What is the Opposite of Sweating?

Shiver

Author:

Maggie Stiefvater

Published:

Scholastic (2009)

Number of Pages:

400

Review:

“I listened for a long time. I prayed for them to stop, to leave me alone, but at the same time I was desperately afraid they would. Long after the other voices had dropped away, Sam kept howling, very soft and slow. When he finally fell silent, the night felt dead.” Werewolves, vampires, zombies, OH MY. It seems that every young adult book we pick up to read these days (you know the ones that make it on the best sellers list) are the ones that feature at least some gothic or mythical creature within its fine paper walls.  While I’m all for gothic literature and my love of vampires haven’t deteriorated yet, what I’m not for is the clichéd gothic literature that is coming out these days.

I remember a time when vampires and werewolves were supposed to be scary, feared, or even mocked. But ever since Twilight (perhaps before that but Twilight is responsible for this craze) these creatures are not scary anymore. In fact they’re wimpy, and love sick, and pathetic. While men are usually like this on a whole, it’s the women of the stories that disappoint me the most. And while I did love this novel Shiver (I loved it to death) I can’t get over the fact that Grace was portrayed as this over obsessive character, and obsessed she was.

The novel starts off with Grace as a young child sitting on her tire swing minding her own business when she gets attacked and dragged by a pack of wolves. All of the wolves are attacking her except one, a lone wolf with sad yellow eyes. The lone wolf eventually fights off the others and brings her back to safety. Fast forward to present times Grace is now 17 years old and desperately in love with the wolf (A WOLF) and the wolf is in love with her, the only problem is Grace doesn’t know that her wolf is actually a boy by the name of Sam who in the summers enjoys his time as a human, but in the winters he prances around in his wolf costume 24/7 (in other words he’s a werewolf). It isn’t until Sam it shot that their two worlds collide and the love story begins.

Bella is to Edward as Grace is to Sam. These two love stories could be identical with their sense of longing and foreboding and the yearning and the desire, young passionate love that lasts forever. It is stories like these that make me a neurotic love torn spinster. I have yet to feel that obsession these children feel for each other but I’m an older gal, and I know the difference between fantasy and reality (and although this kind of love is romantic, it can’t be healthy) but I’m worried about the young girls (and boys) who are reading these stories and thinking this is what love is supposed to be like. These children are going to be crushed when they find out that their potential spouse isn’t going to be as obsessed about them as these characters are about each other (I know I always am). Yet publishers keep accepting these story lines about obsessed teenagers with no concern about their effects on the young minds reading them. It’s like reading Gone with the Wind when your 14 years old and then spending the rest of your life trying to find a Rhett Buttler. It’s just not going to happen yet these kids are growing up with this notion that they’re going to find their Sam or Grace and they’re just setting themselves up for disappointment.

Anyway back to the review. The novel itself is brilliant. The plot line is redundant but there is a twist, where werewolves back in the 90’s changed because of the moon, these humans of the 21^st century change because of the weather, as the temperature drops so does their ability to stay human. The narration moves between Grace and Sam, this is no one sided love story; the reader gets to experience both tales of this extremely fanatical love. But what I loved most about this novel has got to be the prose and this is why I deemed it brilliant. Where Meyers was more simplistic and juvenile with her writing, Stiefvater is very poetic and cadence, almost musical. “I didn't think I belonged here in her world, a boy stuck between two lives, dragging the dangers of the wolves with me, but when she said my name, waiting for me to follow, I knew I'd do anything to stay with her.” It just flows; from sentence to sentence the whole novel was like floating above water. I couldn’t put it down because I didn’t want to leave the pool; I just wanted to wade there for as long as I could, soaking up every word.

Sam was probably my favourite character, only because when he was narrating I was sure to get some intoxicating prose. “I could still smell her on my fur. It clung to me, a memory of another world. I was drunk with it, with the scent of her. I'd got too close. The smell of summer on her skin, the half-recalled cadence of her voice, the sensation of her fingers on my fur. Every bit of me sang with the memory of her closeness. Too close.” I said intoxicating, I didn’t say grammatically correct. I guess I’m just a sucker for prose.

All in all, this novel was worth the read. Was it my favourite, definitely not, but I can’t say I wasn’t entertained, which is saying a lot because there are some books out there I wouldn’t poke with a nine inch pole *cough cough* MOBY DICK (I read it, didn’t like it... sue me)!  I do fancy fluffy novels now and then and for those of you who happen to like fluff then I urge you to get a copy and make your home within the pages of this book.

Happy Reading!!!