Shiver

Staff Pick

I know there's a ton of competition for the next big book to read after the Twilight saga, and I can guarantee one book that will fill the void: Shiver. Atmospheric, looming with danger, and positively brimming with that impossible romance — I couldn't put it down. Great gift!
Recommended by Jill S., Powell's City of Books

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Lieder Madchen, September 6, 2011 (view all comments by Lieder Madchen)
Shiver is such a perfect title for the first book in this series. It sends shivers down your spine and all over every inch of skin as you read. The first thing I noticed when I opened Shiver was that the text was a lovely shade of blue that matched the cover. I thought that this would bother me, but within two chapters I realized that I liked it. It was another thing that made this book unique.

The second thing I noticed was the beautiful writing style. I could drown in those wonderful, lyrical words. It is written in the alternating points of view of Grace Brisbane and Sam Roth. Both are distinctly different individuals with their own unique style. I loved them both, but Sam in particular. His side of the story is so heartbreaking, his words so abstract and beautiful. When I read about his past and what his parents had done to him, I wanted to cry. I don't think I have ever become so invested in a character so quickly before, but Sam's vulnerability and simple dreams captured me immediately.

Grace is a more subtle character, so it is harder to pinpoint the moment when she slipped under my guard. By the time I noticed, she and Sam where two parts of one whole instead of separate entities. The idea of one without the other is just wrong. Sam is the leader, but Grace is the one who gives him strength and keeps him gently rooted in reality when he threatens to fade away.

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Leigh Livick, December 1, 2010 (view all comments by Leigh Livick)
Boy saves girl from wolves. Girl loves wolf-boy from afar. Wolf-boy loves girl from afar. Will they find each other? I wasn't expecting much but I was pleasantly surprised!

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crowyhead, April 5, 2010 (view all comments by crowyhead)
I was totally torn on whether to give this four stars or five; I know it's not a perfect book and there were actually things I thought could have been better, but I ended up giving it five stars because I just loved it so much in spite of its flaws. Consider it a 4.5, I guess.

Grace has always been fascinated by -- and a little in love with -- the pack of wolves that frequents the winter woods behind her home in Northern Minnesota. She thinks of one wolf in particular as "hers," a male with riveting yellow eyes who has always seemed to share some measure of fascination with her as well. When a boy from her high school is attacked and killed, apparently by the same wolves, however, it's not within Grace's power to stop the retaliatory hunt that follows. In the aftermath she finds a boy her age, Sam, who has been shot. A boy with yellow eyes.

The book is combination of hypnotic, gentle love story and tense thriller. The relationship between Grace and Sam is of course intensely romantic and fraught with werewolfish problems, but it feels strikingly real nonetheless, grounded in the details of the way a person smells, the tilt of a loved one's head, the decision to take hold of someone's hand or let it go. I found myself completely caught up in their story, aching for them and wanting everything to somehow come out ok, despite my tendency to roll my eyes over love stories.

Stiefvater's take on the werewolf legend is also refreshing. There are echoes of half-remembered folktales and folklore, but she doesn't labor overly hard to explain the phenomenon or work out some kind of werewolf society except where it's necessary to the plot. Since this is apparently the first in a series, I expect there will be more details to come, but the reader only knows as much as Sam knows, and Sam is relatively inexperienced.

There were things that I found flawed. The pacing and plotting is just a little off, mainly at the end; a lot of things happen very quickly and aren't set up quite as well as they could have been, and the final chapter is a bit abrupt. My main problem was that there is a character, one of Grace's friends, who turns out to be very important to the plot, but who never felt fleshed out completely, so her motivations are rather confusing. Now that I know that this is a series, I have to wonder if she will be the focus of the next book; I expect at the very least that she'll play a larger role.

Of all the latest crop of vampire and werewolf-themed YA novels that I've read, this was by far my favorite, and I hope that Stiefvater keeps up the good work.

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Product Details

ISBN:

9780545123266

Author:

Stiefvater, Maggie

Publisher:

Scholastic Press

Subject:

Love & Romance

Subject:

Animals - Wolves

Subject:

Supernatural

Subject:

Human-animal relationships

Subject:

Children s-Science Fiction and Fantasy

Copyright:

2009

Edition Description:

Hardcover

Series:

Shiver

Publication Date:

20090831

Binding:

HARDCOVER

Grade Level:

from 8

Language:

English

Illustrations:

Y

Pages:

400

Dimensions:

8.25 x 5.5 in

Age Level:

from 13