Today, Jaimie is doing her third review for us for the book, 'Shiver'. This looks like a great one, and I wished I'd read it first, but after her review I will finish it.
Enjoy her review and be sure to read the book. It's a good one!
~~~~~~~~~
Forget about vampires and the typical take on
werewolves. Shiver features an original spin on the beloved
shape-shifters and a bonus likeable female lead. As someone who read a certain
popular series about a love story between the mythical creatures mentioned and
was frankly disappointed, I went into Shiver (which has some similar
elements to the unnamed series) rather uncertain. The way I finished the
novel? I was completely astonished, with tears in my eyes, feeling a desperate
need to read the next book in the series.
Shiver
switches between the narration of the two lovers, Sam and Grace. These two
first met when eleven year old Grace was being attacked by a pack of wolves.
However, yellow-eyed Sam was not in a human form at the meeting. He was a wolf,
and saved Grace from his own pack’s hunger. Ever since the incident, the book
worm has always kept an eye on her wolf, which she can observe from her
backyard facing a forest. The wolf has always kept an eye on Grace too, from a
seemingly endless distance.The only time the grey wolf was ever absent from
Grace’s viewing was during the warm summers of Mercy Falls, Minnesota. The
reader soon finds out this is because Sam is in human form only when it is warm
out, and cannot remember human made memories clearly in wolf form during the
cold winters. Grace and Sam finally meet as the same species when Sam shows up
bleeding and naked on Grace’s back porch. His abnormal coloured eyes give him
away immediately. The plot soon begins to thicken as the two properly fall in
love and try to make the most out of what might be Sam’s last year as a human.
The couple unfortunately cannot rest as violent werewolves are being created
and a female member of Sam’s pack is after Grace’s head. There is also the
mystery of Grace still being human as she was bitten by werewolves all those
years ago...
The
award-winning author Maggie Stiefvater can easily turn simple words into
something beautiful, which makes Shiver so memorable. The unique
concepts about werewolves really made this novel stand out to me as well. In
fact, I was so fond of Shiver, I finished the 390 page-turner all in one
night. Grace’s stoic yet loving personality mends with Sam’s shy, poetic heart
perfectly. Even the supporting characters and antagonists had an
important part to play in the fantasy setting. I especially adored Sam’s lyrics
and guitar playing, as a guitarist myself.
I strongly recommend this novel to any young adult audiences, even if you aren’t
a fan of the whole “mythical creature romance” craze. Stiefvater also has
written several other novels targeted to the same type of audience, which I
suggest checking out as I will myself.
Until next time, when the next book in
the Shiver series hopefully gets into my hands, thanks for reading.
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