Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls #1) - Maggie Stiefvater

Real Teen Award:

-Best Book Read In 2010

-Dream Catcher Award

* New York Times Bestseller

Shiver
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The Gist

Grace Brisbane lives for the winter. During that time of the year, a yellow eyed wolf known to Grace simply as her wolf, watches her from the woods in her backyard. She’s had some sort of odd connection with him ever since she was attached by a group of wolves when she was eleven. Now, after six years of watching him from the porch, or from the swing in her yard, or from her bedroom window, she begins to wonder if there’s more than just wolf in those yellow eyes. Sam Roth lives for the summer. During that time of the year he sheds his wolf skin and becomes a normal boy.  He’s tired of watching the girl he loves from afar; he wants to change. He’s tired of being a wolf for half the year. When the two of them meet, they know they’ll do anything to be together.


What We Think

Reviewed by Dream Catcher

Number of Pages: 392

 This book is so much better than I described in the gist. From the moment I started reading – from the very first page – I couldn’t put it down. It’s been a while since I could honestly say that.  When I wasn’t reading it, I was either thinking about what I thought was going to happen next in the story, or I was thinking about wanting to read it. That’s when you know a book’s good. Though this was a slight problem during my geometry class (a.k.a day dreaming), this was an amazing book. First of all, the writing is simply fantastic. It has a nice poetic style to it that is very refreshing.  Most often, I find authors’ writing is kind of choppy and straight to the point.  This was not the case here. I absolutely loved the way the author wrote this; it really got you into the story. I felt like one of the characters.  Second, the characters – Grace and Sam - were so real.  The character development makes you feel close to them. You watch them make hard decisions and you feel the pain they feel. There were parts that were so sweet they made me cry, and sections so sad I just felt like curling up in a ball and lying there for a while. It was one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. But, if you don’t like romance-y books, I wouldn’t recommend you read this. There are things in the plot that don’t have to do with romance, but it is centered around Grace and Sam’s relationship. It was an incredibly sweet book that I couldn’t put down for a second.

Real Teen Rating~ A+ : What are you doing still reading this, go buy this book now!


Reviewed by The North Star
I read this book after Dream kept going on and on about how I had to read this book and how it was amazing and so cute and I am the ultimate sucker for a cute love story, so I thought why not might as well try it.  I loved it so much.  Everything about this book was amazing (except for one part that gets a little awkward).  In a way people may think this is book is like Twilight but for werewolf lovers, but it’s not.  The actually story is much better because it is a little more believable than Twilight and in my opinion I think that the writing style is better because she goes between the two main characters so that you can read what they are thinking so that you can get both sides of the story.  I think the thing I liked best about this story was that I actually liked the female character.  Most of time I in romantic teen fiction the author will make the girl really annoying so then the reader feels bad for the guy because he has to put up with her but in this case I really liked Grace.  She was a very strong character and she knew how to hold her own.  This book is perfect for anyone looking for a great book to read and just like Dreamand I waiting for the sequel Linger to come out this August!

Real Teen Rating~ A+: What are you doing still reading this, go buy this book NOW!


Reviewed by Living Destiny

I read this book because of incessant badgering by North.  You’ll notice she does that a lot.  But this time it was well worth it.  It was a really amazing book!  I always like the whole fantasy ghosts-vampires-werewolves-witches-warlocks-other-worldly-spooky-stuff, and this book has some of that, so I was hooked pretty much before I read it.  And then I read it, and it was a scary sort of addiction.  Sam is totally adorable.  He’s such a gentleman and he’s so sweet and cute and he’s just awesome.  Grace is really good too.  I like her because she isn’t whiny or rude or weak like a lot of female characters.  She is strong and smart and kind of pushy, but in a good way.  Sam and Grace have such good chemistry.  Some of the scenes were so sweet I went back two or three times to reread them.  Maggie Stiefvater did a really good job wrapping the whole book, so it could stand alone.  Still, I’m glad she’s making into a series.  Stay tuned for Linger!!!

Real Teen Rating~ A+: What are you doing still reading this, go buy this book NOW!


Reviewed by ShoreWhisperer

So once again this book was showed to me by North. I thought that it was going to be a another person trying to live up to the Twilight phenomena. So I read it. I ended up liking it a lot. The characters were fun and non-annoying. For the first time in a while I found the narrator, and main girl sensible and down-to-earth. I liked her a lot. Grace was one of the best characters that I had ever found in a book. Then there was Sam, he was cute and charming and the boyfriend that everyone would want (except for the part when he changes into a wolf when it gets cold out.). I instantly fell in love with both of these characters. I thought that they way the developed throughout the book was described well too. They went from a couple who was still in the “honey-moon phase” if you know what I mean. They were always happy, they never fought. Then Grace came to reality… he was going to change back and this time never come back she would never see him again. Then they start to grow as characters and you can feel yourself understanding what they are going through too. One thing that I really liked about the book was the chapters had the temperature on the page so you knew what was going on and why Sam would have problems. This book was unique in so many ways. There is no way that you couldn’t fall in love with book, and as you do you’ll be falling in love with both the humans and werewolves of this book.

Real Teen Ratings~ A+: What are you doing still reading this?? Go out and buy this book NOW!!!!!