Books I read: Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
Wow. Where do I start?
As is turns out, Maggie Stiefvaters's Shiver is everything Lauren Kate's Fallen isn't: Charming, witty, thrilling and intoxicating.
Why I bought it: Simple: Raving reviews. Also, this book is pretty in a very subtle way, inside and out.
Short Summary: Grace was 11 when she was pulled from the tire swing in her garden and dragged into the woods to be eaten by wolves. She only remembers parts of that night, but one thing always stood out clearly: A golden eyed wolf, saving her. Grace is 17 now and she has spent the last 6 winters watching the woods behind her house, watching the wolves. Sam is 18 and has spent the last six winters watching her.
Sam is a werewolf, ever since he had been bitten as a child. He is trapped in his wolf form over the winter, has no control over it and will only change when it's warm enough. But his days as a human are numbered. He knows this is his last year.
We follow Sam's and Grace's rollercoaster ride of a journey together through fall.. and winter.
What I liked: I could simply say: everything. But that would be too easy. So I'll elaborate.
I loved the book itself. The simple yet stunning cover. The pages printed with dark grey letters. The feel of it. Some books you just want to hug because they're so pretty. This is one of them.
On to the content. Even though the whole plot revolves around werewolves, everything feels real. The people, the emotions.. You never doubt something like this could exist out there. All of the protagonists are teenagers, merely grazing adulthood, and they actually act like young adults. Grace is kind of a normal girl, has friends, is good in school, has a quite stable and crazy-in-a-good-way family. She is strong, smart and funny. Even her weird obsession with that wolf is likeable. We experience the story through Grace's and Sam's POVs, which makes it easier to connect with the protagonists because we know what they're feeling. There are a lot of cute moments, a lot of funny dialogues but there is also a lot of pain and fear. Which brings us to the next point: The werewolves. These werewolves are nothing like the Twilight werewolves. Changing for them is a painful process, stripping them of everything they love, everything they cherish: being human. When they've changed they are ordinary wolves. Wolves with the faint memories of having been human, once. And like ordinary wolves in winter they bleed, they hunger and they die. From the moment they are infected they have ten, maybe twenty years where they can be humans during the warmer months. But one thing is clear, someday all of them will turn into a wolf and never turn back. Ever. Sam's struggle with this fate, the fate that will tear him from Grace and from everything he loves forever, is so heartrending, so desperate, that you can't help but suffer with him. Suffer with both of them and all of the others affected by this curse. Even though Sam is kind of shy sometimes, writes songs in his mind and loves reading Rilke while drinking hot chocolate, Stiefvater gives us enough reasons to understand why he is the way he is. The switches from one POV to the other are smooth and fluid. Even though some chapters are very short due to that fact, it doesn't matter. You never get the feeling of missing something. Everything just makes sense. Which leads me to another thing I liked: Stiefvater's fresh way of writing. You get no corny phrases, no awkward tries at crafting a masterpiece of world literature. She writes love, she writes pain and she also writes terror if she has to. Grim and real. This book is not a fairytale.
It just feels right. Sometimes I had to read a sentence twice, just because I loved the way she phrased it. Her way of putting pictures in your mind made Sam and Grace very real for 390 pages.
What I didn't like: The way it had me at the edge of my seat for most of the second half of the book! Yeah.. There's nothing else I could put into that section.
What I thunk: This book accomplished something only few books have accomplished before. It made me cry. I actually wrote everything I thought in the what I liked section, so the only thing I can add here is: There's no way one could hate this book. It has no flaws whatsoever. It even has the right length (imho). In a surge of supernatural YA novels it stands out as one that doesn't aim to please lovesick teenage girls. At least not the ones who like to be patronized. *gives the side-eye to S. Meyer* This is a real story. With real people. And real emotions. Let it lift you up, drop you and catch you again. It's worth it.
*off to order the sequel Linger*