After the First Death

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Summary: a diverting political novel
Review: The book "After the first death" by Robert Cormier is about two completely different young men and an incident on a bridge concerning Terrorism. The reader is told more about the plot and gets to see things from both perspectives. From the view of the victim and from the hijackers. The book is extremely fascinating, because of the realistic and dramatic story-line, with no particular hollywood-ending. This novel was especially interesting for me to read and I was able to identify with the situation, which just as well could have happened to me.

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Summary: This is a really, really great book!
Review: I read this book last year in my 8th grade English class. I was used to reading books for school that were boring and a chore to read. But this year, every book was amazing. One was After the First Death. This book pulled me in from the start. It was suspenseful and weird. You got inside the mind of a "bad" person. And you felt sympathy for this person. I read this book really quickly, It really helped to discuss this book as a class and talk about the ending. I would have never understood it fully without discussing it. Robert Cormier is a fabulous author. This is his best work that I have read so far. The Chocolate War was good as well. but After the First Death was more intriuging

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Summary: ...... and it stays with you.
Review: I first read this book when I was 13 and it wasn't until September 11th did I start to think about that particular book. At age 13 I understood the base motivation of the three teenage narrators (they were only abit older than me) but could not understand the reasonings behind them, especially the terrorist. Kate I understood well; her fear, doubts, and desperate acts of failed bravery. Even though I sensed the terrorist's humanity, I never sympathized with him. As the for the general's son, his story was heartwrenching and the end passage a particular shock (it made the original cover picture all the more sense). 17 years later I think my reaction to the story is still the same, just with a clearer eye and maybe a bit more anger at the terrorist. It is one thing to understand them, it is an entirely different thing when it comes to forgivness.