Naomi’s comment > Likes and Comments

I like your thinking, that theory could work. It's just a shame the author didn't think of it or, if she did, failed to explain it clearly enough. Have you read Forever yet? I've got another confusion point with that one - but overall I really enjoyed the series.

I actually just finished reading Forever an hour ago, what's your question?
Another theory I thought of for Grace not changing after Shelby bit her, maybe it just jump-started the werewolf blood in her again, but not enough to make her shift.
I don't really know, just guesses since the author didn't explain...

I thought at the end of Linger, Cole had said that the meningitis hadn't really cured Sam, that it would just do the same as the heatstroke did for Grace, kind of like a remission and then when that stopped working it would kill him. Then in Forever, that seemed to change so that he could still shift but eventually the shifts would stop altogether (and he likened it to malaria) - no mentioning of whether that would kill him or not in say five or ten years....?

That's what I was exactly thinking. So I'm assuming the author either had a typo in the previous book, OR after Cole examined the werewolf DNA he realized it was in fact a cure.
SPOILER: Did you like the ending, or do you think Maggie should have written about Grace actually surviving the cure after she took it? Also, I still don't know what Cole decided, to take the cure or not. I guess she's leaving that for us to decide, but still think she should have wrote about Grace...SPOILER END.
As for the disease and meningitis, I think that it should have been explained better by the author...

Naomi wrote: "That's what I was exactly thinking. So I'm assuming the author either had a typo in the previous book, OR after Cole examined the werewolf DNA he realized it was in fact a cure.
SPOILER: Did you l..."

That's what I thought - that maybe Cole had discovered something else as he continued his research and figured out it was more like malaria but all the scientific bits just didn't seem clear enough.

(view spoiler)[ I didn't mind that there was no specific 'happy ending' with regard to Grace taking the cure, because in a way it made it parallel real life diseases. There aren't always cures and people have to take a risk with experimental treatments. It left it up to us to decide how things would pan out but I did feel the ending was a bit abrupt. I would have liked to know that Cole was at least still looking for a real cure, even if he wasn't going to use it himself. (hide spoiler)]

Hey, do you remember Victor in Linger also. Sam mentioned that his shifting wasn't right. I can't remember for sure, but he kept just shifting back and forth between human and wolf, I believe. That was never explained either.
There was something I read while reading over other reviews for Forever though. That Shiver was meant to be a stand-alone novel and Maggie was forced to write two more books. Which explains why if Shelby bit Grace in the previous book and didn't transform, Maggie had intended her to always be cured. But when forced to write two more books, she had to come up with some kind of problem for the two to face (or they'd just be making out for the rest of the series). Thus, the cure "running out". Then when she started Forever, she had to come up with a cure to end the series soundly, but couldn't come up with anything other than meningitus. So explanation: Publishers can screw up your books.

Wow, that explains a lot. Publishers can be so mercenery. I like that there was a series but I think I would have been equally happy for Shiver to be a stand-alone and the author just be allowed to create a new story.

Victor's problem was another unexplained bit - as was the reason why Sam supposedly got so few years before he would have become a wolf full time in comparison to the others, though I suspected it was because he was bitten so young.

My friend mentioned that Victor's problem was because him and Cole did too many drugs and it had messed up his adrenaline (the thing that causes their shift).

Yeah, Publishers are like that. I feel like publishers ruin a lot of stand-alone books because they keep adding books because of popularity. They're all in for the money. Which can be both good and bad, money to publish more books, but to publish more books to sequels that should have been left stand alones.

I don't know, I do love Forever for it's sink hole and helicopter scenes and more of course.

Oh, in Linger on page 177: Victor has a pitutary problem. Maybe the way it imbalances his levels is interfering with how he shifts.
Found a website on it, just click on what it is. http://www.pituitary.org/faq/faq.aspx

I did think about it. Shelby did bite Grace in Shiver. Major plot hole there.

Oh yeah - the pituitary gland thing. I suppose at the end of the day, Cole came up with his theories outside of a laboratory and proper testing - I guess that was like the author's 'get out of jail free' card. I did like a lot of Forever, my heart went out to Sam when everyone in the town thought he was a creepy psycho killer and then again when he played his guitar as he tried to overcome his phobia of bathtubs.

I loved when Sam finally got over his phobia of bathtubs, I was glad that issue was resolved before the end of Forever. I also thought it was horrible when they all thought he was killer. But it really goes to show you what people will start believing when someone go missing and others start putting thoughts in your head.
My favorite parts had to be the Helicopter scene and the sink hole scene. I felt like that those parts helped Cole's character become so much more, while also providing heart wrenching moments with Grace and Sam. Isabelle also got to grow during the helicopter scene.(less)
(view spoiler)[Though I do wonder about Beck. I mean, the police will never find a hospital listing him as a cancer patient, and now that he's dead in a wolf's body, they'll never truly resolve that issue. However, I bet Koenig will help Sam out of that problem. (hide spoiler)]

Exactly. Well put Naomi.

Thank you! I'm glad you agree, Jasny Rathbone.

Bingo!