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Mood: Sleepy ]
Let’s be blunt, Twilight did for YA supernatural romance what Harry Potter did for Juvenile Fantasy. Thanks to Stephanie Myer, we have tens, if not hundreds of new titles and authors flooding the scene. Even established Fantasy/Sci-Fi authors are turning to the field. And who wouldn’t given the burgeoning sales?
Into this burgeoning field, walks Maggie Stiefvater with her humongous bestseller, Shiver.
When Grace was a little girl, she was attacked by a pack of wolves. One of the pack, defended her, driving the others away. Since then, Grace has watched that yellow eyed wolf. And he has watched back.
So when Sam walks into her life, with his yellow eyes, she can not help but to be entranced. She knows there is more to him, that he is linked to her wolf. What she doesn’t realize is that meeting him will change her life forever.
Now it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out from the description above, that Sam is a the yellow-eyed wolf. And author Stiefvater is smart enough to know that trying to keep the reading in the dark about that would not work. Instead, we get alternating points of view, Sam and Grace, to move the story along.
Stiefvater has created a supernatural YA romance book, that is Twilight without the vampires. She explores the passion and immediacy of teen romance without getting too graphic, and plays on the temperature idea in the title quite nicely in the story. There is also the requisite absentee parents. (Because how else is Grace going to have sex with her boyfriend in her own bed?) Finally, the possibility of Sam transforming into a werewolf forever is a very nice metaphor for growing up and losing your child forever. I wish she would have pushed that last theme more in the book.
Overall, this was a good book, but not a great book. Some people will look upon this as Furry literature for teens. And they aren’t half wrong on that.