Burn Bright Book Club: Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
Reading level: Ages 13 and up
Hardcover: 400 pages
Publisher: Scholastic Press; 1 edition (August 1, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0545123267
ISBN-13: 978-0545123266
Belinda:
Cover
A tangled forest is depicted in varying shades of blue and peeking through the branches is a wolf. The title in is black and a blood spatter takes the place of the dot of the ‘I’. The print inside the book matches the cover with a blue ink rather than black. At times I found this to be quite off-putting.
Characters
There is a wide variety of characters to be found in Shiver. Some you’ll like, some you’ll love to hate, others are merely window dressing, but they all have their place and they all matter to making the story roll along at a steady pace.
Favourite
Sam. So predictable that I would choose him, but he’s patient and caring. Not to mention he’s kinda cute.
Least Favourite
Beck. You would have expected me to pick Grace’s parents, but no, Beck is the bee in my bonnet for this book. Instead of allowing the pack die out and leaving people to be people, he’s ‘recruiting’ and creating a dangerous situation for the residents of Mercy Falls.
Beginning
Grace is mauled by the local pack of werewolves. She survives, much to the astonishment of the community. She is left with an unnatural intrigue for the wolves who almost ended her life.
Storyline
The storyline is told from both Grace and Sam’s point of view, and I was pleased to see the characters make a go of their unique situation.
Ending
Sam makes a decision which may or may not kill him.
Thoughts
I was a little hesitant to read this book at first, because books that gain so much hype so quickly in the past haven’t done much to win me over.
Shiver really surprised me and I found myself on the last page and so invested in the characters that I was impressed by the power of Maggie Stiefvater’s magic, and a little irritated that I didn’t have the second book ready to go.
My vision isn’t as good as it could be and the thought of the ink being in Green and Red in the other two books is the only thing holding me back from devouring them. I may have to look into getting them out of the library in an audio book format.
Quote
“One happy day for each falling leaf you catch.” Sam’s voice was low.
Lisa:
Cover
In the Wolves of Mercy Falls series, each book has a B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L cover! I honestly like these covers so much, I’m having a hard time deciding where I should start! They’re so clean, perfect and describe the book exactly.
I love the font detail, the drop of red (which I’m not to sure if its supposed to represent blood, or not) in every title, is interesting. It really sticks out, and catches the eye. Most people already know this, but the color used on the cover is the same color used to print the inside font. So Shiver’s cover is blue and its font was blue. The cover of Linger is green, so its font is green; same thing with Forever (the third book in the series), except in red.
This is the first time I’ve ever seen something like this. It’s awesome! Even with this, my favorite part of the cover has to be the forest detail in the background> It really ties in the story, that the cover protects.
Characters
I really enjoyed reading about the two main characters (which the whole story was about…duh, Lisa), Grace and Sam. I loved seeing them both grow, and their relationship bloom and develop.
Favorite
Grace!!!! I love her! I’ve liked really liked her throughout the entire series. She’s not the typical teenage girlfriend type … but then again she isn’t dating a typical teenage boy, either.
At the beginning of Shiver, Grace is a good girl, not doing one thing wrong. She has 100% of parent trust. When she finally meets Sam, finds out who he really is, and starts having feelings for him, this changes. Sam spends almost every night in Grace’s bed. Something she would have never even thought about doing it.
Least Favorite
We don’t really get to read or learn much about Grace’s parents, but they would HAVE to be my least favorite characters. I think it’s great when kids have really tight relationships, and they can trust each other with everything. But even with such a great relationship with one another, parents should never just leave their daughter all alone by herself most of the day.
So it wasn’t necessarily their personality that I didn’t like, but more like their parental skills.
Beginning
I just finished reading the third and final book, Forever, in the series! The Wolves of Mercy Falls is one of my favorite series, its even above the Twilight series.
The story itself is about a teenage girl named Grace. But we do get to learn about one of her past experiences, right up front. When she was younger, she was attacked by a pack of wolves in her backyard. She was dragged to the middle of the forest, where she layed in white snow (which was stained red, from her blood), surrounded by wolves, biting and pulling on her. Until one very special, yellow eyed wolf rescued her.
Story Line
Soon we learned that this wolf, isn’t just any old wolf (besides the fact, that he saved Grace). He’s a boy, a boy named Sam. Just like Sam, the pack who attacked Grace are also humans … just some, more than others.
Ending
Out of the three books, I would have to say this ending was my favorite. I don’t really want to give it away, so I’m not going to say too much. But since Sam is half-wolf, and half-human. depending on the temperature, he changes between the two. When its cold, he changes to a wolf, when warm, human.
Overall Thoughts
Before reading this, I had just finished the Twilight series, and was looking for something new to indulge in. In the Twilight series, I discovered a fancy towards werewolves, Team Jacob! So I was looking for something that had werewolves in it; preferably no vampires. I’m not sure how I stumbled across this series, maybe through blogging, youtube, friends, or maybe just through the library.
But I’m glad I did! I hope Maggie Stiefvater continues this series, or at least writes another book, I would be the first to buy it!
Krista:
Cover
I like that the covers are simple and each book in the series is a separate color. My favorite thing is that the writing inside the book (at least the US copies) are also in different colors. Shiver is blue. It has a blue cover along with blue writing inside.
Character
Least Favorite
If I had to chose a least favorite, I suppose I would chose Grace’s parents for this one. Maybe her father more than her mother, but their lack of being around and paying attention to what was going on really played a lot into this story. It was necessary for them to be more detached for some of the connections to happen between Grace and Sam.
Favorite
I have to say Sam is my favorite character because I think that he grows the most throughout the story. His situation is the most desperate and even up until the last page the reader never knows what is going to happen with him. I think he is the character that really drives this story.
Beginning
The book is separated between Sam and Grace’s perspectives, in the beginning and the end we get a lot more of Grace than we do of Sam. The building up of the plot and Grace’s weird connection with the wolves keeps the story rolling with just enough hints to what maybe connecting her to them (the wolves) Even though she was almost murdered by them as a young child.
Storyline
I would not call this story action packed or an intense read. The story delves a lot more into emotions and feelings than adventure. Since Grace was attacked by the wolves as a child and her parents are not a prominent feature in her life, she feels alone and not able to connect with others around her. There have been other attacks on people in her town and she cares more about the welfare of the wolves and not wanting them hunted for their actions. When Sam shows up one day, there is a deeper connection with him than she has ever felt with anybody else, and even though he’s a werewolf, he is the only thing that can fill the void in her life.
Ending
The ending of the story was the most intense part. A lot of events happen pretty fast and because this is the first book in a series, we don’t get all of the answers that we want. I was caught off guard with some of the things that happened, but happy with others.
Thoughts
I have to admit that I thought a book about werewolves was going to be more intense. But this is something I am labeling under the romance section of my library. It is something that is very emotionally driven. I liked how the romance was handled in the book, they have a strong attraction to each other, but yet I thought the interactions between them in the more private moments were more romantic than the “mushy” love that we sometimes get in books. There were points throughout the story that Grace was not exactly my favorite character, but overall I think that I would have had very similar thoughts if I were in the same situation. I could understand her and what she was feeling.
Quotes
“You’re beautiful and sad,” I said finally, not looking at him when I did. “Just like your eyes. You’re like a song that I heard when I was a little kid but forgot I knew until I heard it again.” For a long moment there was only the whirring sound of the tires on the road, and then Sam said softly, “Thank you.”
“I smiled at the stacks, inhaling again. Hundreds of thousands of pages that had never been turned, waiting for me. The shelves were a warm, blond wood, piled with spines of every color. Staff picks were arranged on tables, glossy covers reflecting the light back at me. Behind the little cubby where the cashier sat, ignoring us, stairs covered with rich burgundy carpet led up to the worlds unknown. ‘I could just live here,’ I said.”
