"For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf—her wolf—is a chilling presence she can’t seem to live without. Meanwhile, Sam has lived two lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the protection of the pack, and the silent company of a fearless girl. In summer, a few precious months of being human… until the cold makes him shift back again.
Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It’s her wolf. It has to be. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human—or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever." (http://maggiestiefvater.com/shiver/books/)
This is a "two for the price of one" post because I'll be talking about both Shiver and Linger. I honestly wish I'd read the first book first and then the second book but I made a mistake and read book 2 (Linger) first thinking it was the first in the trilogy. After reading Linger I immediately picked up Shiver and realized that I'd read them out of order. I almost didn't read Shiver but I'm glad I did. Yes, it's a werewolf-type story. Yes. It's a love story. Yes. It's young adult fiction. But the question is...was it good. At first I would say, "No" or "Kind of" but that was because I read it out of order. Maggie writes from several points of view in the second book while the first book is written from two points of view (a chapter per character). It was confusing at first but once I figured out who everyone was it was fine. Shiver helped ease me into this style and showed me pitfalls and strengths to using it. It's important to be very clear who your characters are but I do think that having the second book from, I believe, four points of view was a bit much. Two was manageable.
There is a third book (it is a trilogy after all) that I still need to read called "Forever" but my library doesn't have it. I'm going to make a request and hope they get it soon. Luckily (or unluckily) I don't exactly care about the characters. The story line is good and that's what is drawing me in but Grace, Sam, Isabel, and...oh what is his name...I forget...anyway, I don't care about them. I don't really care about the romance and the "I'll die without him/her". That's a problem.
There was a lot of commentary on absentee parenting, hunting, protecting wildlife, etc. I cared more about the wolves in the story than when they were human. I'm not sure this is truly a (paranormal) romance but it is young adult. They are high school-ers and the personalities are diverse (which is nice) but I am not compelled to go out and purchase this book. If I don't read book 3 I won't be heart broken. Would I recommend it? I'm not sure. Maybe it just wasn't my style but considering that some of my favorite books are written with multiple points of view and my own writing is done this way I don't think that's it.
Don't write off Maggie Stiefvater though. I like her. I think she has great potential and I'll read "Forever" and possibly another book from a different series/trilogy. I love her ideas but I want more from her characters. I want to really care about them. I don't see myself purchasing or reading these again. Once was enough.
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