This one is very YA. The characters don't have much depth. Grace was taken by werewolves at the age of eleven. She was bitten, but returned to safety. She falls for Sam, a werewolf who is human in the summer. She knows, and falls for. him as a wolf long before she meets him in his human form. Since she has been bitten, she has some werewolf attributes, but does not turn into a wolf. At the beginning of the novel, Jack Culpeper is killed by the wolves, so the town is on high alert and at times hunts the wolves. I found this one difficult to connect with. Many of my students have enjoyed the series, and it is often checked out of the library. ( )

Shiver is told through the two main characters, Sam and Grace. The first person narration moves between them seamlessly.
Sam and Grace's star-crossed romance is slightly "Twilightish" but without the vampires.
Even considering that, "Shiver" is a much better read for me than "Twilight" was.
The language is more than descriptive; it's poetic. When I wasn't busy being absorbed by the plot. I was drinking in Stiefvater's descriptions; I felt the Minnesota winter of the novel. I frequently reread sentences and lingered over well worded paragraphs. I laughed many times, cried more than I should have, and you probably will too.


The ending is abrupt but satisfying to me. I was left with a smile... and a craving for the sequel { Linger, which is due out in the Fall of 2010}. I highly recommend curling up next to the fire with this one. ( )

I followed narrator, Jenna Lamia, here--as to how I chose to read this particular book.
I like this Young Adult story for the unique, gentler, tamer, spin in takes on its subject. ( )

I've been seeing this around the young adult blogs, so figured I tried it when I saw the library had it. I liked the premise she used with her wolves storyline. Its a bit of a twist to the tradition werewolf story, which gives them more of a natural existence, for a supernatural being. Instead of changing once a month, the werewolves change when the weather gets cold enough, returning to human form when its warmer weather, but eventually changing into a wolf permanently.

Unfortunately for me, there was not enough focus on the wolf story line. The romance side of the story took over, and overpowered the supernatural side. It features one moony high school girl who falls in love with a werewolf teen guy. The story is told from both perspectives, so you get two voices internally wondering if the other likes them, how much they like them, and just plain thinking about the other all the damn time. It feels fake, and sugary and just not very enticing.

Another strike against this audiobook was that I just didn't like either of the readers at all. There was not much emotion or any impression that acting was occurring. It seemed more like they were just reading, with very little changes in tone. Plus the woman reading Grace's chapters sounded very young, and the guy reading Sam's chapters sounded much older than the woman, so my psyche was coming up with an unpleasant mental image. My dislike of the readers may have influenced my impression of the novel, but by the end it was difficult to separate the two sides.

If you want to try this one, I strongly recommend you skip the audiobook and just read it. ( )

This is my first Maggie Stiefvater book and will not be my last.

This book follows Grace who was attacked by wolves in her backyard at a young age. Grace was saved by one wolf that she took a liking to and was always looking out for named Sam. Grace is constantly watching the wolves by herself and hoping to see Sam.

Grace was obsessed with the wolves in an unhealthy way. She was beginning to lose friends over the wolf obsession. My main reason I enjoyed reading about Grace was she was so passionate about the wolf thing that in the end it worked for me. Grace took her time to learn as much as she could about the wolves by studying them and wanting to learn more about Sam. Grace does grow as a character when she is needed to find a solution to the wolf situation in her town.

Sam is a lot more complicated of a main character. He is a wolf to begin the book and we get to learn a lot about how he transforms to a wolf and what goes on with the wolves. I enjoyed getting to learn about Sam and his life throughout the book. I felt more connected to Sam and could feel his struggles in his chapters because he didn’t think he had a lot of choices left. I also felt more emotions coming from Sam versus Grace during the book so it felt more real to me.

The story is told from both POV of Sam and Grace. I loved that we got to see what each of them were thinking during the book and it helped keep me attention while listening to the audio switching back and forth. I loved that we got to see the story unfold from both of their eyes.

I did like the romance that Maggie created between Grace and Sam is cute. It came on quickly in the book, but in the same time they were both studying each other from a distance for a long time so it worked.

This book has a lot of buildup and backstory thrown into it so the pacing is a little slower. I enjoyed learning about the wolves and how they were surviving in the area. Maggie does an excellent job crafting the story. ( )