Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater || Book Review

Even though this book was first published almost 15 years ago, it still makes rounds on social media because of its popularity.

I wasn’t too keen on reading it since I’m not that big on paranormal romances because so far none have really blown me away. I also wasn’t going to go out of my way to find it. I did find it at the library and decided to give it a try. This is the first book in The Wolves of Mercy Falls series and it will be the last one I pick up too.

This had such a Twilight feel, but instead of the hyper focus on vampires, you get werewolves. So if you’re a fan of that series, this might be for you. I’m not a fan of Twilight at all and it was no surprise that this book didn’t do it for me either.

DISCLAIMER: This review could contain possible spoilers based on my opinions. All opinions and views are my own.

Book review: Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater #bookreview #maggiestiefvater #fantasybooks #romancebooks #paranormalbooks #booktwt #bookaddict #booktwitter
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Challenge prompt: Paranormal books

Originally published: 2009
Read: January 2023

Series: The Wolves of Mercy Falls (Book 1)

Source: Library
Format: Physical
Pages: 343

Plot from GoodReads:

The pack circled around me, tongues and teeth and growls.

When a local boy is killed by wolves, Grace’s small town becomes a place of fear and suspicion. But Grace can’t help being fascinated by the pack, and by one yellow-eyed wolf in particular. There’s something about him – something almost human.

Then she meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away…

A chilling love story that will have you hooked from the very first page.

Thoughts:

It has been a while since a book had me rolling my eyes so much.

Both Grace and Sam were boring characters that the author made dramatic in their own way with each having eye-rolling thoughts and actions. The whole obsession with each other was borderline insane and I couldn’t find the appeal in being in love with an animal, even if Sam was part-human. The love aspect seemed to be the main focus in the story and that was all there was to it.

I expected Sam to be more of a bad boy character, which could’ve created a completely different feel for the plot but him being so submissive possibly to give Grace a stronger female role just didn’t do him justice. Had he had a more wilder side to him, it would’ve given his character a slight boost. Yes, he was the gentle emotional male, rarely seen in books (or maybe it’s just the books that I’ve read) but he didn’t need to be that gentle and emotional – just to add some realistic features to him. Yes, it’s great to have a strong female lead but I prefer the addition of a strong male lead to accompany her. Reading about Sam and his thoughts and picturing an older woman worked great because that’s how his character was written.

Coming to the strong female lead part, Grace wasn’t anywhere close to that title. She was pretty much a copy and paste idea of Bella from Twilight and goodness knows how much her character irritated me from the first page of the Twilight book. The obsession and ‘I can’t live without you’ attitude was gag inducing. I don’t get the hype around this trope because you can’t so damn obsessed with a werewolf that you can hardly function without looking like a complete moron. She treats pretty much everyone in her life like crap while tuning in all her attention on Sam. “My wolf’ – all the damn time.

The ending was so dramatic and yet so dull. Everything just worked out and Sam gets to go to what makes his heart warm up? Where’s the realistic aspect of woods, nakedness and the actual shock of what just happened??

I honestly don’t know if everyone that read this and was over the moon maybe read the version of this book that was rethought and rewritten, but to me, this was a complete waste of time reading. A reminder again, that not all hyped up books are worth the effort.