short enough to not give away pertinent details, but it also has enough information to make you curious and want to know about this boy and the search for his father.
I Am the Cheese is a quick, fascinating read. I definitely recommend!
It sounds quite interesting and intriguing, different too. I love that last fact. It's the first time I hear about the book but I'm curious so thank you!
I've never read this book, which I might have to amend, but I did read the sequel to The Chocolate War back in high school when I was assigned to it for the Reading Team. I remember enjoying his writing style.
Also, I really like to read old school YA during Readathons, so I Am the Cheese might be in my next pile!
Oh this sounds intriguing!
xx
Yay for re-reading a novel from childhood and still loving it! That seldom seems to happen.
Great review!
I've often thought the publisher's synopsis can make or break a book, you want enough detail to pick it up but not so much that you ruin the experience, especially in a book like this one. Great review.
I was actually just thinking about this book the other day! It's the only book I read in the 10th grade that I liked in my English class(my teacher only liked certain kinds of books and most of them were pretty gory guy books!). I AM THE CHEESE opened me up to a different way of writing. It was more complex than I was used to at the time, the way it kept switching POVs the way it did. And the surprise twist at the end was awesome! There's a movie about it that I think has the older brother on E.T. playing the MC.
I tried reading The Chocolate War once but didn't really get interested enough. However I really like the sound of a different dystopia. I'm curious as to what the mystery is. Great review!
Marianne @ Boricuan Bookworms .
Hmmm, does sound like it's best to go into it without knowing much, so it must have been nice to reread it without remembering most of it, rediscovering it, whoop! 😀
This sounds SO interesting, I'm going to have to check it out!
Quick and fascinating sounds great
Not only do I love dystopians, but I love anything that's different or out of the ordinary and this sounds absolutely perfect. It sounds like a psychological read as well, unraveling the storyline as the main character does. I've never heard of this one before, but definitely grabbing a copy online today. Thanks for sharing Lauren and wonderfully cryptic review <3
The premise sounds alluring, and I'm actually looking for a book set in Vermont for my Road Trip reading challenge! So yeah! Thanks for sharing this one 🙂
Sounds interesting! I know they say not to judge a book by its cover but I would probably have picked it up because I think the cover looks quite cool! Also, thank you for not giving too much info away, so many book reviews basically tell you the whole story, and by the end there's no point reading the book at all 🙂 x
AmandaSays
I love rereading books you loved as a child. You always have a different perspective. I need to do more of this!
Now, I am curious! Adding it to my TBR list 🙂
Sounds intriguing. I read another book from the author and would like to read this, too. I'll add it to my wish list.
I'm glad that you were able to enjoy this the second time around, I've realised that books that I have no expectations about or no much about I tend to end up enjoying more, so thanks for the heads up! Fab review! 🙂
Interesting that you read this before and still enjoyed it. I've found that the books I have revisited haven't lived up to my exceptions.
First off, I love dystopian stories. And I think your review was just vague enough to make me super interested! I'm definitely going to check this out.
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