BOOK REPORT for shiver by maggie stiefvater
bff charm: meh
swoonworthy scale: 6
talky talk: yr poetic license has expired
bonus factors: the day after tomorrow
relationship status: pity friend
the deal:
ever since she was attacked by wolves as a child, grace has been obsessed with the pack of wild creatures that roam the woods behind her house. she’s especially drawn to the wolf with yellow eyes that watches her every winter from the darkness (does that sound creepy? because it is). after a local boy goes missing, the townspeople decide to take matters into their own hands and hunt down the wolves, including grace’s favorite. she discovers it, shot and dying, on her doorstep, except it’s not a wolf anymore… IT’S A DUDE! and he’s naked!!! sweet holy jacob!
see, sam is a werewolf, but instead of fearing the full moon, he worries about the falling temperature, which transforms him into a wolf and practically obliterates all human emotions. even worse, this might be his last year to be human, period. grace quickly learns that sam feels the same passion for her as she does for him, but as the weather gets colder, their relationship takes a backseat to the desperate race to find a cure for sam before winter really hits and he’s lost to dogtown forever.
bff charm: meh
y’all, i fear that grace is in danger of falling into the bella swan trap. girlfriend is kind of lame and blah. even worse, she’s not obsessed with a sparkly vampire, she’s obsessed with a WOLF. like, she doesn’t know it’s a person. so… that’s kind of weird. sure, it worked for beauty and the beast, but the entire time i was reading this book, i kept picturing grace as this girl i knew in high school who always wore horse and wolf t-shirts. and not in the ironic hipster way.
ok, well, that shirt is pretty sweet. but still. i just don’t think i could hang out with someone who is thinking about wolves 24/7. mac ‘n’ cheese, ok. YA lit, sure! tim riggins, obviously. but WOLVES?!!!! let’s just say that if i knew grace in high school, i’d be audi five thou the minute i saw her doodling a wolf with a heart around it. yeeeeikes.
swoonworthy scale: 6
once the wolves are out of the picture and sam’s a real guy, things do get pretty steamy between him and grace. stiefvater (i can’t type her name without thinking of darth vader. which is cool) is pretty skillful with the SPARKS, and i’m always a fan of that whole “i’ve watched and waited for you for so long” thing (see the “dark visions” trilogy by LJ smith). there were a few moments that didn’t ring true for me, but overall, i enjoyed the chemistry and the bittersweet longing between grace and sam, especially as their situation grew more dire.
talky talk: yr poetic license has expired
steifvater alternates between grace and sam’s perspective, and while usually i kind of hate that, she handles it pretty skillfully. HOWEVER. sam’s got a penchant for writing song lyrics in his head… I KNOW. i guess this is supposed to make him all sensitive and artistic, but for me, it was simply cringeworthy. like, towards the end, if i saw some lines in italics, i kind of just… skipped them so i could still kind of sort of maybe maintain my crush on him. also, am i really supposed to believe that people can come up with four lines of a song instantaneously? is this a wolf power thing?
oh and guess what, there’s more! sam also likes to quote rilke! of course he does! because he’s a sweet, thoughtful, amazing dude! girls like poetry, right? hey grace, have you heard of robert frost? LET’S GO OUT.
bonus factors: the day after tomorrow
FINALLY a book that understands the PURE UNADULTERATED EVIL OF COLD WEATHER! everyone always makes fun of me for wearing long underwear when the temperature dips below 40 degrees, but SAM UNDERSTANDS! in fact, the scenes that hit me the hardest were the parts when he was desperately trying to stay warm and his entire humanity was at stake and OMG GET THIS GUY AN ELECTRIC BLANKET!!! seriously, dude, i totally get you. cold weather is horrible and should be avoided at all costs or Bad Things Happen. like, loosing the feeling in yr big toe. or, you know, turning into a wolf.
casting call:
taylor lautner as sam
is this typecasting? sure. is it just another excuse for me to think about taylor’s abs? YOU BETCHA.
random t-shirt model as grace
this girl is wearing a wolf t-shirt. therefore, she is more than capable of portraying grace.
relationship status: pity friend
you guys, this wasn’t a bad book. it just… creeped me out a little bit. i guess i wish that grace could’ve simmered down on her wolf obsession, ESPECIALLY since she didn’t know it was a dude until later (i mean, am i the only one who kept seeing the word “bestiality” flash through my head? am i just a total perv?). and although there was great chemistry between grace and sam, and several of stiefvater’s plot twists were pretty inventive, the book was just so… earnest and unabashedly emotional and GAH it kind of made me uncomfortable! so yeah, if i saw this book in the halls, i would give it a half-smile, and if it asked to sit with me at lunch, i would say ok, but only because i wouldn’t want to be mean, not because i’d actually want to hang out with it. there’s only so much i can say about wolves before i need to change the topic to, um, ANYTHING ELSE.
p.s. maggie stiefvater actually made a rather lovely stop motion trailer for this book, PLUS she wrote the music! so, yeah, girlfriend has way more talent than i do, and now i feel even worse for only being pity friends with her book.
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{ 26 comments… read them below or add one }
Or concussions! Sometimes cold weather causes concussions. If you’re a freak like me.
I swear this book reminds me of another (non YA) book. This is going to drive me mental till i figure it out.
That was such a fun review!
I liked the book, although the wolf thing creeped me out a little at first. And yeah, Sam’s poetry? I could have done without it! It was a fun, light read though.
And I loved that little video. It was simple in a beautiful way!
Do you think Sam’s obssessed with Grace too? i mean, she does always look for him at night and stuff, but the fact that HE spies on her and watches her in her bedroom window…that is quite creepy.
so i guess it could be obssession from both?
oh yeah, sam is TOTES obsessed with grace. that whole, “yeah, i saw you naked through the window… but i was a wolf! so it’s cool!” thing was CREEP TO THE MAX POWER.
Okay, so I think I have to read this book. Although I agree that as an adult the whole obsession ( especially with a wolf) thing is lame AND creepy, when I was a youngun’ my dog was my absolute BEST friend, and I was obsessed with The Journey of Natty Gann, and really really wanted a wolf, but not for a boyfriend. Although, if I had gotten a wolf, and he turned out to BE a Lautner-sized real boy, I think my 14-year old self would very, very quietly squee.
Jenny you are so right about that. The whole time I was thinking, “Ok. You don’t know he’s going to turn human when the weather changes so basically you have a crush on a dog.” How is that cool? It’s just gross. Then when he was in his human state he was totally hot, except that Grace would ruin it by saying she recognized his scent FROM WHEN HE WAS A DOG or wolf, but whatever! So nope. Zero on the swoon scale for me. Also I thought it was slow, so I started skimming through the last chapters (esp any songs or poetry).
jenny, you should definitely check it out and then leave a comment here when you finish… i’m v. interested to see what you think. i fear i might be too cynical for this one.
I just finished Shiver this morning and found it totally captivating. Didn’t read bestiality at all. Yes, the romance could certainly be labeled “obsessive” on both counts, but they’re TEENAGERS. Also, Grace basically raising herself and being totally capable was super refreshing. She was never whiny or pining, she was instead pretty much, “so, you’re a wolf. cool, but let’s fix it.”
You’re totally right on the song lyrics, though – most of them made me laugh out loud, not in a good way.
HILARIOUS: let’s just say that if i knew grace in high school, i’d be audi five thou the minute i saw her doodling a wolf with a heart around it. yeeeeikes.
Dude, I’m with you. This book sounds weird.
THANK YOU MEREDITH. you know i try super hard with the humor.
and nancy drew, you’re totally right about the whole teenager thing. like i said in an earlier comment, i fear i am too cynical for this book. which is weird, cos i love YA, and i’m all about the over the top sparks and swooning, but i think the wolf thing just really got to me.
LUL that’s not the first time I’ve heard that about this chick’s books.
um, the wolf thing might be too weird for me. i mean, i totally loved julie of the wolves in 5th grade, but it didn’t mean i wanted to, er, LOVE a wolf, ya know?
and i think it’s totally ok to be too cynical for the book — you’re an adult reviewing the book from the standpoint of an adult, not a teen, so if it’s too TOO for your inner YA, that’s good to know. cos it’ll probably be that way for mine.
did this book make you cold just to read? cos if it does, i may save it for the summer. i hate being cold.
I have to finish a book once i’ve started it. This was painful…i enjoyed her short series, Lament and Burned, but i caught myself staring at the wall instead of reading Shiver.
jenifer, please tell me that yr wall was covered with a COLLAGE OF WOLF PICTURES. oh wait, no, that would be grace’s room.
I’ll admit, I LOVED this one. Though I skipped the song lyrics too. Your reviews crack me up!!
lenore, don’t worry. we can totally still be friends (unless you start doodling wolves and hearts. then um sorry, but i’m uh, gonna start eating my lunch in the library. ALONE).
i know a lot of people loved this book, and i never expect people to agree with everything i write (well, except for the Universal Truth that YA lit is awesome. then everyone BEST RESPECT).
I read this book on the bus up to my cottage and I really liked it. Yes, the whole girl-in-love-with-a-wolf thing can def be read as “WEIRD!!” but the way I read it was sort of along the lines of that when she thought he was only a wolf she was obsessed with him in a “I feel a connection to you that I can’t explain and I feel protected by you” sort of way. Then when she realized he was human too, she was relieved because it sort of explained the weird obsession that she had with him. And that’s when the feelings of “love/lust/what have you” really kicked in. Remember that Grace is part werewolf too on account of having been bitten by the creepy wolf with the drooly eye (yuck!!) named Salem, and Sam was sharing memories with her using the wolf telepathy thing (or whatever it was) so even though she didn’t realize it, somewhere in her subconscious she knew that he wasn’t just a wolf, but a wolf/human like her.
Having said that, I found Grace as a heroine to be kind of inaccesible (she seemed waaay too serious to be an actual teenage girl) and I defintiely thought Sam’s lyrics were…well…not good. But overall I thought the spark factor was excellent (once they were both humans!!) and for once it’s nice to see someone mooning over something other than a vampire!
AHHHH!!!! I know someone with THAT EXACT t-shirt.
I gotta say, I was also getting some “Bella” vibes whilst reading the book, but Grace is SO MUCH better. She actually makes decisions, is somewhat pro-active and, when all is lost, SHE MOVES ON. She doesn’t go all cataonic-like for three months, she plans a vacay to the beach TO GET WARM (because yea, cold weather SUCKS).
I didn’t mind the wolf thing, but then, I love animals (not like THAT y’all, gross). Did she take it over the top? Yes. But she’s a teenager, and they’re all pretty over the top, which is why we love them so. I didn’t really feel that she felt anything sexual toward the wolf (cos yea, CREEP FACTOR TO THE MAX) until it showed up naked on her doorstep, and then, I mean, duh. And at least we didn’t get abstinence shoved down our throat in this one.
But holy shizz, the song lyrics made me want to gauge out my own eyes.
Also, I was thinking “Furr” by Blitzen Trapper for most of the book, and I love the song, album and band, so I was ok with the crappy parts. Sam would’ve liked that song/been in the band. If he was better at writing lyrics or music, that is.
So….maybe I’m just melancholy this week, or the moon is full (eek!) or something (PMS, anyone??) — but I’m loving this book. Sure, it’s a creepy story of a girl in love with a wolf, but whatever! The sparks are great, and I sure wouldn’t have turned down a “Sam” who left me notes of Rilke poetry in my backpack and snuggled chastely with me at night.
Like I said. Hormones. For sure.
Okay, I finally just read this book. Now I love my dog just as much as the next obsessive dog owner, but this book eeked me out. I just didn’t even feel the swoon or sparks, and found it not only weirdly inappropriate, but kind of comical, like the time that that girl wolf was peeing outside Grace’s house to mark her territory? Hysterical!
PRETTY MUCH.
I just finished this book today and kinda liked it. I did feel like it had some Twilight-vibes, which, I like Twilight, but I hate when other books are Twilight-ish. On about page 160 I said to my husband that I wasn’t really into the book, but by the end I was reserving Linger at the library. It didn’t kind of grab my interest. Isabel might be my favorite character, and I like Sam, too, other than the poetry and song lyrics.
*did kind of grab my interest.
not to mention sam also watches grace undress from outside her window. he’s worse than edward.
Oh god, I totally should have read this review before I tried to listen to this book on the bus home. The obsessiveness was so, so off-putting (dude! Mangy Wolf! Do Not Hug!) and the Almost(Rape)Devour scene was hugely unsettling. And Sam was so, so lame. And Grace was such a bitch to her friends. I finally just turned it off and listened to the News Quiz instead, just to get the squick out.