For months I have been reading wonderful reviews of Maggie Stiefvater’s new YA novel Shiver, and it’s been especially popping up on lists of books recommended for Twilight fans. Well, I finally got a chance to read it recently, and my only complaint is this: more, please! I would have appreciated an extra hundred pages or so of backstory, more time with some of the great secondary characters… but I guess I can settle for a really well executed story, sparely but beautifully rendered, that left me wanting more. (It wouldn’t hurt my feelings if a sequel were in the works, though….)
Shiver will definitely appeal to Twilight fans of all ages. There are obvious similarities: two teenagers in love, seemingly destined for each other–one not quite human. But instead of scary vengeful vampires, this novel’s villains are time and nature.
(I will try very hard not to spoil any plot surprises; most of what I’m about to write can be gleaned from the book jacket and/or the first few paragraphs of the book.)
As a child, Grace has a close encounter with a pack of wolves in the woods behind her Minnesota home. Ever since, she has felt very drawn to them, and to one wolf in particular. Even as a teenager, she still looks forward to cold weather because she knows he’ll be there, in the woods at the edge of her yard, watching for her as she watches for him.
Sam looks forward to warm weather, the short but essential time when he can be Sam again, but every year he gets less and less time as Sam. Eventually, summer may not come at all for him.
A fateful event brings these two together, finally able to talk face to face, and they find themselves in a race with time to find a way for Sam to remain human… and stay with Grace.
Shiver is told alternately from Sam’s and then from Grace’s point of view, which makes it a good pick for male or female readers. The love story in Shiver is not as over the top as the one in Twilight, though still very important and perhaps more believable. And, in the spirit of full disclosure, any Twi-hards out there reading this probably gleaned from the title of this post that I was firmly in Camp Jacob while reading Twilight, making Shiver even more of a treat for those few of us on (dare I say it?) the right side.
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