Another addition to my young-adult fiction collection! A friend recommended Shiver to me, and I must say that I was not disappointed. Shiver centers around 17-year old Grace. When she was ten, she was attacked by a pack of wolves that live in the woods surrounding her house. She survived the attack and grew up with a curious fascination of the mysterious creatures. One wolf intrigues her the most, with his yellow eyes and gentle demeanor. She feels protective towards the pack, yet can't figure out why. Thus begins Shiver...
The good: Stiefvater's writing is beautiful to behold. It's lyrical, flowing, and colorful. Most of the time, I felt like I was reading a song. On top of that, her characters were equally beautiful. See... I have this really weird "thing" where I actually fall for the characters in some of the books I read. Yes, I am that level of nerd. Well I fell hard for Grace and Sam. Grace and her pragmaticism. Her non-nonsense, "lets get to the bottom of things" attitude. Sam and his wounded and endearing self. Their personalities polar opposites, yet they fit together like some perfect puzzle. Absolutely loved them. I found myself wishing and hoping for a happy ending because I felt for them so much. Any writer that can pull that kind of emotion from me gets an "A" in my book.
Oh and another thing. I'm a sucker for lines like this:
"Books are more real when you read them outside."
"Just like your eyes. You're like a song that I heard when I was a little kid forgot I knew until I heard it again."
"If that moment had been a real thing, it would've been a butterfly, flapping and fluttering towards the sun."
and my favorite
"I'd found heaven and grabbed it as tightly as I could, but it was unraveling, an insubstantial thread sliding between my fingers, too fine to hold."
...what can I say, I'm a hopeless romantic.
The bad: Parts of the story might be a little too "lovey" for some people's taste. Yes, it has action and adventure... but deep down it's really a love story. Personally, I eat that stuff up... but if you're not into the touching, kissing, and loving each other up stuff, I could see it getting on your nerves.
The verdict: To put it simply, I loved this book. I thought Stiefvater's writing was lyrical and beautiful. If you like books like Twilight, If I Stay and The Hunger Games - this is right up your alley. Shiver is the first in a the Wolves of Mercy Falls series so there will be more to follow. The next book is called Linger and comes out in July 2010. I honestly don't know if I can wait that long!
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