tiny pink books

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
Scholastic Press, 2009

My base reaction to Shiver, yet another teen supernatural romance novel, was one of reluctance (and perhaps an actual groan or two).  I ignored recommendation after recommendation because, quite frankly, I was tired of reading books “like Twilight.”  After finally getting around to picking this up, however, I have to say that I had nothing to fear.  Shiver is not a Twilight clone, but is instead a fresh and original take on the supernatural romance genre.

Narrated in alternating points of view, Shiver is the story of Grace, quiet and competent high school good girl, and Sam, high school aged werewolf, as they fall in love, facing all kinds of odds.  I won’t go into too many details, but Stiefvater adds a lot of original ideas to keep things interesting.  My favorite thing about this book was the ending.  I won’t tell you how it ends though :)  I also really enjoyed Stiefvater’s characters–from the intelligent and competent Grace to the sensitive and thoughtful best friend, all of the characters have a depth and emotive quality that makes them so much more realistic than I was expecting.

This summer will bring us Linger, the next title in the series.  I am interested to see where it will go and whether the quality will remain the same.

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