Someone asked me the other day, "If you had three wishes, what would you wish for?"

Of course my first answer was "For more wishes. Duh." But then they glared at me so I was like, "Fine. I'd wish for more time to think of what to wish for because I don't like pressure!" I crossed my arms, made a face like a frustrated five year old, and stomped away.

Well, today I have decided what I want one of my wishes to be. I want a machine that can bring people back from the dead, for one reason only:

To shove Shiver in Mark Twain, Edgar Allen Poe, Shakespeare, and every other famous author who's ever lived's face and scream, "YOU'VE GOT NOTHING ON THIS!"

Seriously! How will I ever be able to read Romeo and Juliet now that I've felt Isabel's pain? How can I sympathize for Heathcliff after crying over Sam's constant battles with all the crap that life decides to dish out at him? How do I even pretend to like any of those famous heroines now that I've come across Grace's perfect balance of qualities? I CAN'T!

English class shall never be the same, amicis meis.

Throughout this series, I was endeared, torn apart, and then sown back together over and over again. I cried through the entire thing, I swear---I couldn't read it in school because I was afraid I might scream or break down in class. (Yeah, it sounds melodramatic, but I'm a dramatic person---it's what I do.) It especially doesn't help when I want to cry at every part, whether tears of joy, tears of sorrow, or tears of laughter.

There were no happy parts — only exultant ones.
There were no sad scenes — only heart-wrenching ones.
There were no funny jokes — only priceless ones.

It was perfect.

I can't even begin to convey my love for this trilogy. I don't think any words in the English language would fit right.

The characters were so likable. Everyone of them, I wished I knew them in real life. I wish I could have someone as reassuring and confident as Grace to give me some sense of hope when things suck. I wish I could complain with Isabel, since we seem to have a lot of the same fears. I wish I could be there to talk Cole out of suicide, to tell him to go elope with Isabel and then things won't be so bad. And Sam—Oh my God, Sam. I just want to stick a bow on his head and put him under the Christmas tree. He is just so amazing. So fantastically, insanely epic.

Not to mention the entire thing with the wolves is pure brilliant. Most people would say this is a werewolf book, but it's not. It just isn't. The wolves are just another form of an enemy, or a ticking clock, or whatever term you want to use. And yet, while being slightly remote, that problem they're facing ends up affecting everything they do. Every decision they make, and who they all and became, was all because of this damn wolf disease thing. Imagine that.

Oh, and these books have accomplished what so many have failed to do---surprise me. Usually I have a pretty good idea of what's going to happen in a book before I read it, mainly because so many YA Fictions are the same nowadays. I thought Shiver was going to be something stupid, like: girl is fond of one wolf in particular, girl meets boy, boy has same eyes as wolf, she finds out, she freaks the hell out, they make up, happily ever after. Because, you have to admit, that's how a lot of books go, if you change tiny details. But no, in every book, there were random situations where I was all, What? WHAT?! No! NO!!!! Yaaay! Wait... NO!!!



Damn. Did not see that coming.

My teacher, yesterday, decided to have us research feng shui.(No, I don't know why.) I couldn't stop laughing the entire class. All that was going through my mind was:

“Sensitive," I tried.

Sam translated: "Squishy."

"Creative."

"Dangerously emo."

"Thoughtful."

"Feng shui."

I laughed so hard I snorted. "How do you get feng shui out of 'thoughtful'?"

"You know, because in feng shui, you arrange furniture and plants and stuff in thoughtful ways." Sam shrugged. "To make you calm. Zenlike. Or something. I'm not one hundred percent sure how it all works, besides the thoughtful part.”

Everyone was staring at me, including the teacher, but it was so worth it.

Anyway, I love this book with a passion. So very much. I want to beg a genie for my second wish to be able to live inside the Shiver universe. I want to move to Mercy Falls and find Beck's cabin and beg them to take me with them. I want to go wolf-watching, see if I can spot any with yellow eyes.

Okay, so that sounds strange. But I'm a strange person, so it's perfectly acceptable.

Maggie Stiefvater, you are a gift from the gods...


























































































































My third wish would be to have the ability to just, like, live in whatever book I wanted. Though I guess that kind of cancels out the second. Whatever. I'd be spending most of my time in Shade, though, because then I can worship the REAL LIFE Zachary Moore! I'd love to talk to ghosts. *bats eyes innocently*