Synopsis via goodreads. For
years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One
yellow-eyed wolf—her wolf—is a chilling presence she can't seem to live
without.
Meanwhile, Sam has lived two
lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the protection of the pack, and the silent
company of a fearless girl. In summer, a few precious months of being human…
until the cold makes him shift back again.
Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed
boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It's her wolf. It has to be. But
as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human or risk losing himself, and
Grace, forever.
After almost 6 months of beginning this YA
reading journey, I am starting to feel dissatisfied with these YA selections.
It feels like I have read these books before. The YA genres of paranormal
romance and dystopia are in overabundance to the point where it has become
frustrating for me as a reader. It’s not Maggie Stiefvater’s fault or Lauren
Oliver’s. I have now read around 18
titles for this challenge plus numerous others and it is starting to bum me out
how formulaic and (hate to say it) cliché they all are. Poor Shiver just came in at a time where
I'm about fed up.
This book series is for all you Twilight
fans out there. There were lots and LOTS of dreamy, whimsical romance scenes
and of course werewolves. Again my eyes rolled throughout most of this book.
It also did not help that I audiobooked this title. Listening to the narrators,
who granted did a great job with expression, read and act this book made me
giggle. Needless to say, I will not continue this series like so many prior
books.
Ok this is starting to sound bad. There are some good, redeeming
qualities that I did like about Shiver.
For one, Sam and Grace’s feelings for each other felt realistic to everyday
teens. This includes their sexual relationship. Sam’s hesitance in the bedroom
was kind of adorable and it was nice to have a guy’s voice talk about this
subject. Secondly, everything about the story was incredibly descriptive. I could imagine
the location and smells and temperature of the setting quite vividly and I feel
this is Stiefvater’s strongest writing quality.
With the audiobook, the toughest part is that the book itself switches
narrators between Sam and Grace; therefore, the audiobook also switches narrators.
The problem is that most of the book Sam and Grace are in each other’s company
and with multiple narrators you also have different narration styles. To
clarify, this means that Sam’s narrator not only did his own character’s voice,
but also had to occasionally convey Grace’s voice. The female narrator did Sam’s
voice differently than the male narrator and the male narrator’s attempt at
Grace’s caused some snickers. I know it is difficult to match the two and
besides this one tiny problem, they did an excellent job with expression and
engagement. Remember peeps, I have a hard time getting past some details.
The bottom line is that as a YA librarian, I would buy this series for
my collection. Paranormal romances are still popular and I have been asked
about this series by several teens even before I read it. Maggie Stiefvater is
becoming a prominent YA author and has many other popular titles out there. If
I make it to the selection for Virginia, I will be reading her work once more
in The Raven Boys.
Peeps, I may need a YA break here so I am going to get an adult
audiobook for next time. That’s 18 down, 32 more to go.
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