Review - Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater (Wolves of Mercy Falls #1)

Picture from Chapters.ca

Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Fantasy

Format: Paperback (390 pages)

Publisher: Scholastic Inc

Publication Date:  August 1st 2009

Rating: 4/5
Source: Bought from Costco =)
Get it at: Chapters | Amazon | Barnes & Nobles

Summary from Amazon:


For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf - her wolf - is a haunting presence she can''t seem to live without.

Meanwhile, Sam has lived two lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the protection of the pack, and the silent company of a fearless girl. In summer, a few precious months of being human - until the cold makes him shift back again.

Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It''s her wolf. It has to be. But as winter nears and the temperature drops, Sam must fight to stay human or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever.


What I think...:

I've been dying to read this series since back in February during the dreadful wave of midterm. I really like the font and cover which were the reasons that drawn me into reading the story. The metallic blue and and title reminded me of the eerie darkness of a cold winter night (The book is printed in BLUE INK!). Anyways, Shiver was one of those OMG-what-am-I-reading-but-I-am-glad-to-finish-it books. I do not recommend this book for people with short attention span as it might be too painful to read.

The story is about a seventeen year old girl named Grace who has a fascination with wolves ever since she got saved by one. Little does she know, the wolf that saved her was actually a shape-shifter (...or werewolf) who watches her every night during the winter months. After a certain event, the yellow-eyed wolf ended up on her porch bleeding, where she discovered its (his) secret.

I really like the plot of the story and the author's creativity. Maggie Stiefvater's writing was whimsical, enchanting and lyrical. The words in the book evict so much emotions and you can actually picture everything so clearly. The words touched upon the five senses, especially the feeling (of coldness). Shiver is one of those books that one would read underneath a thick blanket with hot chocolate (I did that =D ! ).

The characters were interesting and the way the book described them made the audience want to find out more about them. You can't help but start liking the "snob" of the story as well. All the character mentioned have a purpose in the story even though some of them were not illustrated as often because the main focus was on Grace and Sam.

So after all these praises, why is the rating so low? Well, the book has so much potential that it can be easily rated a 5. However, the way the chapters were presented were a bit frustrating. The book is written in two different perspectives - Grace's and Sam's. Usually, the books that I have read with this type of layout  often alternate between the two POVs. In contrast, the POVs were all over the place in Shiver. Somehow, I found the layout a bit messy. I guess that is why I found the pacing of the story extra slow.

Overall, Shiver was an intriguing story and can be easily rated 4/5 but the inconsistency of the POVs, I have to give it a 3/5. There were twists in the story that I certainly enjoy and the ending was beautiful. It is open ended but still contained a bit of closure (for those that do not wish to read the sequel). I think I will reread the book during the winter and see if the atmosphere affects the reading experience.

Rating: ★★★★