Series Review: The Wolves of Mercy Falls (Shiver Trilogy) by Maggie Stiefvater

 

Publisher: Scholastic Press
Format: Hardcover Boxset
Release date (boxset): July 12, 2011
ISBN: 0545326869
Total pages: 1150
Goodreads (trilogy) || Goodreads (Shiver) || Goodreads (Linger) || Goodreads (Forever)
Book Depository (boxset) || Book Depo (Shiver) || Book Depo (Linger) || Book Depo (Forever)

Synopsis for Shiver (book 1)

For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf—her wolf—is a chilling presence she can’t seem to live without.

Meanwhile, Sam has lived two lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the protection of the pack, and the silent company of a fearless girl. In summer, a few precious months of being human… until the cold makes him shift back again.

Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It’s her wolf. It has to be. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human—or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever.

MY THOUGHTS on trilogy

Maggie Stiefvater has created a very intriguing series, that is easy to follow even for beginners of paranormal/fantasy books. The chapters in this book are quite short, especially in Shiver, which makes it a quick read. Shiver and Linger both end on cliffhangers, which makes you want to pick up the next book straight away.

While these books are relatively fast to get through, the pace of the story is very slow. It took me a while to get into the first book, because not much happens throughout it. What redeemed it for me was the writing style and the romance between Grace and Sam.

Maggie Stiefvater’s writing is a little bit strange and can be hard to get into, but once I did I began to really love it. The voices of the characters are clear, and you can get a good sense of who they are. Shiver is narrated from the perspectives of Sam and Grace, and there are subtle differences in voice between human Sam and wolf Sam. Things got a little bit more complicated in Linger and Forever. These books are written not only from the perspectives of Sam and Grace, but also from the perspectives of some of the other major characters. At times, this made the books hard to follow because they would jump from one perspective or storyline to another too abruptly, sometimes multiple times within one chapter.

What I loved most about this trilogy was the romance. I really liked Sam and Grace as a couple and thought they were great together. I probably enjoyed reading about their relationship more than I enjoyed the story about the wolves.  The romance probably got me through the books – I might not have finished the trilogy otherwise. I did start to enjoy reading about the wolves as the series went on, particularly in Forever. Forever was a really great finale to the trilogy, packed with action. It was probably my favourite book in the trilogy. It also answered a lot of the questions I had after reading Shiver and Linger. It ties the whole story together at the end, though it does end a little bit obscurely.

Overall, I do recommend this trilogy. Each book does start off slowly, but it definitely becomes more action-packed toward the end. The last book, Forever, is filled with action and is definitely worth the time spent getting to it.

Ratings of each book

Shiver    

Linger    

Forever  

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