Title: Shiver
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Published: August 1st, 2009 by Scholastic Press.
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.
My Musings
Oh man. It's so dificult for me to review this book. I wanted to love it so much. Because Maggie Stiefvater wrote The Raven Boys and that saga is one of my favorites now! So I had high expectations. And I have to admit they weren't really met. Let me tell you why.
It took me six days to read it! The outrage, no but honestly if a book is really good it takes me two days or maybe three to read it. But the thing with this book is, I didn't feel like there was a lot going on. There is not much of a plot, at least in this book, I don't know if it gets better or what but most of the book is about Sam and Grace living together. (How can a 17 year old girl live with her boyfriend if she lives with her parents, you ask? We'll get back to that.)
This gave me such Twilight feels sometimes, it seems as if Grace doesn't have a survival instict, she was being attacked by freaking wolves but she did nothing but stare at "her wolf". Same as Bella Swan with the vampires. And they are both sickly obsessed with either werewolves or vampires? Grace's obsession was odd, I'm not gonna lie.
The romance between Sam and Grace was cute if you overlooked the 'songs' he wrote for her. Such poor lyrics, but other than that his personality was likeable, for example whenever he called her angel I sighed a little bit, even though that term of endearment made him seem older. And, he gave me Edward Cullen feels. He is an eighteen year old boy, but he was always trying to be 'careful' with her in terms of how physical they became? That just doesn't seem believable, you know? I did enjoy the mix of Grace and Sam's personalities because she was always so practical and rather closed off while he was very good at reading people and not afraid to show his emotions, I think they made a nice couple.
But what really bothered me was the relationship between Grace and her parents. They are now part of the Top Ten of Shittiest Parents in YA. Could they have cared any less about their daughter? You can tell they just weren't ready to have a child. It is hard for me to understand this because my parents are the opposite of hers and maybe absent parents were necessary in order to make the relationship between Grace and Sam work?
Oh! I loved the character of Isabel. She came off as mean but you could tell she really cared about her brother, she is also determined and she ended up caring for Sam and Grace. I felt like I could relate to her a bit, because I tend to come off as apathetic but I do care, I just don't like to show it.
You HAVE to tell me what you think of this book if you have read it! If not, I hope you read it so that you can form your own opinion on it. These are mine, and I can't wait to see if you guys agree or disagree with me. I gave it 3 stars in Goodreads. Until next time!
