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shakespearesgirl 's review for:
Shiver
by Maggie Stiefvater
I really enjoyed Shiver, a lot more than I thought I would, actually. The story was a lot more thoughtful and complex than I expected, and the characters of Sam and Grace seemed like actual people and not stock characters with a fresh coat of paint.
I thought where Shiver excelled was where it brought up questions about how Sam's werewolf pack lives, what the morality of being a werewolf is, whether you should embrace it or shy away from it. I thought that the author brought up a lot of questions about the basic nature of humanity through werewolves, and that was a lot deeper and more introspective than I was expecting a YA book about werewolves to get.
That being said, this is, absolutely, a YA book about werewolves. They are teenagers, too, fighting with friends, finding out their parents (or parental figures) aren't perfect, realizing that the way they remember things isn't the way they actually happened, dealing with loss and falling in love and trying to keep going with life despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles. (Sidenote: I love werewolves as a metaphor for been a teenager, like, more than a lot. It is fully possible I read more into this book than the author intended about teenage werewolves, feeling like an outsider, and dealing with your changing body, simply because I adore the trope.)
Grace was an extremely interesting heroine. She struck me as sort of an opposite style of heroine to Bella Swan from the Twilight novels. She was thoughtful and focused on taking care of the people close to her, and she actually came across as a heroine that was truly a little awkward dealing with others, and sometimes in her own skin. I found it an interesting choice to make Grace the thinking half of the romantic pair, as normally that role is filled by the male hero, not the female heroine (I'm thinking here, again, of Twilight, and of Kelly Armstrong's teen Otherworld novels).
Sam felt very much like the other half of Grace, like maybe she'd lost part of her soul and he completed it? It was weird, I don't think I've ever read soulmates that came across quite as clear as Grace and Sam. Sam was definitely the feeling half of the pair, using all of his senses, despairing having to become a wolf again because when he does, he loses part of what makes him himself. It was an interesting contrast between Sam and Grace, too, that Sam dreads being a wolf, while Grace craves it but can never have it.
There's still enough mystery left open by the end of this book that I do think I'll pick up the sequels, though. The one thing that felt very obvious by the halfway point was that Stiefvater was setting us up for a series (a trilogy, in this case) by asking a lot of questions that were going to have very complicated answers. She managed to do it in such a way, though, that I really, honestly didn't feel like she was trying to write the book for the sequels, which I liked. And she also wrapped things up well enough at the end of the novel that I don't feel like I have to buy the next book (or track it down through the library) to figure out what's going on.
***SPOILERS***
There were a few things I felt were a little rushed, though. The first was the deterioration of Grace's friendship with Olivia. It seemed like Olivia just stopped talking to her one day over nothing, and then next thing I knew, they were making up. It was odd, and felt a little like a plot device, but there was enough going on with the plot that I feel like this one can be chalked up to Grace having a minor fight with a friend, forgetting about it, and then realizing later that the friend took it more seriously than Grace did. (I think Stiefvater even tries to make this theory come across with her writing, but it falls a little flat, regardless.)
The second thing I found rushed and improperly handled was Jack's death. He was such an integral piece of the plot that I found it shockingly strange when all his death got was a sentence, which basically read "Jack died." I felt like he--and his sister--deserved more attention than that. I do think, looking back, that the focus was supposed to be on how alone and bereft Grace is feeling at the time, since she thinks she's just killed Sam, but it actually came off a little flippant and irreverent, which, okay, Jack was not the nicest character, but still. She knows him now, so I thought she should have been a little bit more affected by his death, one way or another.
And then finally, I thought that Grace's other friend, Rachel, didn't have enough to do, and got replaced halfway through by Isabel, Jack's sister. I felt like Rachel ended up being the friend who was just there. Maybe that will be rectified in the next book, but it bothered me that Grace is supposed to be such good friends with this girl, and then basically all that Rachel ever does is pop up now and then to remind everyone what good friends she is with Grace, impart some new and amazing fact about something the wolves did, and then disappear.
***END SPOILERS***
The story itself was refreshing, because there was almost no "We can't be together, I'm a werewolf/vampire/supernatural creature and you're not" angst, which seems to be a prerequisite for any and all fiction written about non-human/human romance nowadays. There was also very little self pity, even near the end of the book when things are starting to become tense. Neither character ever got bogged down in "OMG, I AM SOOOOO DEPRESSED ABOUT MY PROBLEMS" sorts of thought-cycles, they just soldiered on, even though they thought their problems weren't going to be solved. There was also a refreshingly mild kidnapping, where the danger seemed real but limited for several reasons (some of which are spoilery), but the main thing about it I thought was well done was that the peril never felt over the top. It felt like a situation that was scary, but it never felt improbably scary for the situation. Also, I liked that Grace pretty much stayed in control of her emotions the entire time she was being kidnapped.
This was maybe the most level headed, well-reasoned teen romance I have ever read, and while I don't think it's necessarily going to appeal to fans of the more . . . how to put it delicately . . . melodramatic teen romances (yes, Twilight, I am looking at you), I think it will appeal to older teens and twenty-somethings, and to mothers of teenagers who like to keep up with what their children are reading.
I thought where Shiver excelled was where it brought up questions about how Sam's werewolf pack lives, what the morality of being a werewolf is, whether you should embrace it or shy away from it. I thought that the author brought up a lot of questions about the basic nature of humanity through werewolves, and that was a lot deeper and more introspective than I was expecting a YA book about werewolves to get.
That being said, this is, absolutely, a YA book about werewolves. They are teenagers, too, fighting with friends, finding out their parents (or parental figures) aren't perfect, realizing that the way they remember things isn't the way they actually happened, dealing with loss and falling in love and trying to keep going with life despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles. (Sidenote: I love werewolves as a metaphor for been a teenager, like, more than a lot. It is fully possible I read more into this book than the author intended about teenage werewolves, feeling like an outsider, and dealing with your changing body, simply because I adore the trope.)
Grace was an extremely interesting heroine. She struck me as sort of an opposite style of heroine to Bella Swan from the Twilight novels. She was thoughtful and focused on taking care of the people close to her, and she actually came across as a heroine that was truly a little awkward dealing with others, and sometimes in her own skin. I found it an interesting choice to make Grace the thinking half of the romantic pair, as normally that role is filled by the male hero, not the female heroine (I'm thinking here, again, of Twilight, and of Kelly Armstrong's teen Otherworld novels).
Sam felt very much like the other half of Grace, like maybe she'd lost part of her soul and he completed it? It was weird, I don't think I've ever read soulmates that came across quite as clear as Grace and Sam. Sam was definitely the feeling half of the pair, using all of his senses, despairing having to become a wolf again because when he does, he loses part of what makes him himself. It was an interesting contrast between Sam and Grace, too, that Sam dreads being a wolf, while Grace craves it but can never have it.
There's still enough mystery left open by the end of this book that I do think I'll pick up the sequels, though. The one thing that felt very obvious by the halfway point was that Stiefvater was setting us up for a series (a trilogy, in this case) by asking a lot of questions that were going to have very complicated answers. She managed to do it in such a way, though, that I really, honestly didn't feel like she was trying to write the book for the sequels, which I liked. And she also wrapped things up well enough at the end of the novel that I don't feel like I have to buy the next book (or track it down through the library) to figure out what's going on.
***SPOILERS***
There were a few things I felt were a little rushed, though. The first was the deterioration of Grace's friendship with Olivia. It seemed like Olivia just stopped talking to her one day over nothing, and then next thing I knew, they were making up. It was odd, and felt a little like a plot device, but there was enough going on with the plot that I feel like this one can be chalked up to Grace having a minor fight with a friend, forgetting about it, and then realizing later that the friend took it more seriously than Grace did. (I think Stiefvater even tries to make this theory come across with her writing, but it falls a little flat, regardless.)
The second thing I found rushed and improperly handled was Jack's death. He was such an integral piece of the plot that I found it shockingly strange when all his death got was a sentence, which basically read "Jack died." I felt like he--and his sister--deserved more attention than that. I do think, looking back, that the focus was supposed to be on how alone and bereft Grace is feeling at the time, since she thinks she's just killed Sam, but it actually came off a little flippant and irreverent, which, okay, Jack was not the nicest character, but still. She knows him now, so I thought she should have been a little bit more affected by his death, one way or another.
And then finally, I thought that Grace's other friend, Rachel, didn't have enough to do, and got replaced halfway through by Isabel, Jack's sister. I felt like Rachel ended up being the friend who was just there. Maybe that will be rectified in the next book, but it bothered me that Grace is supposed to be such good friends with this girl, and then basically all that Rachel ever does is pop up now and then to remind everyone what good friends she is with Grace, impart some new and amazing fact about something the wolves did, and then disappear.
***END SPOILERS***
The story itself was refreshing, because there was almost no "We can't be together, I'm a werewolf/vampire/supernatural creature and you're not" angst, which seems to be a prerequisite for any and all fiction written about non-human/human romance nowadays. There was also very little self pity, even near the end of the book when things are starting to become tense. Neither character ever got bogged down in "OMG, I AM SOOOOO DEPRESSED ABOUT MY PROBLEMS" sorts of thought-cycles, they just soldiered on, even though they thought their problems weren't going to be solved. There was also a refreshingly mild kidnapping, where the danger seemed real but limited for several reasons (some of which are spoilery), but the main thing about it I thought was well done was that the peril never felt over the top. It felt like a situation that was scary, but it never felt improbably scary for the situation. Also, I liked that Grace pretty much stayed in control of her emotions the entire time she was being kidnapped.
This was maybe the most level headed, well-reasoned teen romance I have ever read, and while I don't think it's necessarily going to appeal to fans of the more . . . how to put it delicately . . . melodramatic teen romances (yes, Twilight, I am looking at you), I think it will appeal to older teens and twenty-somethings, and to mothers of teenagers who like to keep up with what their children are reading.