The Monthly Read Cover to Cover - Front Porch Fredericksburg On-Line Magazine

Back to Previous Page

MAGGIE STIEFVATER
Shiver	Mary Becelia
March 2010 PAGES Book Review by Mary Becelia Shiver, by Maggie Stiefvater $17.99 (Hardback) Scholastic Press, 2009 Curled up on a snowy winter's day with a book called Shiver, what could be better? This winter certainly has offered its share of such days and I was lucky to have the perfect book to enjoy as the snowflakes swirled outside. Shiver is the story of Grace, 17 years old and basically raising herself as her parents pursue their own interests, and Sam, an 18 year old werewolf who lives with his pack in the dense woods bordering Grace's home in the town of Mercy Falls, MN. Their affection starts early, when a young Grace, playing in her back yard, is attacked by the starving pack one especially hard winter. Sam intervenes to save her, a "tiny bloody angel in the snow" and their bond is created. For the next few years, Grace glimpses Sam at the woods’ edge, but only in the cold part of the year. He is "her wolf", with his penetrating yellow eyes and handsome gray coat. As far as she knows, he disappears during summer, but only because (in a new twist on werewolf mythology), werewolves turn human in summer for several years after they are first bitten. At some point, however, their alternation between human and wolf is over, and they live out the remainder of their lives as wolves. It is only when another teen is killed by the pack that Grace inadvertently learns the truth. A group of hunters retaliates by tracking down and shooting some of the wolves, including Sam. He is not killed, but the trauma of his injury causes him to revert to his human shape. He collapses in a bloody heap on Grace's porch, where she finds him and drags him into the warmth of her house, thus delaying his “change”. The two quickly take their affection to the next level and are as inseparable as possible. The rigors of the increasingly frigid Minnesota climate takes its toll, however, and cold is an enemy they must constantly guard against. Imagery of hot and cold, summer and winter abound in the book, as in this particularly lovely sentence, "His lips tasted cool and sharp, peppermint, winter, but his hands, soft on the back of my neck, promised long days and summer and forever." This sentence reminds me of John Donne's lovely line, "So lovers dream a rich and rich and long delight, But get a winter-seeming summer's night." Even the longest night seems short when one is young and in love, and Grace and Sam are racing against the clock as days grow shorter and temperatures drop. Not only is Sam faced with another season as a wolf, but he senses this change will be his last -- his period of alternating human with wolf is over. Can they come up with a way to "cure" him? Is it even possible? Or are they doomed to separate, so soon after finding each other? I raced through the book in two days, enjoying every new development and anxious to learn how it would be resolved. Maggie Stiefvater, local author and 2003 graduate University of Mary Washington, has put herself, and our town, on the map with this page-turner. Shiver is a New York Times best seller, with a movie potentially in the works (Unique Features/Warner Brothers have purchased the rights), and two more books coming in the planned trilogy. Bella and Edward, step aside, it's Grace and Sam's turn in the sun. For more on this author, her other books, and the complete Wolves of Mercy Fall trilogy, visit http://www.maggiestiefvater.com/. Mary Becelia lives in Falmouth and works at the University of Mary Washington.
Back to Previous Page Back to the Top