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3.71 AVERAGE
3.71 AVERAGE
I finished Shiver, and as much as I love later Stiefvater, after Shiver, I wasn't enthralled with the idea of finishing Mercy Falls. I did Shiver as an audiobook on my long work commutes, but then I moved and didn't have long work commutes, and I couldn't bring myself to continue.
But I got into a mild debate about the projected end of The Raven King, and someone told me that Which is how I learned a horrifying thing about myself, which is that only by tempting me with the promise of pain would I be interested in going back to Mercy Falls.
So I did (for a second time) this time with an ebook.
Goddamn. You can SEE all of the ways the writing and the character building has improved. Linger stops being claustrophobic and starts /really/ flexing out into compelling characterization and plot. ISABEL CULPEPER IS A DREAMBOAT, and being able to get into a third headspace (one that is not madly in love) was so so good. It also branches out on further consequences for Shiver's actions, which is also great. And Grace and Sam are still madly in love, which is /also/ also great, especially when we can take a breath to be jealous and a little ironic about it with Cole and Isabel.
Also it was compelling enough to read in a day and a half. It's a really great inverse of Shiver's conflict, with a lot of really good and relatable character moments, and really just a solid sequel.
I'm very glad I didn't have to wait between Linger and Forever, though, because that ending felt pretty mean.
But I got into a mild debate about the projected end of The Raven King, and someone told me that
Spoiler
the end of Mercy Falls was a massacre of main characters.So I did (for a second time) this time with an ebook.
Goddamn. You can SEE all of the ways the writing and the character building has improved. Linger stops being claustrophobic and starts /really/ flexing out into compelling characterization and plot. ISABEL CULPEPER IS A DREAMBOAT, and being able to get into a third headspace (one that is not madly in love) was so so good. It also branches out on further consequences for Shiver's actions, which is also great. And Grace and Sam are still madly in love, which is /also/ also great, especially when we can take a breath to be jealous and a little ironic about it with Cole and Isabel.
Also it was compelling enough to read in a day and a half. It's a really great inverse of Shiver's conflict, with a lot of really good and relatable character moments, and really just a solid sequel.
I'm very glad I didn't have to wait between Linger and Forever, though, because that ending felt pretty mean.
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Drug abuse, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
All the things I liked about the first book in this series, Shiver, are present here in Linger. The truly lyrical writing, teen angst extraordinaire, intense focus on each character's inner emotional landscape, and a version of our world where a disease causes certain people to shift with the cold.
But this time it didn't take for me. I found myself wanting to skim over certain parts.
In this book we get the continued story of Grace and Sam; Grace a math-genius practical type girl who was bitten by werewolves a long time ago, but due to being locked into a car as a child during a heat wave doesn't shift, and Sam, a werewolf she fell in love with that at the end of the last book staved off final separation from his true love by contracting meningitis and now doesn't shift at all.
While Grace and Sam's longing for and appreciation of eachother color this book (my goodness the german poets and lyrics quoted!) and are wonderful, heart-affirming, romantical 'shipping at it's finest, I missed the math-genius Grace and the wolf Sam.
In their stead we get more development of Grace's "friend" Isabel, who lost her brother to the werewolf disease and Cole, a wolf changed by Sam's foster father. Both of these characters are on self-destructive paths.
While I think those paths might resonate with some people, for me it seemed over-the-top teen angst that made me a bit tired of Cole's POV by the end.
If you feel like wallowing in angst and love and feelings and the meaning of love and life and everything, this is the book for you.
This Book's Food Designation Rating: Turkish Coffee for the dark bitterness of love and life and fate down to the grounds at the bottom of the cup.
But this time it didn't take for me. I found myself wanting to skim over certain parts.
In this book we get the continued story of Grace and Sam; Grace a math-genius practical type girl who was bitten by werewolves a long time ago, but due to being locked into a car as a child during a heat wave doesn't shift, and Sam, a werewolf she fell in love with that at the end of the last book staved off final separation from his true love by contracting meningitis and now doesn't shift at all.
While Grace and Sam's longing for and appreciation of eachother color this book (my goodness the german poets and lyrics quoted!) and are wonderful, heart-affirming, romantical 'shipping at it's finest, I missed the math-genius Grace and the wolf Sam.
In their stead we get more development of Grace's "friend" Isabel, who lost her brother to the werewolf disease and Cole, a wolf changed by Sam's foster father. Both of these characters are on self-destructive paths.
While I think those paths might resonate with some people, for me it seemed over-the-top teen angst that made me a bit tired of Cole's POV by the end.
If you feel like wallowing in angst and love and feelings and the meaning of love and life and everything, this is the book for you.
This Book's Food Designation Rating: Turkish Coffee for the dark bitterness of love and life and fate down to the grounds at the bottom of the cup.
Okay, so I sort of feel like this book doesn't deserve four stars, but it also doesn't deserve three stars. Or even three and a half. Because it's better than that, but it's not quite four-star material, either. I'm very confused.
Anyway, I read this a significant amount of time after Shiver, and there were parts of the first book I feel like I needed to be reminded of, but for the most part Shiver can stand alone. Linger's strength lies in building off of Sam and Grace's relationship, and in giving Isabel a bigger, more interesting character. I still feel like Rachel is just sort of there. She fills literally no role that couldn't be given to Isabel. Cole was interesting though.
Basically, Stiefvater pulls a secondary character from the first book (Isabel) and a new character into a primary storyline that complements Sam and Grace's story. Which was interesting, because I initially didn't like Cole very much, but over the course of the book he grew on me, particularly through his interactions with Isabel. I also liked the parallel arcs that Isabel and Grace were on, although that wasn't a very obvious parallel to draw.
I have a lot of thoughts about the science in this book in particular. Mostly it's thoughts about how I am pretty sure biology doesn't work that way. But I'm interested to see what Stiefvater does in the third book, and willing to suspend disbelief to a certain extent. These are books about werewolves, after all.
Anyway, I read this a significant amount of time after Shiver, and there were parts of the first book I feel like I needed to be reminded of, but for the most part Shiver can stand alone. Linger's strength lies in building off of Sam and Grace's relationship, and in giving Isabel a bigger, more interesting character. I still feel like Rachel is just sort of there. She fills literally no role that couldn't be given to Isabel. Cole was interesting though.
Basically, Stiefvater pulls a secondary character from the first book (Isabel) and a new character into a primary storyline that complements Sam and Grace's story. Which was interesting, because I initially didn't like Cole very much, but over the course of the book he grew on me, particularly through his interactions with Isabel. I also liked the parallel arcs that Isabel and Grace were on, although that wasn't a very obvious parallel to draw.
I have a lot of thoughts about the science in this book in particular. Mostly it's thoughts about how I am pretty sure biology doesn't work that way. But I'm interested to see what Stiefvater does in the third book, and willing to suspend disbelief to a certain extent. These are books about werewolves, after all.
Holy canoli. This book was beautiful. Really strange, but beautiful. I think the love stories in this book are unique and actually quite believable. The ending was extremely abrupt and I am a little concerned that I am not going to get happy endings I am craving for in the last book but overall, this book is gorgeous.
The first book wasn’t exactly a literary masterpiece but this follow up was terrible. If it weren’t for the same lyrical prose, I’d assume it was a completely different author. Roughly a month has passed between the end of Shiver and the beginning of this yet almost every character seems drastically different. Even the fairly well established and tested lore of the first book is changed. Sam and Grace didn’t have the best communication skills in the first one but the sheer amount of things they refuse to acknowledge/discuss is extremely problematic. As is their level of codependency. Though it is expected of YA, the over-the-top levels of teen angst were off-putting (and this is coming from someone who likes Twilight). The new POV spends most of the book being absolutely awful. The pacing is garbage. The plot is practically nonexistent. There are some painfully clumsy sentences (e.g. to start a flashback she literally wrote, “this is who I was before…”). None of my questions from the previous book were answered, and again, so little actually happened that this book felt completely unnecessary. Shiver was a decent YA paranormal romance, this was a waste of time. That said, I’ll probably pick up the final book just to hate read it.
Linger really danced to its own tune -- the overall tone and atmosphere of the book radically transitioned from a desperate, urgent love story in Shiver to a more passive, heart-breaking tale of four emotionally crushed teenagers that delves into the complexities of their backgrounds and personalities. Sam and Grace are forced into fighting for their love, overcoming one burden, only to be presented with the next, all the while dealing with the pain of separation and the looming knowledge that something's happening to Grace that neither are willing to admit. Isabel, making a reappearance as a new POV, has her own demons to deal with: self-inflicted guilt over Jack, conflicting emotions over Sam and Cole, and her unwillingness to feel the pain that's subsiding within her. We're introduced to a new character, Cole -- a boy who chose the 'werewolf' lifestyle -- who turns out to be as damaged as Sam; he comes off as aloof, cynical, and cocky, but redeems himself towards the end of the novel.
I only recently got a recommendation for the Wolves of Mercy Falls series, and by the time I got around to Shiver, Linger had come out. As a new reader, I was able to read the stories back-to-back, which I think really helped me fall in love with Linger. Reflecting on it, I realized that Linger barely had any transitions from its prequel. The reader is suddenly thrust into a story with characters that are already molded and barely summarized. Sure, that's the way series are meant to be read, but what about all the readers that didn't re-read Shiver before picking up Linger? Don't they deserve some love? Also, I didn't like that we got lengthy descriptions of Mercy Falls and the intricacies of the teenage mind, but barely any character descriptions. I kept having to refer back to old passages to re-claim the way a character looked.
One thing that really bothered me was the timeline for Linger. I'm a bit obsessive compulsive with time and I've gotten used to actually having a timeline in a story (e.g. Harry Potter or House of Night). A school isn't always required for a timeline -- months are great, too. But in Linger, all we have are seasons. I was a bit frustrated at the beginning of the series because I didn't know where I was compared to Shiver. There were a couple of places that said, "A few months" and then Grace had commented on making her New Years' Resolution, throwing me off balance yet again. After thinking on it, I realized it meant that Grace had made her Resolution a few months later, but it had been confusing, nonetheless.
The pacing was slow enough to frustrate/bore me at times. As a writer myself, I loved the fact that she incorporated a plethora of details about the world around her. Maggie's writing is phenomenal, and her prose was what drew me in initially (alongside the plot, of course). I love the fact that we get to read about the mundane aspects of the characters' relationships, as it gives insight to the characters, how they strengthen their bonds, and their overall personalities. However, it lagged. I kept getting up for breaks and my mind kept wandering to Facebook. The only time I was ever engaged in the book (to the point where I couldn't put it down) were the last forty or so pages.
The alternating POVs were a fresh contrast to Sam's and Grace's POVs. I'm not that fond of books with shifting POVs; however, I didn't mind it as much in Shiver or Linger because it gave us further insight to the budding relationships of our teenage lovers. Isabel and Cole had me laughing, empathizing, crying -- it was really engaging, and the pair almost usurped my love for Sam and Grace. Almost. I can say with a definite declaration, though, that Cole is now my new favorite character in this series. <3
Linger's ending was amazing -- ironic, urgent, and leaving you yearning for more! My only [very small] problem with the ending was that it was too reminiscent of Shiver's ending. The characters have 320 or so pages to contemplate the situations at hand -- Sam turning into a human and Grace turning into a wolf -- yet only do so the last 20/30 pages in spur of the moment decisions. But alas, it's a very small, nit-picky concern. I knew it might have happened at some point, but the fact that Grace had finally transformed into what Sam attempted so desperately to escape was undeniably ironic. "The cure" left me wondering and suddenly very eager for Forever's release. I can't wait to see how Maggie Stiefvater will wrap this series up!
I only recently got a recommendation for the Wolves of Mercy Falls series, and by the time I got around to Shiver, Linger had come out. As a new reader, I was able to read the stories back-to-back, which I think really helped me fall in love with Linger. Reflecting on it, I realized that Linger barely had any transitions from its prequel. The reader is suddenly thrust into a story with characters that are already molded and barely summarized. Sure, that's the way series are meant to be read, but what about all the readers that didn't re-read Shiver before picking up Linger? Don't they deserve some love? Also, I didn't like that we got lengthy descriptions of Mercy Falls and the intricacies of the teenage mind, but barely any character descriptions. I kept having to refer back to old passages to re-claim the way a character looked.
One thing that really bothered me was the timeline for Linger. I'm a bit obsessive compulsive with time and I've gotten used to actually having a timeline in a story (e.g. Harry Potter or House of Night). A school isn't always required for a timeline -- months are great, too. But in Linger, all we have are seasons. I was a bit frustrated at the beginning of the series because I didn't know where I was compared to Shiver. There were a couple of places that said, "A few months" and then Grace had commented on making her New Years' Resolution, throwing me off balance yet again. After thinking on it, I realized it meant that Grace had made her Resolution a few months later, but it had been confusing, nonetheless.
The pacing was slow enough to frustrate/bore me at times. As a writer myself, I loved the fact that she incorporated a plethora of details about the world around her. Maggie's writing is phenomenal, and her prose was what drew me in initially (alongside the plot, of course). I love the fact that we get to read about the mundane aspects of the characters' relationships, as it gives insight to the characters, how they strengthen their bonds, and their overall personalities. However, it lagged. I kept getting up for breaks and my mind kept wandering to Facebook. The only time I was ever engaged in the book (to the point where I couldn't put it down) were the last forty or so pages.
The alternating POVs were a fresh contrast to Sam's and Grace's POVs. I'm not that fond of books with shifting POVs; however, I didn't mind it as much in Shiver or Linger because it gave us further insight to the budding relationships of our teenage lovers. Isabel and Cole had me laughing, empathizing, crying -- it was really engaging, and the pair almost usurped my love for Sam and Grace. Almost. I can say with a definite declaration, though, that Cole is now my new favorite character in this series. <3
Linger's ending was amazing -- ironic, urgent, and leaving you yearning for more! My only [very small] problem with the ending was that it was too reminiscent of Shiver's ending. The characters have 320 or so pages to contemplate the situations at hand -- Sam turning into a human and Grace turning into a wolf -- yet only do so the last 20/30 pages in spur of the moment decisions. But alas, it's a very small, nit-picky concern. I knew it might have happened at some point, but the fact that Grace had finally transformed into what Sam attempted so desperately to escape was undeniably ironic. "The cure" left me wondering and suddenly very eager for Forever's release. I can't wait to see how Maggie Stiefvater will wrap this series up!
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
OH MY GOD!!! MY FEELINGS !!
No puede ser, el plot twist, casi muero! Necesito leer el final ya!!
No puede ser, el plot twist, casi muero! Necesito leer el final ya!!