Thursday 15 October 2009

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

From Amazon: Grace is fascinated by the wolves in the woods behind her house; one yellow-eyed wolf in particular. Every winter, she watches him but every summer, he disappears. Sam leads two lives. In winter he stays in the frozen woods, with the protection of the pack.n summer, he has a few precious months to be human . . . until the cold makes him shift back again. When Grace and Sam finally meet they realize they can't bear to be apart. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human - or risk losing himself, and Grace, for ever

I was really looking forward to this one and I’m please to say it lived up to most of my expectations. I really enjoyed Maggie Stiefvater’s writing style as it had a very lyrical feel to it. The novel was slower paced than I was expecting but this wasn't necessarily a bad thing – it didn’t have the tense urgency of some books I’ve read recently but I can honestly say I never lost interest because of it. It helped create a great atmosphere and i could almost feel the cold as I read!

The story was told from both Grace and Sam ‘s point of view – a method that is fast becoming my favourite style of storytelling. Character wise – I just adored Sam. He’s so sweet, caring and nice. Grace I found harder to connect to – I never felt as if I really ‘saw’ her – she had such emotional strength and independence that I just couldn’t relate – although considering the way here parents were with her it was definitely understandable. Isabel, on the other hand, cracked me up and provided the light relief the story needed at times.

I loved the mythology Stiefvater created here – it felt very original and as such gave the story a higher level of authenticity. I started to believe it was actually possible! My favourite part of the story though, was the Sam/Grace love story. It was so gentle and felt very believable to me –and the ending. How much did I LOVE the ending? It’s safe to say I can’t wait for the next book in this series and I’ll be very interested to see how it continues.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can't wait to read this one. Excellent review! :D

So Many Books, So Little Time said...

I'm really looking forward to reading this one. The beautiful cover is calling to me!

Tales of Whimsy said...

I love Maggie's writing style and can not wait to read this.

Unknown said...

Great review. I'm sharing the Shiver love. At the signing today Maggie said that she enjoyed writing the Sam parts more than the Grace parts but that Grace always kept the plot moving because she just got on with things.

Luisa at Chicklish said...

Great review! It sounds like the book that has everything!

Justine said...

Definitely going to read this :) Loved your review!

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