Review #40 - Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

I was in the American Book Centre in Amsterdam and I saw a copy of this book out of the corner of my eye. It's not in Waterstones, it was attractive and I acknowledge this as one of the bones of YA fiction. I read the first four chapters and decided I must have it. I swear I was this close to buying the boxset. Not for a long time has the start of a book been so compelling.

Unfortunately, this book went downhill. Shiver is the story of a girl who was attacked and bitten by a wolf at a young age, only to be saved by one of them. Every winter she sees "her wolf" and feels like she has a deep connection to him. Little does she know *gasp* he's a werewolf.

The beginning of this book is compelling and full of mystery. I loved the first few chapters and that was the point that I discovered she sort-of-fancied a wolf. I found this a little weird but I am a YA reader. We are not judgemental. We are forgiving. Sure, your protagonist fancies a wolf. We'll deal with it. Move on.

The romance was really, really drippy. I really struggled to maintain interest because the dialogue just made me nauseous. I know they were just trying to be cute but it wasn't me at all. Maybe if I was five years younger and in the height of my Twilight phase...

Which leads me on nicely to this paragraph (yes I plan my blog posts this isn't a free for all). As much as I loathe to compare YA books to the mainstream YA... this had the atmosphere of Twilight. It felt like Twilight but with less of a love triangle (yey a YA werewolf book without a love triangle!). If you are currently in your Twilight phase, you may like this.

The difference between this and Twilight is that the first three Twilights end on these big battles and this didn't but it still felt like a proper finale to the book. I really liked this. It didn't rely on violence to create an ending.

A lot of this book is about the suspense of the temperature dropping (no spoilers). However, it did feel like a 300 page book with that feeling of when you have to leave the fridge open to look for something and it starts beeping at you.

Despite it's flaws, it was pretty gripping.  It also had a very very definite ending which I really liked. I don't feel I need to read the sequel.

I would recommend this if:

You want a overly-soppy romance

You want a book on werewolves

You love Twilight

I gave it three stars.

If you want the most beautiful book ever (it's American) and maybe pay me 5% commission:

Paperback

Hardback
Paperback boxset
Hardback boxset

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