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:

• Presenting Lenore's review is the one that made me want to read this
• My Friend Amy is looking forward to the sequel
• Linus's Blanket wasn't drawn in at first but ended up enjoying it
• OCD, vampires, and amusing rants, oh my! noticed the blue font as well, and gave the book 4 pints of blood according to their rating system
• The Book Smugglers wasn't a big fan of this one
• The Well-Read Child really appreciates the writing style
• Tale of a Pink Monkey shouldn't have like it but really did
  

*** 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.