Description
Clarence E. Olson reviews After the First Death, stating that he will avoid reading Robert Cormier's work in the future, not for a lack of quality writing, but because its use of sustained terror is nerve-wracking and emotive. He writes "Cormier has the ruthlessness of a terrorist himself, the kind of ideological drive that makes him pull back the bloodied sheet and demand that we look squarely at the consequences of violence." He speaks to the impossible circumstance Cormier places his adolescent characters and the pervasive evil in his stories, making reference to I Am the Cheese to do so.