Review : Linger

Posted by kay on July 31, 2010 3:32 am in 3.5 stars reads | 6 comments

Linger by Maggie Stiefvater
Pages : 360
Genre : YA, Romance, Werewolves
Series : The Wolfes of Mercy Fall, Book 2
My Rating :

From the series’s website :

In Shiver, Grace and Sam found each other. Now, in Linger, they must fight to be together. For Grace, this means defying her parents and keeping a very dangerous secret about her own well-being. For Sam, this means grappling with his werewolf past . . . and figuring out a way to survive into the future. Add into the mix a new wolf named Cole, whose own past has the potential to destroy the whole pack. And Isabel, who already lost her brother to the wolves . . . and is nonetheless drawn to Cole.

I was really looking forward to reading Linger, sequel to the beautiful Shiver. While it didn’t live up to my expectations, I still enjoyed it enough to get to the end – and now I’m a bit impatient to read the final book of the trilogy!

Stiefvater writes beautifully, I can’t deny this. And while I loved the fact that, in Shiver, the narration alternated between Sam and Grace, this time around I found it less enjoyable ; mainly because the author chose to narrate the story from no less than four points-of-view, sometimes changing in the middle of a scene. I get that she tries to take the reader into the characters’ minds, but for me it got a bit confusing.

But back to the story : Sam and Grace are still completely in love, a love that I found to be intoxicating. They depend on each other so much that I wondered if one stops breathing, will the other survive? Their love is strong though, and believable, and I do think they belong together. I was glad to see more of Isabelle, whom I loved in the first book, and while Cole is a difficult character to “get”, I really enjoyed what he brought to the story’s dynamics. I also found interesting all the “science” surrounding the wolves, and it really makes me want to know more about it.

Finally, I have to mention Grace’s parents! Many readers have noted how absent they were in the first book, but this time around their presence can’t be denied. To me though, they weren’t suddenly being good parents : on the contrary, I thought their motivation was a bit selfish! They didn’t take care of Grace as long as she was perfect, and the day she “acts out”, they suddenly want to put rules and constraints : I felt they were more annoyed for having to care for her, than really worried for her.

Like in Shiver, I thought the story was slow to start, but once again the author created a very strong ending!  Like I said, I loved the last pages and I can’t wait to put my hands on Forever. Oh, the wait!

Also, how beautiful is the cover? As lyrical as the writing is, for sure!

Series Reading Order :

1. Shiver
2. Linger
3. Forever (coming 2011)