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fanboyriot's review
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
This was like a Twilight wanna be but with a focus on wolves.
I hated the characters. Genuinely really couldn’t care about them. Grace treated her friends and family like shit, all of her attention is on her wolf. She is incapable of empathy apparently. Sam is so whiny and nearly has insufferable as Grace. And their romance was giving nothing, they was zero chemistry between them.
Spice Level: n/a
Angst Level: n/a
POV: Duel, First Person
Release Date: 01, August 2009
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, and Blood
Minor: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Violence, Vomit, Kidnapping, Car accident, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
walkingcha0s's review against another edition
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Death, Gun violence, Blood, Vomit, Car accident, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Sexual content
epeolatrist's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse and Death
Moderate: Animal death, Car accident, and Abandonment
Minor: Animal cruelty and Self harm
nicosta_music's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Shiver felt like a non-Mormon version of Twilight. It's your typical human/supernatural creature romance, except at least in this book the main characters are likeable and not complete creeps. Generally an entertaining read if you want a cute romance with an interesting subplot. My biggest issue was the whole cure method -- you're really telling me your best hope for a cure is to inject yourself with some rando's disease-ridden blood? Come on, I know lycanthropy is bad, but I think other, potentially incurable life-threatening diseases are worse.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse and Blood
Moderate: Car accident and Abandonment
Minor: Death, Sexual content, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
rybass08's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
A very stoic book, of love pulling back and forth between two worlds. Heartbreaking and hurtful to read, wanting the change to be permanent so that they can be together forever.
Content Warnings
Minor: Animal death, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Vomit, Grief, Car accident, and Abandonment
lizgriffinwords's review
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
On a reread, knowing more about the context and the target audience, I see how this book accomplishes what it set out to - provide a teen romance for Team Jacob readers, with all the angst befitting a paranormal romance. I can understand it on a craft level without understanding it on an emotional level.
CW: parental abuse (including cutting), parental abandonment, guns
CW: parental abuse (including cutting), parental abandonment, guns
Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse and Abandonment
Minor: Animal cruelty and Gun violence
sarah_who_reads's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
This is a YA paranormal romance, sort of. One of the main characters, Sam, is a werewolf, but wishes he weren't, and just wants to be human, and the other main character, Grace, is supposed to be a werewolf, but isn't, for a reason that forms a core point of the plot. I will avoid more spoilers, but this is the beginning of why I would say it's only sort of paranormal. Sam and Grace meet in a violent situation when they are young, when Sam is in wolf form. They both become somewhat obsessed (my word, not Stiefvater's) with each other, and when they meet again, several years later, when Sam is in human form, it kicks off a whirlwind romance with an expiration date, Sam's impending change back to werewolf form for the winter always looming. But in the meantime, a classmate of Grace's is attacked by wolves and killed...
There are good things about this book. It's atmospheric - you do feel like it's cold. For most scenes, Sam and Grace do seem like teenagers in love. Sam and Grace both have problematic parents, and that feels like an issue reasonable for YA novels to address. And the audiobook narration held my interest better than a lot of fiction audio does.
But there are also a lot of things that aren't great about this book. I didn't love Sam's songs he wrote for Grace sprinkled throughout; they felt melodramatic and cringey to me, even for a teenager in love. I'm not a fan of instalove or love supposedly based on someone's physical characteristics (his golden eyes!), and stories like this never really seem real to me. Grace's (and all the kids' in the book, actually) complete disregard for her/their parents just because the parents just seemed a bit absent/checked out felt over-the-top and disproportionate and unrealistic. I don't think most kids would behave the way Olivia and Grace did, for example, or anything close to it, in this situation, and their behavior seemed like an issue the author couldn't figure out how to write more realistically, so she just relied on us suspending our disbelief, which I'm willing to do for werewolves but not for the realistic parts of the book. I hated the gratuitous animal death, almost none of which did anything to advance the story in a meaningful way (why? just why?). There are also teenagers who "consent" become werewolves, which might be a bit sketchy, depending on interpretation. But most of all, the way that Sam and Grace meet is pretty creepy, and the way their relationship evolves before they meet in person the second time is even creepier. I don't love the idea of casting it romantically, especially in a YA book. Tread with care if any form of abuse is a trigger for you. Other CWs include, as I mentioned, multiple scenes with gratuitous animal death (including a long scene I had to skip), parental betrayal, attempted murder, some medical/hospital/needles scenes, and some general gore.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Gore, and Blood
Moderate: Abandonment
Minor: Medical content
aseel_reads's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
the perfect read for winter, very atmospheric. a pretty basic plot line but that makes sense for the age of the book (published in 2009). i am glad for the ending but not enough to keep reading the series
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Blood, Medical content, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
grace_cr1's review against another edition
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Minor: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Antisemitism, Grief, Car accident, Murder, and Abandonment