Shiver (Wolves of Mercy Falls #1) by Maggie Stifvater

For years, Grace has watched the wolves behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf -her wolf- is a chilling 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, Sam must fight to stay human - or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever. 


Paperback, 392 pages
First published 1 August 2009 by Scholastic



My Rating: 3.1/5
Genres: Fantasy, Young-Adult
Read from August 14 to 17, 2014
Order online in Alibris





MY REVIEW:

Shiver begins with Grace's memory of being attacked by wolves, and then being saved by a yellow-eyed young member of the pack. Since then, the two form a silent bond, keeping company to each other for six years. Slowly a pattern forms, in which Grace realizes that the wolf is never around during the summer. That autumn a strange chain of events unravels, including a high-school student's disappearance. Jack Culpeper had been attacked by wolves, and is considered to be dead until his corpse is missing from the morgue and his influential family leads an armed party through the woods to terminate the local wolf pack. Grace is terrorized by the idea that her wolf will get hurt, but her tries to stop the firing guns prove to be fruitless. That night, a naked yellow-eyed boy appears on her porch, a deep wound on his neck. He goes by the name of Sam. 
Later on, Isabel Culpeper (Jack's sister), Grace and Sam try to find Jack looking either for the boy or for the hazel-eyed wolf that scared half the school to death, uncovering hidden truths and untold stories.   

I am jealous of Maggie Stifvater's  writing style, I could almost feel the cold prickling my skin. The setting was a small town in Minnesota, called Mercy falls. I tried to Google the place but it seems to be a creation of the writer, well set enough to make me think it was real. Another positive fact is that Grace and Sam have developed a unique relationship throughout the book, it is overshadowed though by loads of namby-pamby romance. Those i consider as negatives can be found in the part where I review the characters, because I did have a problem with them: I despise Sam. 

THE CHARACTERS:

• Grace Brisbane: Grace is externally described as "the girl next door": Dirty blonde hair and common brown eyes. She is collected, clever and calculative, with the rare ability to love other people the way they are - which applies to Sam, her friends and her parents. She is quite mature for her age and knows how to take care of herself, but that’s easily explained by having such parents. Sam explains it properly:

“ They were like busy little brainless birds, fluttering in 

and out of their nest at all hours of the day or night, 

so involved in the pleasure of nest building that

they hadn't noticed that it had been empty for years. 

They were noisy, too, laughing, 

chatting, clattering dishes in the kitchen

 although I’d never seen evidence of either of them cooking.

 They were college kids who had found a baby in a 

rush basket and didn't know what to do with it. ”

• Sam Roth: Sam is described by Grace as a "yellow-eyed John Lennon", tall, lanky and with a mob of black hair. He has grown up with a pack member called Beck, who saved and raised him when his religious parents mistreated him horribly. The thing is that as much as I like Grace, that much I get irritated with Sam. Three words: Male Bella Swan. 

Sam is in a mood of a 24/7 drama. I felt really sorry for the incident with his parents, being in shock is an acceptable outcome. Aside from that, he whines about his soon-to-be-lost love with Grace, his unfortunate condition and in every upcoming difficulty Grace is wearing the trousers (except for Shelby’s attack) . I think its soppy and pathetic.

•     Isabel Culpeper: Isabel is a very interesting character, strong-willed and decisive. Her flawless and pretentious appearance, as well as her high rank in school society is misleading Grace at first, but Isabel's persistence is rewarded as Sam and Grace finally decide to help her. [SPOILER] Plus, it’s the first time that the girl that is first described as “bitchy” is in the end befriended by the heroine. I LIKED that [End of Spoiler]

• Jack Culpeper: Jack is a character whose biological status is really important in the story, but we don't see much of him. Sam describes him as a tall fit guy with curly brown hair and hazel eyes. Grace fills us in with his temper issues. He used to be quite a duchebag back in his human days. There is an incident where he viciously beats up Sam, but he makes up for it in the end.    [SPOILER] “It was just the three of us then, the three of us who didn’t change. I started the car’s engine to warm it, but in the end it didn’t matter. Fifteen minutes later, Jack died. Now it was just the two of us.” Jack’s death is an addition that though unpleasant, in the way Grace described it i was startled with the feel of sadness and loss. It was a piquant break from the mawkish romance. [End of Spoiler]

Though it was not a book i would describe as "captivating" or "it will leave you breathless" I will go on with the series, hoping the other two will make up for the first. 


If you want to check out my reviews on the rest of the books in the series, click on the image below to be redirected: