Shiver

I will admit, as soon as I read the inside cover I kept thinking, oh no, another Twilight. I feel like every time I turn on the television I see extremely good looking and young vampires and werewolves running around, falling in love, and saving the world. Yes, I will admit I have read all the Twilight books because they were so different when they first came out. I was a little uneasy about Shiver at first because I thought it would be an exact copy as the Twilight series. In my own opinion, I was both right and wrong in thinking this.

One thing that Maggie Stiefvater did really well that Twilight lacks in is having two first person narratives as Denise and Tara mentioned. I really enjoy when authors do this because it allows readers to come up with different thoughts and opinions on characters actions and such; it makes the story more appealing because you hear multiple sides of the story.

The descriptive language that Stiefvater uses, especially in Grace's chapters, read a lot like Bella's in Twilight. She uses a lot of adjectives; it is very whimsical to read. Grace, like Bella again, seem to be overly dramatic. In both there openings in their books, they talk about "I was dying." Then, literally, a sentence later they state: "...but I wasn't dead." I could see how YA females would relate to this because I thought everything at that age was life and death, but in these instances, it is true because they are dealing with extreme circumstances.

Another character that I think YA will relate to is Beck because he seems like a good guy who just can't make the right choices at all times. A lot of kids can relate to this because being a YA means you are just getting to make a lot of choices on your own, and they will more than likely not always be the right ones.

Of course, there was also the love storyline in it is well. I agree, and had the same thought, as Denise when she said it reminded her of Beauty and the Beast. I too thought how, like Beauty, Grace accepted Sam for who he was at whatever time. I think it is important to have the "happily ever after" ending sometimes because it gives youth hope that love does conquer all.

As a side note, I did a little research and found out that a company picked up the film rights for Shiver. Am I surprised? Not at all. I would enjoy seeing it because, like Twilight, I think the imagery could be really pretty. I also would like to see how Sam, Grace, and Beck are transformed from paper to film.