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Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #1)

Maggie Stiefvater

Start date: March 1, 2011

Finish date: March 31, 2011

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What Members Thought

Mar 22, 2013 Michelle rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013, reviewed, romance, young-adult

Wolves. High school. Poor parenting. A bit like Twilight, but better written. Maggie Stiefvater wrote this series prior to the very excellent The Scorpio Races, and it shows. The dialogue is cringe-worthy at times, and the plot is loosely held together by the merest threads, but it was entertaining enough to read the next two installments. Take this young adult offering as the pleasant diversion it is, then read The Scorpio Races for beautiful prose and an engrossing storyline.

2 likes · Like · see review

May 02, 2015 Michelle rated it liked it

Shelves: read-again, reviewed, romance, fantasy, young-adult, paranormal, audiobook, 2016

Wolves. High school. Poor parenting. A bit like Twilight, but better written. Maggie Stiefvater wrote this series prior to the very excellent The Scorpio Races, and it shows. The dialogue is cringe-worthy at times, and the plot is loosely held together by the merest threads, but it was entertaining enough to read the next two installments. Take this young adult offering as the pleasant diversion it is, then read The Scorpio Races for beautiful prose and an engrossing storyline.

1 like · Like · see review

Feb 06, 2012 Valerie rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2012, too-old-for-this-crap

I was leaning towards 3 stars for a while, but then I wound up hating almost every character by the end. Grace is absolutely the most annoying protagonist I've ever read about -- her very existence is defined by "her wolf." At the beginning, when she hears that wolves mauled a fellow student, she approaches the victim's sister and says something to the effect of, "Don't blame them, they didn't mean to." Is she secretly a PETA activist? When she finds out that "her wolf" transforms into Sam, she I was leaning towards 3 stars for a while, but then I wound up hating almost every character by the end. Grace is absolutely the most annoying protagonist I've ever read about -- her very existence is defined by "her wolf." At the beginning, when she hears that wolves mauled a fellow student, she approaches the victim's sister and says something to the effect of, "Don't blame them, they didn't mean to." Is she secretly a PETA activist? When she finds out that "her wolf" transforms into Sam, she ditches her friends to hang out with him.

Ahhh, Sam. Sam, Sam, Sam. One reason I picked this book up was because I saw a ton of people complaining that he didn't sound like a dude -- which is perfectly fine with me, to be honest. And overall, he seemed like an okay dude, "leaking womb" and bad lyrics and all. Except for the part when, after they finally get it on, he feels guilty and horrible and asks Grace, "Did you do that because you wanted to, or because you wanted to get back at your parents?"

My immediate reaction was, "Holy crap, you are a JERK. WHO ASKS THAT?!" And Grace reacted the same way, which made me feel slightly dirty for agreeing with her.

The romance... there was no build-up whatsoever. Grace was in love with "her wolf" since she was young, and he felt the same way. When they were finally together as humans, they just clicked immediately and everything was wonderful and nothing hurt. It gave me diabetes.

I kinda liked the idea of titling the chapters with temperatures, though it didn't really give me a good idea of how much time was passing. The pacing was slow and odd at some points (there is a scene when Grace, Sam, and Isabel discuss wolf things while making a quiche... ?). The meningitis idea at the end was creepy in a good way, though I'm not sure if I entirely bought it.

I'm glad I read The Scorpio Races first -- if this had been my introduction to Stiefvater, I'm not sure if I would've given anything else a chance. (Though I am still interested in Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception.) ...more

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