Review--Shiver

THE COLD.

Grace has spent years watching the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf--her wolf--watches back. He feels deeply familiar to her, but she doesn't know why.

THE HEAT.

Sam has lived two lives. As a wolf, he keeps the silent company of the girl he loves. And then, for a short time each year, he is human, never daring to talk to Grace...until now.

THE SHIVER.

For Grace and Sam, love has always been kept at a distance. But once it's spoken, it cannot be denied. Sam must fight to stay human--and Grace must fight to keep him--even if it means taking on the scars of the past, the fragility of the present, and the impossibility of the future.

Shiver is the absolute perfect title for this book, because at the end it left me shivering! Not from the cold or anything, almost a 100 friggin degrees in St. Louis today, but because of the writing style and the magnificent plot and extraordinary characters. All that combined left me with a shiver of my own. The book was bone chilling, but not in an eerie way, but in a way that really grabs at your heart!

I thought I would give Shiver a try because I heard good thing about it lately since Linger comes out next month. And since I was craving werewolves I thought I had to read this! And now that I have I can't believe I waited so long to do so!

Shiver was amazing! It was yet another werewolf love story with a human where things get dicey because of the guy being a werewolf. But this isn't an ordinary werewolf tale. The rules of werewolves are very different here than what we normally know. Werewolves shift due to the changing of the seasons, when it's cold they have to take on wolf form and in the heat they are human. But after so many changes eventually they do take on wolf form forever.

Some of the mythology along those lines gets a little confusing, but you just have to roll with it. Stiefvater even explains why a werewolf can't just live somewhere warm all year round to be human all year round, which I thought was amazing, because it did come to my mind as to why werewolves just didn't do that.

There was also quite a few sad parts in the book, more than you usually get, but it was necessary almost. Both Grace and Sam come from families that aren't the parents they should be. Grace's aren't always there, hence how she is able to have Sam in her house, in her room more than a teenage girl should--something I heard on another blog when reading reviews about Shiver. She didn't care for Grace's neglectful parents either. But it shaped who Grace was, how she was so capable. And Sam's parents, well that's his story to tell, which he does later on.

The p.o.v. was written well too, it switches back and forth between Grace and Sam and it's still told in the first person. I liked this because it allowed us to see both Grace and Sam's mind and how they felt for the other. It was deeply personal and allowed you to realize how much they truly cared for the other. I don't think it was creepy either, you can see it as that if you want, since Grace watches the wolves and a wolf watches her, but it's not nearly as creepy as Edward watching Bella sleep and liking it. *eyeroll*

Grace has a history with the wolves as well, again a past story that I won't divulge in, Grace will tell you herself and it was quite chilling as well. You can read into the wolves being both evil and not evil.

But when a boy--teenager--goes missing and assumed dead, attacked by wolves, the town panics and wants to kill the wolves which causes Grace to panic because it puts her wolf in danger. Hence the meeting of Sam and Grace begins. But there's still something fishy about the missing boy who is presumed dead.


The mystery element wasn't too big itself, but it was still very detailed and extraordinary. A select few get in the know about the wolves and who they really are. These characters were all so deep it was really refreshing. People change, you see them as someone on the outside and throughout the book you see who they really are, past their outer image, it was really amazing.

I was so blown away by the book. I cannot wait for Linger. Luckily it comes out in a month, but then the wait for the third Wolves of Mercy book will be an even longer wait and I don't even know the title for that one yet!

The ending was just incredible. I kind of guessed it happening, especially when I was in the person's p.o.v. chapter, I knew what was going on and yet it was still a delicious shock at the end even though I saw it coming. It was one of those nice surprises that you know is coming! So I won't say more on that!

Truly wonderful book and now I must go preorder Linger!

Stay reading!