Forever (The Wolves of Mercy Falls #3) by Maggie Stiefvater

Then.

When Sam met Grace, he was a wolf and she was a girl. Eventually he found a way to become a boy and their love transformed from curious distance to the intense closeness of shared lives.

Now.
That should have been the end of their story. But Grace was not meant to stay human. Now she is a wolf. And the wolves of Mercy Falls are about to be hunted in one final, spectacular kill. 

Forever. 
Sam would do anything for Grace. But can one boy and one love change a hostile, predatory world? The past, the present and the future will all collide in one pure moment - a moment of death or life, farewell or forever. 

Paperback, 416 pages
First published July 12th 2011

My Rating: 2.5/5
Genres: Fantasy, Young-Adult
Read from 23 August to 26, 2014




My Review:



Forever begins with a small part from Shelby's point of view, where she attacks a young female werewolf turned into a human and kills her. Mercy Falls is shocked when the girl is found dead and in a bad state, which leaves Grace's parents devastated  - her mothers is worried that the corpse might belong to Grace. Sam knows that his beloved is alive, due to a series of phone calls she managed to make before she turned back into a wolf again.
At the same time, there is an incident where Isabel and Sam find Cole in the living room, undergoing a seizure. Isabel speculates that Cole is trying to kill himself until he reveals to her the truth - that he is looking for the essence that triggers the shape-shifting.
And then things change drastically - because Isabel finds out that her father is pushing his way to the state, and the wolves will soon be out of the endangered  species list. She is smart enough to figure that if that happens, a genocide will follow right after.

I can't say i was enraptured by Forever. Linger created the illusion that the series was getting better and better, but this book was not captivating at all. It was O.K reading it, but I did so only because I was curious of how the series would end. What did satisfy me was that there was no happy ending. 
It was difficult though for me to follow the coherence of events because there was a whiny Sam, a mad scientist named Cole, an Isabel scouting the enemy's moves and a wolf's way of describing people and places - that was Grace. So many people, all scattered in different directions, each one with his own plan in mind. It was tiring and it made me lose my interest fairly quickly. 
The opinion I expressed in Linger's review about Grace's parents didn't change at all, it only got worse. [SPOILER] Hey, what kind of parents would replace their daughter with a CAT? seriously, Maggie Stiefvater?[End of Spoiler]
There is a fourth book in the series, Sinner which I may read next. Main narrators are Isabel and Cole, and that's why I will read it - I got sick of Grace and Sam. Really really sick. 


THE CHARACTERS:

• Grace Brisbane

“I was learning to survive as a wolf, but I hadn’t yet learned how to live as one” - Grace

Spring is the time of year that the wolves change into humans but the newly made ones are not stable, and the keep switching back and forth. Grace is trying to meet Sam, but the urgency of a change does not allow her to do so. The wolves treat her well, but there is always an image of a boy that haunts her and she feels a longing her canine mind can not interpret.

I can't say that Grace has any kind of a big part on Forever's events. Her appearance and disappearance upset Sam a lot, but I don't think there is any more to it than that.
[SPOILER] Grace asks Sam into marriage. What the hell??? Since when teens in the age of seventeen are getting into such heavy commitment? CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP. [End of Spoiler]

• Sam Roth

“I had spent so much of life being afraid or living in the memory of being afraid. No more.” - Sam

FINALLY. I was waiting for this moment since I started reading the series. In Forever becomes clear that Sam owes his sanity to Grace, who with her absence, brings his world upside down.
Honestly, the only Sam part I enjoyed is the one where he has a conversation with Grace's mom. Some of the oddities in the mother-daughter relationship are explained but not enough to make me resign for entitling it "fake".

• Cole St. Clair

Without wanting to spoil you, Cole St. Clair is the one who with his prodigious mind saves the day.  I liked reading about Cole because he is the type of Character with countless brilliant and bad traits at the same time.

• Isabel Culpeper

As you must have probably guessed this far, I am fond of Isabel too. When she and Cole are in the same room, it's explosive - funny arguments, witty comments and no sentimental crap (like Sam and Grace). Isabel is stronger even than before and her acts are admirable, I think.



In general, the only reason I rated this book with 2.5 stars is that I liked Cole, Isabel, and the ending of the story. If not for those, 1 star would be more than enough. 

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: