Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #1)

by Maggie Stiefvater

Grace is fascinated by the wolves in the woods behind her house; one yellow-eyed wolf in particular. Every winter, she watches him, but every summer, he disappears. Sam leads two lives. In winter, he stays in the frozen woods, with the protection of the pack. In summer, he has a few precious months to be human ...until the cold makes him shift back again. When Grace and Sam finally meet, they realize they can't bear to be apart. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human - or risk losing himself, and Grace, for ever.

Reviewed by inlibrisveritas on

4 of 5 stars

Share
Like most praised YA books I figured this was yet another overrated book that recieved tons of praise because it was "different". I can say I was plesantly surprised. I'm not very versed in werewolf novels, but I felt this was a very well put together and thought out.

The werewolves are different then others that I have read about. First off the fact that they are effected directly by the temperature is a very interesting concept and Stiefvater does a great job at making it work, she even includes the current temperature at the beginning of each chapter. The pack mentality and the way she explains the wolf's thoughts is also very nice and easy to understand. I don't want to spoil too much for anyone but the fact that the werewolves eventually loose themselves to the animal also makes this a very intense kind of read. Having those aspects put together you feel like the main character, Grace, at times. You become conscious of the temperature listed, and the fact that time is a factor so you feel the anxiety involved.

The few complaints that I had were justifiable in the story and had nothing to do with the writing really. I wasn't fond of Grace's parents at all, I found them to be clueless and felt they had no business having a kid. I don't really like reading lyrics in books either and I skip them unless they are extremely important to the plot, so needless to say I glanced at them but didn't pay tremendous amounts of attention to them. They are good lyrics but I just don't enjoy trying to make music for something I've just read, I find it hard.

I do recommend this book to others. It has a moment were sex occurs but it is done very tastefully and there is no detail involved, so there should still be somewhat of an age limit to this book i suppose I'd say 16+. If you enjoy the paranormal genre and werewolves I think you'll enjoy this a lot, it's a nice idea and it's worth reading. I'm looking forward to trying to find and read Linger.

Last modified on

Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 20 July, 2011: Finished reading
  • 20 July, 2011: Reviewed