Stiefvater, Maggie: Shiver
Shiver (2009)
Written by: Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: YA/Paranormal Romance
Pages: 392 (Hardcover)
Maggie Stiefvater came to my attention when irene2007 sent me a copy of Lament to read and return. Stiefvater had a strong enough writing style to put her on my list of "to consider" authors for later titles, so when she released a book about werewolves? Well, I tried to resist. I really did. But you guys, it's werewolves! You know I can't resist werewolves, especially in a YA setting! So I finally broke and bought it, even though it was in hardcover.
The premise: Grace was attacked by a gang of wolves when she was a child, but one wolf saved her. That wolf, a werewolf named Sam, returned every winter to keep watch over her, but always disappeared in the summer. Years later, when the wolves attack and kill a boy at Grace's school, Sam shows up on her doorstep needing help. But Sam isn't a wolf, he's human, and it's not the change of the moon that forces the change, but the change in temperature. Shiver is, beyond a doubt, a love story between a human girl who may not be so human after all, and a boy who'd do anything to stay human so that he can be with her.
Review style: Stream of conscious, because there are points worth discussing and there will be spoilers. If spoilers bother you, skip to the "My Rating" section.
Before sitting down with this review, I glanced back at my review for Lament and realized that some of my complaints are very much the same. Stiefvater seems attracted to stories where an ordinary girl falls for a supernatural being that's probably not in her best interest to be with. Of course, that's not an original story by any means, nor was Stephenie Meyer the first writer to capitalize on it. It's a common story found in both YA and UF, and more to the point, romance. So in many ways, there's a kind of wish fulfillment with these types of stories, because what isn't appealing about a heroine, who sees herself as normal, attracting the attention of a man who seems larger than life and more than she deserves?
One thing that concerns me, though, is how when I read Lament, I referred to it as the lovechild of Melissa Marr's Wicked Lovely and Stephenie Meyer's Twilight. I also stressed the fact that I didn't believe nor I was implying that Stiefvater is just a copycat writer. I still don't believe that, but it concerns me that this book, unrelated to her faerie world, can also so easily be compared to Stephenie Meyer's Twilight, though in this case, it's Twilight with werewolves instead of vampires.
Oh, trust me when I say the plot in and of itself is very different. And trust me when I say that I don't think Stiefvater is copying anyone, and I don't believe she's trying to capitalize on the popularity of the Twilight series. I think she's just writing the kind of material she wants at just the right time, and the problem with that is her target audience is so Twilight-centric that it's almost hurting her. Because unless you really understand how publishing works, and unless you really understand the creative process behind the craft of writing and how we deal with our ideas as writers, it's really, really, REALLY easy to say, "Oh, this is a Twilight rip-off, and Meyer did it better." And for those readers who worship at the alter of Twilight, it's really easy for them to FORGET that Meyer isn't 100% original either (they forget or don't know about L.J. Smith's The Vampire Diaries or Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse novels).
And for the sake of the review, I do want to compare this book to Twilight a bit. No, not every YA novel needs to be compared to Twilight, but there are some differences I'd like to point out, and besides, this IS a YA Paranormal Romance, just like Twilight is a YA paranormal romance.
For starters, Shiver does not make my inner-feminist lash out and foam at the mouth. This is a good thing. There were a lot of things in Twilight that had my inner feminist going, "Hey, wait a minute," whereas with Shiver, there's only one moment that could be considered creepy: Sam, as a wolf, watches Grace all the time, so he's seen her undress in front of her window. But really, it doesn't come off as pervy or stalkerish, because his train of thought as a wolf is slightly different than it is as a human.
Another difference, Grace isn't really a damsel in distress. Sure, she's saved when she's originally attacked, but she's saved by Sam as a wolf (of course, he turns human to carry her out, but still, she was freezing cold and in shock) and it takes place in the beginning anyway, when she's younger. But in the course of the story, when Grace is actually in danger, she's thinking fast and making some smart decisions. Her plan to stop the hunters was fantastic, and her tricking Jack into thinking there was a cure was genius. So Grace isn't dumb, and she doesn't need someone saving her. She does, however, wish to be a wolf, just like Bella wishes to be a vampire, but one can easily argue that Grace's desire to be a wolf isn't entirely due to her love for Sam: she was BITTEN and she should have turned but never did. But because of the attack (seriously, you all, the wolves were going to eat her), she's still got some wolf senses and a strong attachment to the wolves, particularly Sam, the wolf who saved her. She doesn't even know they're werewolves for a long time, so it's not like she's IN LOVE, you know? Just...obsessed with this one wolf, and wants to be one of them. So yeah, okay, it's kind of the same, but kind of different.
The only other thing I want to say about Twilight comparisons is this: apparently, some Twi-hards are huffy about the same use of names. The only ones I could think of, and it took me a few minutes to even think of them, was Sam (but Sam Utley isn't a love interest in the series, so who cares? Also, the name Sam is REALLY COMMON) and Isabel, Jack's sister (but this Isabel is a supporting character, nothing like Bella at all, and is kind of a bitch besides). Maybe there's more than I'm forgetting or don't know about. After all, I still haven't read Eclipse yet.
One funny, or maybe not so funny, factoid: when I first started reading this book? I kept picturing Kristen Stewart as Grace. Don't know why, the characters look nothing alike, but I did. :-/
The love story itself is, well, I'm ambivalent about it. It's sweet, and I understand that Sam, knowing it's his last year as a human, wants to make the most of it, so he's not hiding stuff from Grace, nor is he holding himself back too much. He is who he is and makes the most of the chance he's got. Yet, there's a part of me that really wishes that Sam had visited Grace, as a human, every summer. I guess werewolf rules prevent him from doing so, but I would've liked that element: Grace with a summer boyfriend who reminds her so much of her wolf, or she figures out he IS her wolf and oh, what a secret! But as it stands, I can understand the connection these two have before they literally meet in person. It makes sense it turns into full-blown love, because he saved her life once, and she's been obsessed with wolves ever since. It makes sense that her obsession would translate to love/lust/intense emotional connection in a human relationship, you know? Sure, they're a little perfect, but it's sweet, even if it's a little boring. That said? I was glad for the sex scene when it happened. Admittedly, I don't have children so I may change my mind in the future about this, but frankly, sex is a part of life, and hiding it from young adults because we're afraid it's going to corrupt them or tempt them is, well, I won't say wrong, but I don't agree with it. But hey, I don't have kids. Like I said, I might change my mind one day.
But one of my main criticisms it that there's very little conflict. Sure, you've got Shelley who wants Sam as her mate and will get rid of Grace and the alpha Paul to do it, but my problem with that subplot is that it's never resolved and flew in the face of pack dynamics, which really didn't make sense in this book. Not that I mind Stiefvater doing something different with her werewolves, but she never offered a solid rule system that made sense, nothing to make me go, "Oh, that's different than the norm" when it came to pack dynamics. Paul's the alpha WOLF but Beck is the alpha human? That really doesn't work, nor does the idea that everyone knows Sam will take on BOTH roles later on and they seem okay with it.
And that's another problem: lots of unanswered questions in this story. Why does the cure work for Sam but not Jack? Because Sam didn't get a full dosage? Why were the wolves so determined to stay in Minnesota? Sure, there's talk of trying Texas and how being in constant heat makes the wolves more susceptible to sudden changes (so a blast of air-conditioning makes one turn), but I still had trouble buying that they'd live in a place with such obvious seasonal changes. Especially since the werewolves have a finite number of changes left in them. I liked that, by the way: the longer you've been a werewolf, the fewer chances you'll have to transform back into human. That one day, you won't change into human no matter how hot it is, that you'll stay wolf.
I really wish Stiefvater had explored this more, because it resonates with shape-shifting mythology, I think particularly with Native American folklore. Of course, I also kind of wish the werewolves were Native Americans, because I wanted to know how the werewolf-ism STARTED, but that would've REALLY had Twilight fans up in arms, eh?
And while I liked this kind of werewolf, a kind that changes due to temperature instead of the phases of the moon, it reminded me too much of faerie lore. Maybe I'm more sensitive to that because I tire of faeries and I've already read one faerie book by Stiefvater, but sometimes, the whole talk of "my summer girl" had me squirming in my seat uncomfortably. I didn't want faerie allusions, but I got them in spades.
Another complaint people seem to have with this book is the presentation of parents. I'm rather ambivalent about that: there are parents who are exactly like Grace's parents in real life. There are parents who are worse. I don't have any trouble believing in the artist who's so wrapped up in her work that she's unintentionally ignoring her daughter, nor do I have any trouble in believing in a workaholic father. Maybe that's stereotype, but hey, it worked well enough. I liked that we weren't constantly WORRYING about the parents catching Sam, because that would've gotten really tiring really fast.
And the cure: obviously not smart, and not entirely effective. I think Stiefvater should've explained more too, because let's face it, injecting someone with a virus is dangerous enough, but injecting someone with contaminated BLOOD is entirely different: Jack probably didn't die just from the virus, but from the fact he got an incompatible blood type. Of course, this is the kind of thing I wouldn't expect teenagers to think of, but on the other hand, given how practical Grace is supposed to be, I wish she would've stepped up and said, "Forget the virus: the wrong blood type will put us into shock."
The love story, though, was sweet. The ending was sweet. And I couldn't help but grin at how Stiefvater took a page from one of her favorite books and alternated the first person POVs between the hero and heroine. Actually, this book reminds me quite a bit of The Time Traveler's Wife in terms of two people totally in love but fate conspires against them. Of course, there's no time traveling in this book, but still.
My Rating
Buy the Paperback: this is, first and foremost, a love story, and the couple is too sweet and almost too perfect to allow for much conflict. The book could've been shorter in terms of conflict alone, but if you like the characters, it's sweet watching them interact, especially since they have such a limited time together. The writing is solid, at times lovely, and I didn't consider it purple, though some have accused it of being so (some of those same people say Meyer's prose ISN'T purple, and I tend to disagree with that too). It reads fast, but by the end, it leaves a lot of unanswered questions which has me wondering if I want to pick up the sequel, Linger when it comes out next year. I think I may, but it'll thoroughly depend on what kind of mood I'm in at the time.
In the end, I think I would've rather waited on the paperback. My werewolf fetish was happy enough, but I didn't tear through this like I thought I might. Of course, I didn't tear through Stiefvater's Lament either, and while some people say that book was better, I'm not sure. Better in conflict, sure, but I think it boils down to whether or not you prefer faeries or werewolves. I prefer werewolves, and while Stiefvater's writing is enjoyable and I liked certain elements of the story (namely, a heroine who's smart enough to save herself toward the end), I'm not in love with Stiefvater's work. Not yet. There's definitely promise though, but I do wish she'd move away from the "heroine falls in love with supernatural boy" plot. She did it in Lament and she does it here. It'd be nice to see her try something a wee bit different (and not "HERO falls in love with supernatural HEROINE" different either). :)
Cover Commentary: Gorgeous. That's one of the reasons I fell for it. I was especially thrilled when I noticed the wolf hiding in the brambles in the lower-right hand corner. Also delightful about this edition is the fact the print itself? Blue! Not always noticeable, but once you notice it, it's like, "Hey! Cool!" I don't know why they did that, but I'm amused by it. I will say, though, in terms of cover art, I kind of like the UK cover art better. However, there's no wolf, so that makes it slightly less awesome.
DON'T FORGET: have you voted for October's book club selection yet? If not, do so now! Poll will be open until September 30th, but don't wait, vote now!
ALSO!!!: September IS almost over, so I hope you've read September's book club selection, Emma Bull's War for the Oaks. I'll post my review on September 30th, so I hope for lots of discussion! I can't wait to hear your thoughts!