SHIVER

Maggie Stiefvater

MSRP $17.99, 400 Pages.

Published by Scholastic Press/Scholastic.

Love among the lupine.

Customer Reviews

Great read!!! Beware, it contains spoilers...

Rating

The story in this book is told by the two main characters' point of view, Sam and Grace. Grace is in love with the wolf that saved her from being eaten alive by other wolves when she was little. Every winter she looks for her wolf's yellow eyes outside in the woods, watching her, protecting her. Sam keeps himself hidden in the woods watching Grace from a distance wishing he could be with her. But, when a group of hunters causes Sam to become human the meeting between the two of them is inevitable. Soon they become attached by an inexplicable love to each other. They spend their time together getting to know each other and trying to keep Sam from turning back to a wolf by making him warm and protecting him from the low temperatures, signs of a cold winter.

What it's amazing about this story is that you could feel a sense of loss since maybe this was Sam's last time being human and you could really feel what this meant for both of them, they are finally together but, at the same time it coul be their last time with each other.

Another thing I liked about this book was the description everytime Sam was shivering and struggling to stay human whe he was exposed to the cold for a long time, and the things Grace did to keep him warm, by her side. You could really feel the sadness and the desperation that the characters felt in each of these situations.

All in all, this book exceeded my expectations. With that being said, I can't wait for Linger to come out!!!

Reviews from Brizmus Blogs Books

Rating

Note: I actually give this book 4 1/2 stars.

This book starts off like poetry, like breathing. Each page is a lyrical inhale, a lyrical exhale. Nothing has to happen - all that matters is Grace and Same, a girl and her world.

This is one of the most beautiful love stories I have ever read, and yet, to call it romantic would be an understatement. Every word, every phrase, every paragraph was written with such love and care that to call it romantic would cheapen its beauty, its impact. It's just love, pure and simple, and yet somehow also oh so complicated.

Grace and Same are one of the most intense and believable couples I have ever read. How they fell for each other, their immediate attraction, seems so real and makes so much sense to me. And their interactions with each other reinforce their intrinsic attraction over and over again. They are so different and yet so alike; they complement each other perfectly. They made me laugh, they almost made me cry, and they regularly made me hold my breath in anticipation, full of hope and desire that things would work out for them.

They are both incredibly well-developed characters with incredibly well-developed, beautiful stories. The secondary characters are also full of life and history, and I felt almost as connected to them as I did to Sam and Grace. Isabel with her straightforward spunk, never whom you expect her to be; Trevor, so full of anger and yet also so full of hope; Rachel, with the bit of livelihood and humour she brings to an otherwise heart-wrenching story. Through Stiefvater's poetic cadence, they all became so alive, so important.

This book ends the same way it begin - like poetry, like breathing. Your heart will be breaking while at the same time bursting with hope. And maybe even joy. I think at heart Maggie Stiefvater is really a poet. And it's hard not to get caught up in the beauty and tragedy of this book.

Perfect

Rating

This is Twilight done the way Twilight should have been done in the first place.

Grace: A loveable, real, three-dimensional character.

Sam: Wonderful, beautiful, kind boy.

Their love: Something beyond the ordinary. A love for a lifetime.

Their story: Bittersweet, beautiful. I cried. My fingers shook as I turned the page. I lost sleep.

Perfect.

one of the best in its genre

Rating

The writing is quite exquisite and even poetic; I lost the sense that I was reading a YA novel. The characters and their emotions were tightly drawn, and the questions the story brought up about the nature of self/identity were surprising. Although there isn't much "action" that one might find in other fantasy novels, the empathy I felt for Sam and Grace was well worth the read.

Delightful read

Rating

SHIVER is full of suspense, romance, love, and need. It's one of the best YA paranormal romances out there, bar none.