Review: Shiver

Shiver
Maggie Stiefvater
Read September 2011

My best friend told me about Shiver some time ago. She said that Maggie, Shiver's author, wrote in a way that was lyrical. That she wrote in a way that made each work much like a song. I believed her, but I did not fully appreciate that statement till I read it for myself.

Maggie Stiefvater had become one of my favorite people through reading her thoughts and words in her blog. After I was shown a few posts by said friend, I was hooked. I read her blog all the way through, starting with the beginning. Each post fed my curiosity over the Mercy Falls Trilogy. Finally, I snagged a copy of Shiver and it was most certainly worth the long wait and lengthy anticipation.

Becca was right. Shiver is a song. I felt that the entire time I read it. I soaked the novel in—it only taking me a day to read it. I don't really have any complaints against it other than felt a slight compression in the work. While I realize it is a young adult novel, I do think it would have flourished to a whole new and amazing level if it was given more room.

Stiefvater sings a mosaic of of characters, paints a vivid world, and speaks beauty into our souls through this work.

Quotes:

“As the hours crept by, the afternoon sunlight bleached all the books on the shelves to pale, gilded versions of themselves and warmed the paper and ink inside the covers so that the smell of unread words hung in the air.” -Maggie Stiefvater

“And leaving you (there aren't words to untangle it)
Your life, fearful and immense and blossoming,
so that, sometimes frustrated, and sometimes understanding,
Your life is sometimes a stone in you, and then, a star.” -Maggie Stiefvater

Maggie being awesome: