Publish Date: July 13, 2010
Website: http://www.maggiestiefvater.com/
ISBN: 9780545123280
List Price: $17.99
My Rating: 4 out of 5
Trailer: Linger Book Trailer (created, filmed, and scored by Maggie Stiefvater)
Trailer: Music Composed for the Book by Maggie Stiefvater
The story is about a boy who was a wolf and about a girl who is destined to become one. Even though they are together now, in Linger, they have to fight to stay together. Secretly Grace's health is deteriorating and all the signs are leading her to believe that the wolf in her if fighting to be free.
Linger begins where Shiver leaves us with Sam and Grace together after the surprising risk they take to keep Sam in his human form. Sam is still in shock over the possibility that he will stay human, no longer shift to a wolf form, and stay with Grace forever. If that were the case, the story would end there.
All is well for a while, Grace and Sam could not be happier planning a future together. Grace begins to feel there is something wrong as she notices regular nosebleeds and a strange wolf smell on herself. To add to that, Grace and Sam are torn apart when Grace's parents find out that Sam and Grace spend every waking and sleeping moment together. They forbid her to see Sam. All the while she is becoming more sick. Grace eventually makes the decision to be with Sam and leave her absentee parents.
New characters are introduced into the story as Beck, Sam's pack leader, recruits new pack members, who unfortunately are not the average recruits, Cole and Victor. Sam struggles with understanding why Beck recruited members so famous which could reveal their existence. To complicate matters, Beck has transformed and is not expected to shift back, ever. Sam is left to assume the new pack leader role. Cole and Victor are well-known rockers who wanted to escape their life of bad decisions. Sam and Cole do not get along, but when they are confronted by threats to their pack mates and Grace's possible death they find away to help each other. Even Isabel join the struggle and fight to save the pack and Grace.
The story is written from 4 character perspectives: Grace, Sam, Cole and Isabel. The author does a great job of transitioning between each character's voice making sure to keep their distinctive personalities within each chapter. My favorite quote is from Isabel talking to Grace about leaving home to be with Sam "...because you couldn't live without The Boy's stunning Boyfruits for another night." (pg. 311) I just love the author's sense of humor amongst all the drama.
The author certainly give characters the right balance of melodrama and humor. Between crying there is laughing... The author has created a unique and original plot around the existence of wolves creating the idea of escapism where the character can give into their raw senses. The conclusion of Linger is both expected and unexpected. I cannot wait to hear Grace's voice in Forever...I won't spoil it. This is another great young adult (YA) novel from Maggie Stiefvater and I am eager to see the next book in the trilogy, Forever, due out in July 2011.
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