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A review by wwatts1734
After the First Death by Robert Cormier
2.0
This novel is a young adult thriller about the terrorist hijacking of a bus of small children on the way to school. I originally read this novel when I was in high school back in the 1980s, and I have re-read it recently. I have to say this this book is really quite bad. It doesn't really work as a suspense novel. The context of the action is very ambiguous. You never really learn about the terrorist group that is doing the hijacking. Arkin, the young man who is working with the terrorists and who is the focus of the book, is certainly not a true believer in the cause. It is not clear that he even really understands what they stand for. It is as though the author wants to deal with terrorism, not as terrorism, but as some ambiguous badness that causes people to do bad things for no particular reason. It really does not work.
Cormier's narration of the action is klunky and awkward. He portrays the young characters, Arkin and the substitute bus driver Kate, as generic naive young people. They deal with horrible situations, like little kids who need to use the bathroom and be put down for naps because they are, after all, little kids being held against their will. The reactions of the young people to these kinds of situations are silly and not very illuminating at all. At one point, Cormier describes Arkin as being sexually aroused, and he says "and he touched himself." Really? This is great literature?
I sincerely hope that this book and books like it are no longer being forced down the throats of students in high school English classes. There is so much better literature out there, granted that most great literature requires the reader to think about the story, a downside that "After the First Death" certainly does not share. I would not recommend this book to anyone.
Cormier's narration of the action is klunky and awkward. He portrays the young characters, Arkin and the substitute bus driver Kate, as generic naive young people. They deal with horrible situations, like little kids who need to use the bathroom and be put down for naps because they are, after all, little kids being held against their will. The reactions of the young people to these kinds of situations are silly and not very illuminating at all. At one point, Cormier describes Arkin as being sexually aroused, and he says "and he touched himself." Really? This is great literature?
I sincerely hope that this book and books like it are no longer being forced down the throats of students in high school English classes. There is so much better literature out there, granted that most great literature requires the reader to think about the story, a downside that "After the First Death" certainly does not share. I would not recommend this book to anyone.