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Thursday, December 10, 2009

Shiver

Shiver
by Maggie Stiefvater
400 pages


*** About the Book ***

As a child, Grace is attacked by wolves in the woods behind her house but rescued from death by one wolf with peculiar golden eyes. In the ensuing years she sees this wolf again and again, and develops a intense connection to him. Things are not exactly as they seem however, as Grace discovers when she finds a teenage boy bleeding on her back porch ... a boy with the exact same eyes as her wolf.


*** Why I Read It ***

As I said in my review of another book yesterday, I've had a thing for wolves since I was a child. I saw Lenore's review of this book a while back and it intrigued me. In general I'm not a fan of YA books (which this is) but the plot really pulled at me so I put it on my TBR list. When it was chosen for the 20-Minute Book Club portion of a recent That's How I Blog Show, I decided to read it and join in. Unfortunately I couldn't get it from the library in time but I went ahead and read it anyway.


*** My Thoughts ***

I really enjoyed this book but I didn't LOVE it. There is a very sweet love story and definitely some excitement, however this is clearly a Young Adult book (YA is not one of my favorite genres so that is a drawback for me). I liked the author's twist on werewolf mythology; it was much more "believable" than the traditional crazed-wolfman-howling-at-the-moon thing and it gave a depth to the story that I enjoyed.

That said, I was not so drawn in to the story that I intended to read the next book in the series (called LINGER, coming in July 2010). At least, I wasn't planning to until I got to the last page of the book and realized where the story stopped. I thought I had another chapter yet to read but it was just the acknowledgements! *gasp* So now I will have to read LINGER this summer, if only to find out what happens next.

Other Thoughts ...
  • I really like the cover of this book; what do you think about it? For me, it is simple yet attractive and clearly relates to the book.
  • One thing that I found to be very unique was that the color of the font throughout the book matched the blue on the cover. It wasn't jarring enough to be distracting; rather it was appealing and eye-catching in a good way.

*** Your Thoughts ***

Are you intrigued? Please let me know!

Be sure to check out these other reviews to get a better idea of whether you'd like this book:

*** For More Fun ***

Click on this link to listen to the That's How I Blog episode featuring My Friend Amy; the last 20 minutes are dedicated to a discussion of SHIVER. If you download it you can skip ahead to time marker 1:12 where the rather amusing (and giggle-filled) book discussion begins.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm halfway through and loving it. I feel it's a bit on the dark side, but that's a plus for me.

Meg @ write meg! said...

I hate when you think you have another chapter to go -- and the book just abruptly ends! That's such a terrible feeling! haha. I'm intrigued by this one, but I have a feeling I would share many of your reservations... though I do love YA. I'll probably grab it sometime, though! :)

Heather J. @ TLC Book Tours said...

J. Kaye - I hope you keep enjoying it all the way through!

Meg - I had just posted the following on Twitter, and I think it applies to your comment too: "@librarydad if you like YA in general, you will like SHIVER - the writing is quite lovely - I was just hoping for more depth/intensity ...." - I think you should give it a try! (And YES about the abrupt endings!)

bermudaonion said...

I've seen some great reviews of this book, but I'm not sure if werewolves are for me.

Aarti said...

I also LOVE the cover! I really like the stylized covers- very stationary-esque.

Nicole (Linus's Blanket) said...

Just you wait and see. I bet you will end up reading the whole series. I am kind of curious as to how they will carry on in the next one.

Jen - Devourer of Books said...

I really like the cover. It is simple, but still totally represents the book, especially since the leaves in the woods are hearts.

Lisa S. said...

I had a whole list of reasons I shouldn't have enjoyed it (see my review here but wound up really enjoying it. And I adore the cover.

Heather J. @ TLC Book Tours said...

bermudaonion - They're not your typical werewolves, and I really liked that about this book.

Aarti - me too!

Nicole - You're probably right ...

Jen - I know, I LOVE the leaves! :)

Lisa - Thanks for the link - I added it to my list.

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