By Maggie Stiefvater
For Fun
Source I own it
First Sentence I remember lying in the snow, a small red spot of warm going cold, surrounded by wolves.
Synopsis
Grace has always lived for winters. It's when her wolf with the brilliant yellow eyes roams the forest that borders her house. Then she meets Sam with his yellow eyes, eyes so similar to her wolves.
General thoughts
I'm having such a hard time forming an opinion with this one. I listened to the first 130 pages on audio book while driving and was irritated with the narrators. The girl reading for Grace sounded about thirteen and the guy reading for Sam sounded around forty...I had a really hard time getting over the sound of his voice. Plus the two of them read so slow and with such sappy, breathy tones that for 6 hours I had only gotten to page 130...Dude quite angsting it up and just read the dang thing!!! However, after I just read the rest in "normal" book form I was still disgusted with the long flowery writing. For like one minute, every so often, something was actually happening and then there were pages of NOTHING happening. At least once I was reading it myself I could read at my own pace in my own voice! I did enjoy the aspect of the weather and how it affected the wolves. I thought that was unique and interesting. I've heard good things about the relationship between Cole and Isabel in the second book, so I will continue the series but Grace and Sam and their overly romantic relationship...ick! Basically, my whole problem with this one besides the gushy romantic angst, was the pacing.
Characters
Grace was incredibly selfish to me. She dumps her friends after a little tiff and clings to Sam ignoring everything that's going on. Argh, I hate girls like that. Sam was unbelievable to me. I just didn't buy his attitude. I did feel bad about his horrible childhood and I'll admit that the forty year old voice wouldn't leave my head which probably influenced my feelings about him. Olive and Rachel felt like fillers to prove Grace was a normal adjusted girl. Grace's parents bugged me with their absence but I was more frustrated with the author for even creating such pathetic parents. I really didn't feel like I got to know the other wolves well enough to connect to them. Isabel was a fun character I actually want to get to know better. (fingers crossed)
Would I recommend it?
I'm sure most of you have read it, so I probably shouldn't even bother but, yes, I'd recommend it because I know my opinion was warped and that most people would love it.
I can't hardly remember what I thought about this one.. mostly that I wasn't as impressed as everyone else seemed to be. I have yet to read the next one(s?)
ReplyDeleteWell, I haven't read it and likely won't. Good, honest review. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteSuey, Yay, we finally share a similar opinion. ;) I will read the other books because I've heard good things but when is another matter entirely.
ReplyDeleteDana, You're not missing much.
Coming over from Top Ten Tuesday. Thanks for dropping by my blog. In reference to your comment about Lord of the Flies, I didn't particularly love the book either, but I think it is an important book for teens to discuss about how we are swayed by negative peer pressure and how mankind can get themselves all sideways following negative leaders.
ReplyDeleteAnne, Thanks for stopping by. I agree with those points but I just like books that offer a little hope if they're going to be that depressing and I just felt like that one didn't offer any hope. Still, at least it makes good discussion.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't help it, I gushed over this book, but I'm like that I guess lol!
ReplyDeleteSamantha, Well, if I hadn't had such an unusual reading experience, I probably would have liked it better.
ReplyDeleteI liked this but I felt really guilty for liking it. I get what you mean about the pacing, I find a lot of the books I've been reading recently have been like that.
ReplyDeleteI read this book last summer and did not enjoy it at all! I was suprised when I started blogging to see how popular this series actually was. Grace really annoyed me as well...actually all of the characters annoyed me! Oh well! I'm glad that some people ended up enjoying this series a lot more then me! :)
ReplyDeleteWow, that audiobook sounds creepy. I thought this one was ok, but I liked the second one a little better. The other characters were more interesting (to me). I could kind of go either way with this series.
ReplyDeleteOh Jenny you never fail to crack me up. I like shiver but I LOVED Linger. Cole is fan freakin tastic and Isabel is really entertaining. I think you will definitely like that one more.
ReplyDeleteCharmaine, Yeah, I'm sure pacing is all about wasting pages so the book is long enough to sell and make money. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteKathy, The audiobook weirded me out so bad!
Tristan, See, that's why I'll continue reading the series. I hope I like Cole as much as you.
I heard so many amazing things about this series but I am wary of the werewolf stuff.
ReplyDeleteI totally get your annoyance with the audiobook. I am currently reading -uh listening- my first audiobook and it's going so slooooooow. I read 5 times faster myself! Although the narrator is not creepy, the accent drives me nuts and she emphasizes the words very different of how I would do it (well, probably I am the one emphasizing it wrong). I don't think audiobooks are for me....
Selina, Yeah, audio books are just too slow and the narrators almost put too much emphasis into the words.
ReplyDeleteOkay, so I hadn't seen this yet. I really did enjoy this book. I know it's a bit romantic in some places, but it was slow and the build-up of wolf to human to curiosity worked well for me. And usually I'm not a fan of overly descriptive writing, but here I thought it fit the tone and backbone of the story. Everything about this book from the cover to the end just meshed so well together. Okay, now *I'm* gushing.
ReplyDeleteBut I did enjoy it, although I'm not sure when/if I'll continue on to Linger.
Kaye, I hadn't really thought about it but this one could have been a stand alone novel.
ReplyDeleteJenny, you trusted my opinion on Shade so your gonna have to stick with me here. Linger is WAY better than Shiver, Cole St.Clair comes in Linger and he is the coolest character EVER!! and Forever just made me cry but it was still great. Shiver is definitely the crappy book in this series, I swear. Read it...for me ;)
ReplyDeleteTristan, I trust you. I'm going to read the rest of the series. I've heard good, good things about Cole and I want to know more.
ReplyDelete