Review: Linger by Maggie Stiefvater

Linger by Maggie Stiefvater
Series: The Wolves of Mercy Falls #2
Published by Scholastic
Published on: July 13, 2010
Genres: Werewolves, Young Adult
Pages: 369
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased

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The astonishing #1 New York Times bestseller.

In Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver, Grace and Sam found each other. Now, in Linger, they must fight to be together. For Grace, this means defying her parents and keeping a very dangerous secret about her own well-being. For Sam, this means grappling with his werewolf past . . . and figuring out a way to survive into the future. Add into the mix a new wolf named Cole, whose own past has the potential to destroy the whole pack. And Isabelle, who already lost her brother to the wolves . . . and is nonetheless drawn to Cole.

Maggie Stiefvater’s lyrical writing style is back in full force in this second installment. I didn’t fall completely in love with Shiver as many others did but Stiefvater’s style is so remarkable that I just had to file the whole series under “must read”. Linger did not let me down. In fact, I loved this book! The addition of a new character and two new points of view made all of the difference. Shiver was good but Linger was better!

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely adore Sam and Grace but the story didn’t revolve exclusively around them this time around and for that I was grateful. The two love birds have sort of switched shoes in this book and I found that the role reversal suited their characters better. For the hardcore fans, there’s still plenty of Sam and Grace goodness and their relationship is stronger than ever. Their love story is hopelessly romantic. Stiefvater manages to convince even me, a skeptical cynic, that happily ever afters are possible.

The new character, Cole St. Clair, stole the show for me. He’s definitely my new favorite in this series. I wasn’t a fan of him at first but he quickly won me over. He’s a bad guy struggling to be good, or is it the other way around? It was hard to tell at times which is one of the elements that makes his character so intriguing! Cole is a famous rockstar looking to escape the spotlight and his past by joining the pack. I could totally relate to the way he describes the benefits of being an animal who relies on instinct vs the downfalls of humanity. We’ve all wanted to crawl into a hole and hide at one point or another in our lives. Cole puts those feelings into words and the outcome is incredible.

At first, I thought that having the story told from four different points of view was going to be confusing. However, that wasn’t the case and Stiefvater pulled it off beautifully. The different narratives really allow readers to get into each character’s mind and to know the nitty gritty details of their inner workings. My only complaint about this novel was the lack of werewolf appearances. After all, this series is called The Wolves of Mercy Falls.

Linger is a piece of art in book format. Stiefvater’s lyrical writing style is unparalleled. The content is chock full of emotion and the words flow so well that you’ll find yourself on the last page before realizing that you just read the entire novel in one sitting. There’s also a monster of a cliff hanger ending that’ll leave you impatiently awaiting the release of Forever later on this summer. If, like me, you weren’t completely sold on this series after the first book; I encourage you to give Linger a try. You won’t be disappointed!

The Wolves of Mercy Falls
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