Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Series: The Wolves of Mercy Falls #1
Genres: YA, Urban Fantasy, Werewolves
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Release: 2009
Source: Printed copy, audiobook
Pages: 390
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BLURB:
For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods 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.
EXPECTATIONS: Okay so you know I did not like Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater like at all. But I own Shiver which is the first book in her The Wolves of Mercy Falls series and so I decided to give this author another chance. After all I absolutely love werewolves. Tho it turns out thanks to Teen Wolf and this book I do not like teenager werewolves :D
THE WORLD: Okay so it is actually pretty typical world that we all know except with an addition of werewolves. However, this addition is a little bit different to what we usually see in books. Basically werewolves are made by biting but then they become wolves when it gets cold and in summer they are human again. Tho they can do it only for a few years till basically they stop becoming human and stay wolves for the rest of their life. The only thing I did not like was that being a wolf was considered a curse.
CHARACTERS: Our main character is called Grace. She is a teenager girl who actually is pretty ordinary, at least no unnecessary drama. But she has this fascination with wolves and when she was 5 I think she was bitten by some of them, however one wolf sorta saved her and ever since she calls him her wolf. And of course that wolf is Sam - out male character. He has been a wolf for I don't remember how many winters and now everybody thinks it's his last but hey Sam no wanna be a wolf, he wanna be with Grace. No but seriously, this so #teenwolf to me. First of all Grace is obsessed with wolves and I mean truly obsessed. People are going to hunt them because one kid got killed and she just runs into the forest because hey her wolf...like common sense girl. And then when she actually does not see what is happening with her best friend when for me personally it was clear from page one. How do you not see? Wake up girl! Hrrr. And then Sam...so for many years he didn't try to approach Grace, he always waited for her to come to him. And now that she finally has he is all tears how he doesn't want to lose her. Like damn it just think, you know you do not have many years and the girl you love is right there so at least try to make friends or? Just thinking about it makes me want to slap him.
ROMANCE: Very fairytale style to be honest. And lacking common sense.
GOOD: I liked this whole wolf when cold human when hot concept a lot. Also how they explained why Grace wasn't a wolf was kinda well not logical but didn't sound too dumb either.
BAD: This psycho wolf who just goes biting kids so they extend wolf population. Like what the hell man? And then he is talked about as their father like are you kidding me? Stockholm syndrome much?
OVERALL: Okay so this book was not as bad as I made it sound here but really it had many many problems. I do consider it much better than Raven Boys but it turns out I don't like magic realism anyways so yeah...also Maggie Stiefvater has this weird thing where she uses foreign languages. In Raven Boys it was Latin and now it was German. I don't speak Latin but I was told it was terrible, done with Google translator basically. But I do know German and omg did she just take a poem and translated it with google translator for herself. The way Sam was describing his love for German literature...I could not stop laughing. I appreciate authors trying to involve other languages than just English but maybe...just maybe don't use Google translator :D Anyways, I think I will continue with the series after all.
What do you think about SHIVER?
