Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Summary and review:

Okay, here's the gist of Shiver: Ordinary teenage Girl meets, is in fact saved by, "Monster." Monster is not really a monster. Changed against his will from a human being, he longs to be human again and fights against the darker urgings that come with his new form. He joins with a group of fellow monsters, cobbling together a type of family, with a wise patriarch at its head who sets rules for the group and helps new monsters cling to their humanity. Monster and Girl fall desperately in love, and Girl wishes that she could be a monster, too. When that can't/won't happen, Girl then spends the rest of the trying to seduce Monster, who resists her advances despite his own desire.

Sound familiar? I know! The bare bones of Shiver are very similar to Stephenie Meyer's Twilight (yeah, like I had to give the author's name so that you'd know what I was talking about when I said Twilight). In fact, Sam, the main male character (who is a werewolf, not a vampire), even has yellow eyes. Actually, when I first read that about Sam I was like, "Crap. Stiefvater isn't going to pull a Stephenie Meyer and mention that repeatedly on every other page is she? Because seriously, I just won't be able to handle it." Fortunately however, although the yellow eyes were maybe mentioned a few more times than was strictly necessary, it never got too out of hand.

Anyway, yes, the basic plot of Shiver could be confused with Twilight, but, yellow eyes aside (okay, I guess, technically Edward's are amber. Whatever.), they are very much different books. I enjoyed reading Twilight; Stephenie Meyer is a great storyteller but let's be honest, she isn't going to be bringing home the National Book Award anytime soon. I don't necessarily think that Maggie Stiefvater is either, but her writing is, in my opinion, at least a little bit better.

The book is written with alternating points of view, switching off between Grace and Sam. I did find this distracting at times; instead of becoming lost in the story, I sometimes had to stop and remember who was narrating the chapter I was reading. However, the format made Sam a much more sympathetic character. I loved that I could see what was going on his mind, not just in Grace's. I could see why Grace fell in love with him, and I understood what was at stake because I actually knew and liked Sam. He was much more than just amber yellow eyes and the body of a young Greek god. (Okay, okay that was a low blow.) But the dual points of view didn't take away from the character development of Grace. Instead, it was made clear that she was her own person apart from Sam, and it made the longing between the two more stark by highlighting the lonely worlds in which they've grown up.

Stiefvater also put in bits of poetry, lines supposedly written by Sam, and excerpts from actual poets, particularly Maria Rilke, throughout the text. Parts of text were actually written in a kind of free verse form. Normally this would bug me, in Shiver, however, it did not. I thought Sam's poetry was sweet and romantic but not overly cheesy, and the lines from other poets were appropriate and furthered the plot rather than taking away from it.

The setting is beautiful, as well. You can feel the cold of the Minnesota winter sinking into you. It's in every way a perfect book to read while curled up on the sofa with a cup of hot cocoa. ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ (7/10)

Content:

Blood and Gore: There are several wolf attacks in the book and a lot of blood everywhere all the time, it seems.

Sex: There is a lot of sexual tension going on between Sam and Grace, pretty much the whole time. No graphic descriptions, but Stiefvater makes it pretty obvious from the outset that something is going to happen. And it does. Oh, but don't worry, she makes sure to tell us that they used protection. Whew.

Language: There is quite a bit of blasphemy and some "minor" curse words. No f-word.