Tenderness Paperback - 2004

First line

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From the jacket flap

EIGHTEEN-YEAR-OLD ERIC HAS just been released from juvenile detention for murdering his mother and stepfather. Now he's looking for some tenderness--tenderness he finds in caressing and killing beautiful girls. Fifteen-year-old Lori has run away from home again. Emotionally naive but sexually precocious, she is also looking for tenderness--tenderness she finds in Eric. Will Lori and Eric be each other's salvation or destruction?
"Cormier is in top form in this chilling portrait of a serial murderer. . . . Gripping."--"School Library Journal, Starred
"An "ALA Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults

Excerpt

"You're a psychopath, Eric."  The smoke came out of the lieutenant's mouth as if his words were stoked by an inner fire.  "A monster."

Eric recoiled, as if the old cop had struck him in the face.  Monster?

"Chances are you'll kill again.  You know it and I know it."

Or was the old cop merely trying to taunt him?  Trying to make him lose his cool?  Don't let him do that.  Monster was only a word, anyway.  And those were the only weapons the lieutenant had: words.

"You're taking a lot for granted, Lieutenant," Eric said, the sound of his voice reassuring, establishing his control of the conversation once more. "You're making wild accusations.  I wasn't even convicted by a jury.  A judge heard my case.  He didn't think I was a monster.  He was very sympathetic.  So were a lot of other people."

"Other people?  Did you take a close look at them?  Who they were, what they were?  You killed your mother and father, Eric.  In cold blood."  Not sounding tired anymore.

Eric did not smile but his eyes gleamed.  The lieutenant did not know about the others.  Nobody knew about them.


From the Hardcover edition.

Media reviews

*"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.