Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Title: Shiver
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
ISBN#: 9780545123266 (hardcover), 9780545123273 (paperback)

the cold.
Grace has spent years watching the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf—her wolf—watches back. He feels deeply familiar to her, but she doesn't know why.

the heat.
Sam has lived two lives. As a wolf, he keeps the silent company of the girl he loves. And then, for a short time each year, he is human, never daring to talk to Grace...until now.

the shiver.
For Grace and Sam, love has always been kept at a distance. But once it's spoken, it cannot be denied. Sam must fight to stay human—and Grace must fight to keep him—even if it means taking on the scars of the past, the fragility of the present, and the impossibility of the future. [summary from goodreads]

If there's anything I've learned about reading, it's that I should trust my friends' judgments more often than I do.  Since the whole vampire/werewolf takeover in the YA universe, I've tried to avoid books that fall into that category.  I honestly got tired of it and thought that what I had already read was sufficient enough for the time being.  The thing is, that's not really fair of me--so I decided to give this one a try, and picked it up on a whim when I was at the library.  Good.  Decision.

 I'd seen Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater on the shelves many times before, but never really thought to pick it up (despite the cool cover) because it had to do with werewolves.  As much as I like fantasy, sci-fi, and the like, I lean more towards the types of stories that deal with alternate universes and strange inventions with matching societies, rather than supernatural romance.  The thing about Shiver, though, is that it's conveyed in a way that is very different--I love when an author takes an idea that everyone has a certain expectation of and changes it so that it's something uniquely their own, and that is precisely what Maggie Stiefvater does in her novel.

I was surprised with how much I liked Shiver, with my bias and all.  Maggie's writing style was very engaging, but what I was really impressed with was the way that she could write something abstractly, but you can still understand it for exactly what it is.   I can always appreciate that kind of writing.

In Shiver, you read from the point of view of two narrators--Grace and Sam.  It was nice to be able to see into the minds of two characters, rather than one, which always seems to leave me wondering what's going on with everyone else.  I thought that Grace and Sam were nice to experience the novel with, as well (although, I have to admit, I loved reading from Sam's POV and always looked forward to his parts in the story).  Grace, as the female voice of the novel, was sort of a nice change for me--I like smart narrators.  I do.  What I liked more about Grace in that sense, though, was that she admittedly didn't know everything.  Sam would share poetry with her, and she may not have understood it, but it's not something that she kept from him in embarrassment.  That, I liked.  Far too often do I feel like I'm reading from the perspective of a super genius, and, honestly, it just gets boring after a while.

So, alright.  There are werewolves and there is romance.  The whole thing worked for me, even though I wasn't sure that it would.  Shiver kept me on the edge of my seat (just ask Sandy...  I was texting her like a mad woman as I got closer and closer to the ending--I needed to get my feelings out as I raced to the end of the book) and made me sigh, both at appropriate times.  Shiver was sweet (hello, candy store scene!), but I didn't feel like I was eating a bowl of sugar with my eyes.  Very sweet, but not overdone.  The fantasy element was pretty subtle, for the most part--I wasn't overwhelmed and found the world that I had immersed myself in was very believable.  The only thing that bothered me, really, was the lack of parental anything.  Grace's parents are just terrible!  Sam is in her house literally on a 24-hour basis and they never figure it out.  I'm just glad they're not mine...  You can't blame Grace's distaste for them.

This is probably one of the best books that I've read in a while.  Sometimes I just need a nice, romantic story, and this delivered.  I'm glad that this is a series--I can't wait to pick up the sequel!  :D

And, because I feel like this must be shared, here is a Shiver trailer made by the author herself, Maggie Stiefvater:

(Seriously... how talented is she?!  I'm in awe.)