A New Spin on Werewolves

Grace remembers being attacked by wolves when she was eleven, but what she remembers most is the wolf who stopped the attack and saved her. For years his yellow eyes have haunted her, and she's watched fervently each winter for his return to the forest near her home. Somehow she knows he will always be there to watch over her. And then the unthinkable happens; a fellow classmate is not only attacked by wolves, he is killed by them. What will happen to Grace's wolf when the town is on the rampage, running to destroy the animals?

Sam has watched Grace for years but their first "official" meeting is more than a little awkward; he turns up, naked and shot, on her deck. Suddenly he's actually talking to the girl he feels he's known forever, and she's responding. And though he tries to keep his true nature in check, he knows it's just a matter of time before he will once again disappear from her life. But that certainly doesn't stop the feelings that rapidly develop between them, and now how will Sam be able to face a future without Grace's touch and love?

Shiver is a new, unique spin on the werewolf genre. In Stiefvater's world, it is the cold temperatures that bring on the shift from human to wolf, and each year the time to shift back to human comes later and later until one day there's only wolf. Knowing that there is a definite deadline to their love, Grace and Sam fight the cold as best they can, hoping for a miracle that will allow them to stay together. But the newly created wolf, Grace's classmate Jack, throws kinks into their plans as his unstable nature puts others in jeopardy. Stiefvater gives the story just the right balance of poignancy, anger, and hope, with Grace growing more self-assured as she wrestles with Sam's impending departure. Stiefvater also fills the pages with a longing between the two that kept me enthralled, and a back story that fleshes out the reasons behind unexplainable actions. I was engaged and I was entertained, but mostly I was just captured by the beauty of the frozen world of Shiver. Excellent and creative.

~taminator40