Series: The Wolves of Mercy Falls #1
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks, 400 pages.
Copyright: 2010
Summary:
Plot: Grace watches the wolves in her backyard -- one wolf in particular. Chaos ensues as the wolves begin to make trouble in her town and Grace fights to save the boy that she loves.
Major Characters: Grace and Sam
Major Subjects: Paranormal, Werewolves, Twilight fans, Supernatural
VOYA Review:
Grace and Sam met six years ago when she was attacked by werewolves. Sam changed from a yellow-eyed wolf to a yellow-eyed boy and carried her home. Although bitten, Grace survived and did not change, the only werewolf victim ever to do so. She has a more developed sense of smell, improved hearing, is stronger physically, but she is still a girl, only now a girl connected to a wolf, her guardian who watches her every winter. When Grace finally meets Sam again in human form, it is in the fall of her seventeenth year. Sam, attacked and forcibly changed when he was seven, has grown up spending his winters with Beck, his werewolf mentor, running through the woods with the pack, and his summers in human form, learning how to read, write, and become a man. The chapters have temperatures for headings because these werewolves are turned, not by a full moon, but by the cold, and there is plenty of cold in Mercy Falls, Minnesota. Also the number of times they can change is limited, and this change may be Sam's last in human form. After the wolves attack a local teenager, Sam is shot and winds up in Grace's arms, literally. She saves him, but the days are getting colder and the nights longer. Neither can bear the thought of being separated, but one cannot argue with Mother Nature. The first volume in The Wolves of Mercy Falls series is yet another winner for the author of Lament. (Flux/Llewellyn, 2008)/VOYA December 2008). This novel is perfect for Twilight fans or a Romeo and Juliet list. It is sensuous, intense, riveting, and so very satisfying. Reviewer: Bonnie Kunzel
Review:
When you pick up Shiver, forget everything you thought you knew about werewolves. That's right, Twilight fans. You heard me.
Forget the full moon and silver bullets. Maggie Stiefvater's werewolves are different from any you've seen before. After being bitten, a werewolf changes erratically for a while, then settles into a seasonal cycle. Cold weather brings on a change to wolf form; warm weather returns the werewolf to human form. However, this cycle doesn't last forever. As the years pass, it takes more and more heat to trigger the change back to human, until one year the werewolf remains a wolf forever.
Shiver begins with the seemingly sudden "death" of one of its main characters, Grace. Stiefvater creates a magical wood where Grace lies in a pool of blood. Grace lives, but is transformed after the attack. She becomes even more fascinated with the wolves that creep in the woods behind her home, disappearing from her sight as soon as she locks eyes with them. Much like the series Twilight, Shiver is focused on a love story between Grace and a mysterious boy named Sam. Grace and Sam's relationship is full of lightening bolt chemistry that is hard to miss.
The relationship between Grace and Sam is portrayed in a beautiful way, as if they already knew each other for a long time (which is true in some way). Personally, I was fully engaged in their romance, I loved with them, wanted nothing more than for them to be together. The heroine, Grace, is the strong and pragmatic one, whereas Sam is more the sensitive and artistic type, which was a nice change from other novels where the opposite is true.
The real action in this novel commences when one of Grace's high school classmates is seemingly killed in a wolf attack and several of the local men take it upon themselves to rid the town of the beasts. At that point, Grace's and Sam's relationship is budding and Grace bravely tries to save Sam and the wolves of the wood from being killed.
Shiver is written in vivid prose that engages all of the senses. Maggie Stiefvater does a great job of evoking the sight of a single spot of red against a sea of white, the sound of canine nails scratching at the deck outside Grace's house, and the smell of paper and ink in a bookstore on a warm summer day, making Shiver a fully immersive experience. I couldn't put Shiver down, wondering how Grace and Sam's story would end, and Stiefvater kept me hanging till the very last page.
Reading Level: Beginner to intermediate.
Notes about Audience: Recommended for ages 13 and up.
Favorite lines: "I settled on the floor and whispered to Sam, “I want you to listen to me, if you can.” I leaned the side of my face against his ruff and remembered the golden wood he had shown me so long ago. I remembered the way the yellow leaves, the color of Sam’s eyes, fluttered and twisted, crashing butterflies, on their way to the ground. The slender white trunks of the birches, creamy and smooth as human skin. I remembered Sam standing in the middle of the wood, his arms stretched out, a dark, solid form in the dream of the trees. His coming to me, me punching his chest, the soft kiss. I remembered every kiss we’d ever had, and I remembered every time I’d curled in his human arms. I remembered the soft warmth of his breath on the back of my neck while we slept.
I remembered Sam."
Other books by Maggie Stiefvater:
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