Shiver

No, I'm not Shiver-ing because of the temperatures (it's actually quite mild for early January in Colorado...until tomorrow, anyway =)...it's because I recently read Maggie Stiefvater's young adult novel Shiver. It's the first in her Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy. Now I already knew I LOVED Maggie having read her Books of Faerie,  Lament and Ballad. But this novel moved me to Shiver-ing. 


It's the story of Grace...who, as a young girl, was attacked by wolves. Since then, she's been obsessed with the wolf pack that inhabits the woods behind her house...and one wolf in particular. Her yellow-eyed wolf, who watches her all winter. 


It's also the story of Sam, who is Grace's yellow-eyed wolf. He saved her six years ago when his pack members dragged her from her backyard swing. And he's been obsessed with her ever since.


After a student at Grace's school is attacked and killed by the wolf pack, town members go to the woods and hunt down the pack. During the hunt, Sam (as wolf) is shot and Grace finds him (as human) on her back porch. 


As Grace and Sam deal with the fallout of the student's death (and rebirth as a werewolf) they also have the chance to learn about one another as humans and their love born between girl and wolf. There is also the mystery of how Grace remained human after her wolf attack and how to possibly keep Sam in human form.


The story itself is gripping and dramatic but what makes it so much more worthy of reading is Maggie's stunning prose. It is beautiful and she describes the events and landscape both viscerally. I can't wait to finish the trilogy and gobble up anything else Ms. Stiefvater ever writes.