Book Review: I Am the Cheese by Robert Cormier

Title: I Am the Cheese

Author: Robert Cormier

Genre: Classic YA Fiction

Number of Pages: 248

Rating: B+

Recommended?: Yes

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This is one of those books where it’s best to go in not knowing much about it. Like all of Robert Cormier’s work, it’s dark and disturbing and leaves little room for hope in it’s bleak examination of human nature. Most of the story revolves around a teenage boy on a long bike journey to find his father, but these scenes are interspersed with interviews between the boy and a mysterious man who seems to be manipulating him.

It isn’t clear what’s going on at first and even which events happened first but the the threads of the story slowly start unraveling and giving the reader the bigger picture. I found this book to be an uncomfortable read but I was prepared for that because I’m familiar with Robert Cormier’s work. I felt bad for the main character, Adam.

He was a nice kid and things just kept getting worse and worse for him. The ending was depressing (like pretty much all of Cormier’s work) but I also liked how everything came together at the end and the journey made sense.