A girl and the yellow-eyed wolf who watches her from the woods are racing the coming cold
The wolf in the woods
When Grace Brisbane was a child, wolves dragged her from a tire swing into the snow, and one wolf, with yellow eyes, saved her. Every winter since, she has watched him at the edge of the woods behind her house in Mercy Falls, Minnesota. In the warm months he disappears. Then, after a local boy is attacked by wolves and reported dead, and the town turns against the pack, Grace finds a wounded young man on her back porch, and she recognizes his eyes.
Who will enjoy it
Readers aged about fourteen and up who like quiet, atmospheric paranormal romance more than action and fighting.
What you will get
A hushed, wintry love story about a girl and a boy who turns into a wolf with the cold, told in lyrical alternating voices.
Shiver Facts: Pages, Genre and Setting
Genre
Young Adult · Werewolves · First love · Minnesota winter
Length
392 pages · ≈ 12 h
More about this book
The wolves of Mercy Falls are people who shift with the temperature, human in the warmth and wolves in the cold, and each year their human summers grow shorter. Sam suspects that this year may be his last as a person. Told in alternating chapters by Grace and Sam, the novel follows their attempt to keep him human as autumn turns to winter, while Grace's distracted parents barely notice what is happening in their own house.
If you want action, look elsewhere; Stiefvater is interested in mood. The writing is full of cold air, song lyrics Sam writes in his head and the small details of falling in love, and each chapter is headed with the current temperature, which works as a countdown. The romance is tender and includes some physical intimacy, handled discreetly. A secondary plot about a newly bitten boy adds tension, though some readers find the middle slow.
Melancholy, beautiful and very much a love story first, Shiver is followed by Linger and Forever, with Sinner as a companion novel. It is ideal for long winter evenings. About 392 pages in the Scholastic paperback.
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The Fault in Our Stars
Beastly
The Summoning
Linger
Crossed
The Sky Is Everywhere
Heartless
Before I Fall
All the Bright Places
If I Stay