Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater (Scholastic Press, Aug.) is the love story of Sam and Grace, told in chapters that alternate between their points of view. Sam, a werewolf, rescues a young Grace from a wolf attack and they share a bond from then on. Werewolves in Stiefvater’s world respond to the cold—they are wolves in winter, humans in summer, and each year they are human for a shorter period of time, until they remain wolves permanently. So Sam and Grace are on a deadline.
As booksellers these days, we hear all the time “It’s like Twilight, but with (fill in the supernatural blank).” Well, this is the first one I think will actually satisfy the Twilight fangirls. It has that same breathless teenage belief that they are MEANT for each other and can’t survive alone. Sam has that same sweet, sensitive artistic nature with a current of dangerous underneath. The same page-turning gotta-know-what-happens-next.
That’s not to say it’s a Twilight copycat. The way that it treats the werewolf mythology is different and creative, and Sam’s tendency to turn all emotions into song lyrics is adorable. Both Sam and Grace’s relationships with their parent figures will surely strike a chord, and the fact that it’s a standalone makes a one-sitting read so satisfying.
One warning for booksellers is that there is no abstinence clause in this one. But the sex is very sweet fade-to-black, and only brought up once more so that we know they used protection.
Get Shiver in the hands of one teen girl, she’ll read it overnight, and then force all her friends to read it. (And not just teen girls... I loved it in one sitting as well.)
