If you haven't read Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater, this review may or may not be good for you. Just a warning before we move on.
We left off where we were in Shiver. It was a happy ending in that book. Girl meets wolf. Wolf turns into boy who loves girl. Girl loves boy back. Neither of them want him being a wolf anymore. They find a cure, he doesn't die, the end. See? Happy ending.
Linger goes over ground that gets a little deeper into our characters Grace and Sam with also covering the mysterious rock star hottie, Cole and the uppity up Isabel.
Sam and Grace are together. No more wolfing out for Sam. No more almost getting shot by Isabel's father when he's a wolf. None of that whatsoever. But can it all really be true? Is it where it will all end? Just the normal fairytale ending for Grace and Sam? Not when Cole makes his appearance and wants to be a wolf. He is just dying to get out of his human skin and shift, but there is something wrong. He can't. He's reckless and he wants to do that in his wolf suit. Isabel, well, she's just Isabel.
One of the favorite parts for me in this story was Cole. He added more rebellion and a new face with unknowns into the story. For most of the story I thought he was just a crazy rock star drug addict that needed his head screwed on again, but in the correct direction when it was done. However, as I read more, I liked him more. He seemed better, more conscious of his decisions and the roads he took and how he got to where he was at that point. He didn't seem so whiny, but more longing to be the wolf he wanted to be. Cole was a bit more feral than the rest of the characters in the story--although Isabel is close to being feral without being a wolf at all.
We learned to love Sam and Grace in the last story. However in this one, I still loved Sam and Grace albeit Grace was growing roots in rebellion against everything she was and her parents, and Sam, well, he was the same Sam from before. Cute, shaggy hair, song writing, shy Sam.
The last book just made me hate Isabel. I mean, REALLY HATE HER! She is not one of my favorite characters written (up there with Catherine Linton--the first one--from Wuthering Heights). In Linger, though, we actually see where she comes from. What her family life is like and how she copes without her brother when he died. I gained more sympathy for her character and could see a bit more--not entirely and I believe that was on purpose--of who Isabel really was and why she chooses to cope with her life the way she does in her attitude toward others.
Maggie Stiefvater created these characters and I do love them all. Like I said, Cole is my favorite more than Sam now at this point. But I still love them all. I feel as if when I am reading them and their story that they are just in the room with me acting it out for me to watch. They seem so real through Maggie's poetic lyrics from Sam and even her writing has a poetic edge to it. It's a nice, real rhythm that she brings into her characters and into the story. Also, she has great one-liners in the story that made me laugh and have to reread them over and over again to keep me laughing. And they never skip a beat and go off tangent in the story. I love that about Maggie's writing. It's never off beat. It may make your heart skip a beat, but she is never ever off that beat.
At points, Maggie made me want to cry. I wanted to cry for Grace. I wanted to cry for Sam. For Cole. And for Isabel. Especially Isabel. She's the one that I think needed the hugs and the love more than anyone else in the story. But although Maggie made me want to cry for them all, I didn't. Close, but not there yet.
The story on this one compare to Shiver, was much better in the way of parental involvement and showing the relationship that had been severed between Grace and her parents. How much they tried to become part of her life when they realized how serious her and Sam were becoming. And even when Grace starts to have problems of her own without anyone else's help, her parents now step in between her and Sam and really ignite that flame that becomes Grace--The Rebellious.
I say if you liked Shiver, Linger will want you to get Forever (the third installment) immediately. Everything in Linger makes you keep on going through the story. I loved this story. It's that kind that makes everything in my own real world feel a little like the world of Mercy Falls, Minnesota for a few more hours after finishing the story. And to want to keep it that way. Kudos to you Maggie Stiefvater for giving me a new world I can escape into!
