Review: Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Shiver
Written by Maggie Stiefvater
Release Date: August 1, 2009 (Paperback July 2010)
Published by Scholastic Inc.
NOT a Publisher Requested Review

Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars


Summary (Courtesy of Barnes and Noble):

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.

A strangely captivating werewolf story that kept me turning it's pages, though I might not actually be able to tell you why. Full review after the jump. WARNING: SPOILERS!

I'm not entirely sure why, but I enjoyed this book. The writing wasn't spectacular, the characters weren't amazingly captivating, and the story wasn't action-packed, but I couldn't put it down.

I really don't get why I was so engrossed in Shiver. I mean, the writing had to be sort of good to keep me interested at all, but there were times that I found Stiefvater's prose to be almost cliche. I really got sick of all of Sam's narratives being sprinkled with song lyrics. It just didn't seem to fit. I mean, we get it, he writes music and poetry, but is his inner monologue really riddled with lyrics? I write music, and I don't think in lyrics like that. Maybe that's just me.

I found Grace's character to be hard to peg. She wasn't totally likable, but I didn't hate her. She was written exactly how I thought a teenager should be, though, and that's slightly conflicting. She is this analytical bookworm type, but she booty dances to Mariah Carey. I did think her fixation with the wolves was slightly creepy, but it kind of makes sense when you consider her physical link to the pack through having been bitten. She was easy to project onto in the same way that Twilight's Bella Swan was, because she had very little personality of her own. She was a main character that was more of a plot device than a driving force.

I can't tell you what it was that kept me into the story, but I really couldn't stop reading Shiver. Maybe it was the way the pace was continuous in spite of the lack of tangible action. Maybe it was the way I could see myself walking through Grace's life. Maybe it was the way the couple of Sam and Grace had more personality than either of them alone. I wish I could dissect my feelings for this book better, but I can't. I liked Shiver in spite of itself. I'm starting the sequel, Linger, today. Let's hope that certain jenesequa that Shiver had carries through to the next book.