Review: Shiver

Shiver (The Mercy Falls Series)

by Maggie Stiefvater

My Rating: 3.5 peaches

Grace and Sam share a kinship so close they could be lovers or siblings. But they also share a problem. When the temperature slips towards freezing, Sam reverts to his wolf identity and must retreat into the woods to protect his pack. He worries that eventually his human side will fade away and he will be left howling alone at the lonely moon. A stirring supernatural teen romance. (Goodreads description)




One of my soccer players passed this book on to me, saying I just had to read it. I was so excited because this had been on my to read list for awhile but I hadn't been able to get my hands on it, yay soccer girl! 

The Juicy 

Aww, Sam. I love your love of books and secondhand book stores. I love the way your brain thinks in music and lyrics. I love the way you think before you act and translate german poetry. I bet I would even love your wet dog wolf smell after the rain ;) 

What an excellent twist on the "werewolf" genre. Everything related to the pack, the shifting and the mythology/scientific background to Sam and the other wolves of Mercy Falls was enthralling. I also liked the idea of a possible cure being the complete opposite to what causes the shift. 

I actually really enjoyed the character of Isabel of all the female characters. She is strong and independent so I wish she hadn't also been typecast as the snobby queen bee  of the school. I think she could have been so much more. That being said...

The Pits

Grace, I just did not like her voice in this story. For starters,  she didn't seem very consistent personality wise and some of her decisions and reactions didn't seem to match how she had been portrayed so far. Her parents I sort of understood because their total disregard for their daughter played into the plot and why Grace is the way she was supposed to be but still, I'm getting tired of all the sucky parents in YA books. The rest of the characters seemed sort of superfluous, especially Grace's friends. I wish there had been a stronger bond of friendship but again, maybe this was supposed to reinforce Grace's aloofness? I mean, Grace didn't seem to care at all when Olivia drops out of sight or when she found out what had happened to Olivia. 

This book was slow. There were some really good descriptions at points but instead of enhancing the book, a lot of times it dragged it down and ruined the sense of tension that was building. Also, I found the timeline very confusing. I would think a week had passed but then we find out it's only the next day, or vice versa. 

Awkward Fuzz

Sex

So, while I'm kinda iffy on this book, my soccer girl has already given me the second so I'm working up the motivation to enter Mercy Falls a second time.