Linger (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #2)

by Maggie Stiefvater

As Grace hides the vast depth of her love for Sam from her parents and Sam struggles to release his werewolf past and claim a human future, a new wolf named Cole wins Isabel's heart but his own past threatens to destroy the whole pack.

• ISBN10: 0545123291
• ISBN13: 9780545123297
• Publish Date: 1 May 2011 (first published 1 July 2010)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Scholastic US
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 360
• Language: English

Reviews

[ladygrey]

This is so much more Maggie Stiefvater than Shiver. It's intense and Isabel and Cole are all jagged and wounds and heart. The first part of the story feels more Isabel and Cole than Sam and Grace. Grace's sickness feels like such an afterthought for so much of the book until it's not. Her parents are completely ridiculous and irrational which is as annoying in adult characters as it is in teen characters. I think the most frustrating thing is (show spoiler)[how long it takes for it all to come to a head. Isabel was completely right that Sam shouldn't have been sliding through life and work at a bookstore, he needed to grow up and pay attention to dying wolves and dying girlfriends and new wolves who needed him to look around and see someone and something other than himself. Which isn't an entirely fair accusation but it's close.] (hide spoiler) By the end I liked Isabel and Cole maybe the best because for all their brokenness they're proactive.

The series pivoted well from Sam and the end of the first book. It still isn't drenched in magic but it held onto enough to work and it opened up doors for the third book well.

[Leah]

Maggie Stiefvater is evil. Just when you think things couldn’t be any harder for Grace and Sam, along comes Linger. My little heart isn’t sure it can take any more! But hot damn, I didn’t expect any of that to happen – how naive am I? This series is so good and I am still kicking myself for taking so long to read it. I’ve missed out on so much goodness and heartbreak and angst and teary moments.

Going into Linger I had no idea what to expect (silly, silly Leah) but four points of view certainly was a surprise. I wasn’t sure at first – who the hell is Cole? Why is Isabel suddenly important now to warrant a POV? But it actually works. I mean Cole is a jerk for most of the time, but I’m hoping he’ll come into his own? He’s got his own book coming so I have high hopes he’ll not be a jerk for the whole time, and I actually love Isabel so yeah, the POV additions really worked for me, though it will always be Grace and Sam that I’m there for, because they’re adorable and I want to keep them safe, away from absent parents who suddenly care (eye roll) and any bad wolfishness that may come their way.

I really enjoyed Linger, it surprised me in unexpected ways, so many unexpected ways and I’m terrified for what Forever might throw my way. Clearly Maggie Stiefvater knows how to stab my heart again and again and again, without a care in the world. I like that in an author, though, there’s something about an unpredictable author that makes reading their books all the more enjoyable. If you’re foolish like me and haven’t read this trilogy, you need to. Don’t waste any more time, just read the damn books, people. They’re amazing.

[girlinthepages]

*This is a re-read review*

I first read the Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy back in high school, and I remember instantly being smitten. I was fresh off of my Twilight binge reading and looking for something that dabbled in similar concepts. Maggie Stiefvater’s werewolf series drew me in instantly with the romance, the tragedy, and the emo-tastic, yellow eyed Sam.

Years later, I find myself still enjoying the series but for different reasons. When I was younger I identified a lot with Grace, and I swooned over the romance between her and Sam. Now I find Grace a bit one-dimensional (and this is coming from someone who shares a lot of personality traits with her, such as being uber-responsible, type A personality, etc). Sam captivates me still but not in a romantic way (his passiveness on certain issues irritates me now), but rather in a tragic way, as more about his horrendous ordeal with his parents is revealed in this book. It’s interesting to see Sam fight his own demons, and to see what ultimately will win out: his love of being human or his love for Grace.

What I love about Linger is Isabel and Cole. Both of their POV’s are introduced in this book and add refreshing new voices distinct from the emotionally saturated narrative between Grace and Sam, but still keep Stiefvater’s prose style intact. I really like that Cole has this latent science background, and watching him try to puzzle out what makes werewolves shift is really interesting, as the series looks at the paranormal elements in less of a magical way and more of a logical, disease-based way. Isabel manages to be the voice of reason for most of this book, and I appreciate that she is the one to kick everyone into action through their grief while trying to compartmentalize and manage her own guilt over her own brother’s death in the previous book. She’s a character to be reckoned with and I love that though Grace and Sam are the “main” characters of this trilogy, that the secondary characters’ presence doesn’t feel diminished.

Stiefvater also creates a realistic portrayal of parent-child relationships, which I was wary about at first, since Grace’s parents are MIA in most of Shiver. Even though I’m years past being grounded or curfew, I still manage to cringe and suffer secondhand indignation from Grace’s parents actions.

Like Shiver, Linger starts off slow and has a lot of quiet, introspective moments with its characters, from Sam analyzing his new found identity as a “permanent” human to Grace’s internal grappling with her worsening medical condition. Then the last few chapters of the book slam you with action and a cliffhanger so bad you can’t help but immediately start the next book.

Overall: This book came out during the peak of the YA paranormal romance trend, and it doesn’t fail to deliver on that front, with the added bonus of Stiefvater’s writing style having a lyrical quality to it. The Wolves of Mercy Falls series is one of my favorite depictions of werewolves, and manages to balance and large cast of characters well. However, rereading it made me realize I’ve outgrown some of the characters and romantic elements and found myself wishing Grace and Sam would take a more proactive role in moving the plot along (although Isabel seems to be there for that!) It’s also worth noting that the pacing of these books is pretty much 75% slow and steady and then 25% fast-paced drama.

This review was originally published at Girl in the Pages

[Stephanie]

More like 3.5 stars. I should know better than to read teen paranormal romance and be surprised at how much "romancing" goes on in the pages. Cole was awesome, though. I enjoy new side characters much more than the main ones.

[KitsuneBae]

Kind of boring... Good thing that Isabel and Cole's scenes were funny enough to compensate for that... XD

[Kelly]

I was disappointed in the second novel of the series and the characters felt foreign almost, as if the characters had taken on different persona's. Still, beautifully written, but telling four different sides to the story, I felt it lost some of the momentum that the first book created.

[celinenyx]

Ms Stiefvater is steadily becoming one of my favourite authors. As I said in my review of the first book of the Wolves of Mercy Falls series, Shiver, I liked it. This liking is slowly turning into something more, something that is reserved only for my all-time favourites.

Now Beck is gone, Sam has to take his place. With the three new wolves he is feeling the burden of responsibility. With every single day Grace becomes sicker, and he doesn't know how to help her. Isabelle is falling for Cole, one of the new wolves, but he is even more broken than she is. There is a lot going on in Mercy Falls, and not all of it is good...

Reading Linger felt like returning to old friends. I read it during the hectic mess that are my review books. I read it when I went to sleep and wanted something comforting. The dreaminess of Ms Stiefvater's writing draws me in so effortless. I can pick up her book after a long stressful day and within a few words get transported to her world.

Another thing I love is how realistic her relationships are. Sam and Grace are still an amazing couple and I was very glad that she didn't insert petty fights to make it more exciting. The only issues they had were things outside of their doing. A big issue in Linger are Grace's parents. Now Grace and Sam have been together for so long, eliminating their oh-it's-just-a-fling attitude, they are getting in the way of their relationship. The whole situation is so life-like. I can imagine parents all over the world reacting the same way.

The budding romance between Isabelle and Cole is awkward and adorable. I think one day they will make a great couple. They are absolute opposites to Grace and Sam, yet awesome all the same. I'm looking forward to see what happens to them in the next book.

One thing I didn't like - the cliffhanger! Argh, now I have to read the last book in the trilogy, Forever. I heard a lot of people are disappointed with the conclusion. I just hope reading Forever is just as enjoyable as reading Linger.

[Cocktails and Books]

When we (ok, me and it was only a day ago) last were with Grace and Sam, Sam had just emerged from the woods, human, after having been injected with bacterial meningitis in hopes of killing his wolf. Although that ending was perfect for Shiver, I just knew things were going to go down hill fast in Linger.

Sam is now human. He can go out in frigid temperatures and not worry about shifting. The problem is, he's not sure if he should really believe that it's over. He's hoping, if he wishes hard enough, he'll get to keep his life as a human and stay with Grace.

Mixed in with his longing for a "normal" life are his insecurities about who he is now that he's just human. He misses his family: Beck, Ulric.

Grace also has her own set of issues. First, her parents decide that after years of neglecting her (and catching her and Sam in a compromising position) that they will start ruling with an iron fist. Their first order of business, grounding Grace from seeing Sam.

If that weren't bad enough, Grace hasn't been feeling well. She pretends it's just the flu, but deep down she knows its something more. Something that isn't going away and she's feeling worse, rather than better.

This installment in the Wolves of Mystic Falls series is about coping with change. All of the characters have an issue with dealing with it. We have the obvious with Sam and Grace, but then we have Isabel still reeling from the changes in her family and her guilt over killing her brother (or so she thinks), Cole (one of the new wolves Beck brought in) dealing with being changed into a wolf and finding he's not as good as being as wolf as the others, Grace's parents disregarding the fact that Grace has grown up and having her first meaningful relationship while they were off living their own lives, and finally the Culpeppers unable to move past the death of their son and taking it out on the only thing they blame for it...the wolves.

Linger will grip you, but not in that romantic notion of a girl and her wolf finding love as we had in Shiver. Linger will rip your heart out as we delve deeper into the psyches of the characters and the issues that plague them. When you get to that final chapter, we're left to wonder what catastrophe awaits Sam and Grace in the final installment of the series.

4 1/2 Cocktails.

[Hixxup]

this was so much better than shiver. OMG! this book made me cry or want to cry so much. now I can't wait to read the next book. this is really an awesome series. I wonder if there is goibg to be any serious love between cole and isabel???

[e_rodz_leb]

I absolutly loved Shiver. I loved it some much in fact that I immediately bought both Ballad and Lament. Maggie's writing is so beautiful, that is almost poetic.

Now, Linger was something else. I had this book in my Kindle as soon as I came out (didn't I just said I loved Shiver?) and I started reading it right away. And I read until I completed about 60% (no page number in Kindle) that is when realized that something was very wrong with Grace and just stopped reading. I was so... I don't know. Upset? Disapointed? I wanted Sam and Grace just to be happy together, theirs is a legendary, soft, special kind of love that I'll always remember.

I finally finished the book, it was heart breaking, and at the same time I am hopefull that everything will end well, that Cole will be smart enough to figure things out and save all of the wolves.