I am the Cheese

This is the story of a very disturbed teenager, who finds things out about his family which shake his confidence in who he really is. Told in three ways, an ongoing series of interview with a psychiatrist figure, a 'quest' type cycle ride, and flashbacks, it does carry the reader along.So, in a sense, it is cleverly constructed and the use of English is good and original, but for me there are too many gaping holes in the plot which leave the reader, well this reader anyway, quite dissatisfied with the ending.So, only 3 stars out of five I'm afraid.

This was a quick and engaging read. It had a fast paced story line and a gripping way of telling it. It kept me guessing pretty much the entire book; I had no idea where the story was headed. It reminds me a little of Shutter Island, but on a smaller scale. Great psychological mystery thriller. I'd recommend it to anyone.

Read this a school, couldn't remember much. Well worth the reread.

Brilliant teen story set in the near dystopian future. Gritty with a massive twist. Great to re-engage pre-teen boys imho

really made me question my attitude towards mental health issuescouldnt put book down - read it in one go

Brilliant book, heard Anthony Horowitz son recommend it as a good one for teenage boys, I hadn't heard of the author but as he seems to have been quite prolific we will be investigating further.

Fantastic resource.

I appreciate the craft that went into the creation of this book. But, I have never warmed to Cormier's particular brand of bleak despair. Our protagonist has been broken by trauma, medication and cruel treatment, and we get to see that played out over the course of multiple interrogations, (in transcript form), disguised as therapy. This is occasionally described as a teen coming of age story, but I'd put it more in a psychological suspense category.SPOILER. Basically, a government interrogator tries to find out what a kid knows/remembers about what his dad knew about some illegal activity the dad had investigated as a news reporter. The kid is kept drugged and delusional and is subject to regular interrogation sessions. That's it. There is a general sense of corrupt government black ops.The book, which was published in 1977, is very similar in theme and tone to the cult British television series "The Prisoner", (which debuted in 1967). In that show a former government agent who abruptly resigned from his position is questioned, tricked, medicated, brainwashed, and manipulated in an attempt to find out what top-secret information he might still have. While the hero of that show repeatedly thwarts his captors, the hero of Cormier's book, because this is a Cormier book, is defeated and repressed at every turn.This was my second Robert Cormier book, after having read "The Chocolate War", and I've gotten to wondering how often his books are read by kids outside of being school assignments. There are study guides and teaching guides and outlines for his books, and they feel to me like they've been written mostly to introduce and illustrate different principles of fiction writing. Unreliable narrators, experimental narrative structure, lots of symbolism and metaphor, open and ambiguous endings, coming of age and the orphan quest, identity, idiosyncratic views of teen issues involving authority, bullying, peer pressure. It all feels very educational.All of that said, the book is considered a classic for a reason. It broke new ground in the YA field, and it took an approach that was unique at the time. Cormier was an original and is still in some ways unrivaled. For that reason alone it's probably worth reading.