Review: Shiver

by Maggie Stiefvater
publisher: Scholastic Press
date published: August 1, 2009
format: hardcover
pages: 392
source: library
Amazon / Goodreads / B&N
challenges: Goodreads 2011 Reading Challenge; 2011 YA Reading Challenge

From Goodreads:

"the cold.
Grace has spent years watching the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf—her wolf—watches back. He feels deeply familiar to her, but she doesn't know why.

the heat.
Sam has lived two lives. As a wolf, he keeps the silent company of the girl he loves. And then, for a short time each year, he is human, never daring to talk to Grace...until now.

the shiver.
For Grace and Sam, love has always been kept at a distance. But once it's spoken, it cannot be denied. Sam must fight to stay human—and Grace must fight to keep him—even if it means taking on the scars of the past, the fragility of the present, and the impossibility of the future."

What I Thought

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. It took a few pages until I adjusted to the formatting of the book. Rather than a single narrator, this book is split into two first person points-of-view: Grace and Sam. Another interesting feature I noticed about each chapter is that the temperatures the characters experience are listed underneath the chapter headings. This is because temperature plays such an integral part in this story. Shiver is not your typical werewolf novel. These wolves don't shift with the moon phases. Instead, they change based upon the temperatures they experience. When it is cold, they are wolves. When it is warm, they are human. There are complicating factors, of course, but this is the basic equation where these wolves are concerned.

The protagonists of this story are Grace and Sam. Grace is a seventeen year old girl who is fascinated with a wolf with golden eyes that appears outside her house during the winter months. This fascination is aided by the fact that this wolf saved her from an entire pack of wolves when she was only eleven years old. When Sam shows up injured on her deck, Grace recognizes him by his eyes. Sam is the wolf she has been watching for so many years. What follows is an account of love at first sight. The pair fall for each other and set about to keep Sam human so they never have to part. Grace is a practical, tidy soul, while Sam is more thoughtful and fanciful. They are both extremely likeable, especially when what they went through as children comes to light.

This book was so many things to me: poetic; raw; tragic; bittersweet; mysterious; and so much more. Stiefvater really has a way with prose. This book was so well written that I found myself impressed time and time again. By the end of the book, I had even teared up a little from being so touched. She did a fabulous job weaving this story. I enjoyed it so much that I am actually contemplating going out to buy my very own copy, as well as the second book, Linger. I give Shiver 5 hoots.