Review: Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Title: Shiver
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Series: The Wolves of Mercy Falls #1
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Date Published: August 1, 2009
Buy: Amazon

Goodreads Summary

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.

I’d seen this book a couple times and each time I saw it I really didn’t want to read it. It sounded like it would have the weird kind of romance where people are all over each other. I finally read this after I read The Raven Boys and fell in love with it.

So usually I am not one for books that are mostly concerned with the romance but I found this book different. I liked the fact that this isn’t a book about people running around trying to save the world. It’s more like a book about how it’s like to be a werewolf. People always assume that werewolves have hectic lives etc. etc. but this explores it like realistic fiction/chic lit explores the life of a normal teen. That’s the appeal and to add to that the whole concept of a werewolf is so unique. I was surprised by it. Because in this book we get to see the hardships of that life.

The romance was so beautiful it gave me goose bumps. It was the kind of romance where you knew the love was real, not lust. That’s probably why I always felt so sad.. it was the sad kind of happy where you are so happy you are sad, it’s because it was just that sweet. I think it’s also the individual characters that they are that made me love the romance. You see she brings in a new kind of tortured boy. Normally in YA tortured hero’s are jack asses but this IS what actually happens to people with childhoods like this. They don’t close themselves off. They lose confident in themselves! People say Sam is a girly guy and that disgusts me because first of all listen to yourselves! That sounds sexist because you have decided what it means to be a girl and what it means to be a guy.So for people who are supposed feminists and say that Sam is girly. You are hypocrites. I get that Sam is a little emotional and that puts people off but what his parents did to him became the foundation of how he is today. He has a low self esteem because of it. Parents are supposed to love you, not try to kill you. Okay so I make it sound like Sam is no fun but he has his own sense of humor and he is ABSOLUTELY CUTE!

On the other hand you have Grace, she is always hurting because her parents don’t give her the attention she wants. Don’t get me wrong, they love her but they are so busy with themselves that they forget that they have a daughter to care about. Grace is the kind of girl that makes ME proud. She is strong and fights for what she believes. She doesn’t cower from the problem but does anything to find the solution and I love that about her. She doesn’t let her own fears distract her.

I guess people are prone to their opinions but I am super glad I read this book because it gave me hope for YA romances and I LOVED IT.