Forever by Maggie Stiefvater
The end of a series is always bitter sweet. I feel like I’m saying goodbye to a sweet friendship that I have come to love over the time that it takes to read the books. I started with Shiver, not knowing anything about it, except that the literary blogging world was going insane talking about it. Every blogger was reading it and loving it. So I picked it up, then I waited for Linger, when it came out, again all the rage on the blogosphere, then I waited again, finally Forever is here.
Grace has now been a wolf for two months. Two months that Sam has not been a wolf. Sam has been under investigation for Grace’s disappearance and maybe even murder. Sam has been walking around trying to act like nothing is wrong, when everyone he has ever known and loved is now a wolf in the woods outside his adopted father’s home. Sam is displaced and going through all of these trials without Grace and Beck. He has Cole, the suicidal rock star who spends all of his waking hours trying to be like his dad the scientist and find a cure for the werewolf issue. Even though Sam did not shift for the first time in 10ish years, he is still is not living without Grace.
Of course this is a book that you have to remove all logic and just read. There is no infection that is acting like malaria and makes you turn into a wolf during the cold months of the year. But, if you can look past that, this is a great story. One of love, passion, friendship, and a world of asking questions even when it hurts and it’s hard to hear the answer.
I have heard many people say that they did not enjoy this book or even the one preceding it (Linger) as much as Shiver the original book. I can appreciate their comments and as a lover of books and literature, I will have to respectfully disagree. The magic of the first book was something of another world. It was magical, it was moving, and it had a beautiful ending. The second book still had the magic, but it didn’t have that spark that the first did because Sam and Grace were already in love and that was what was so great about Shiver, the love story. Now here comes Linger it’s all about figuring out what’s going on, what’s causing this and how can we stop it. Grace has had some of Sam, now she wants it all, marriage, family, everything. I can see why Shiver was everyone’s favorite, but Linger had some great stuff in it and Forever was a great end to the story. The way I see it is that I love these characters. Sam, Grace, Isabel, and Cole all of them have a special place in my heart and I think that is why I have nothing bad thing to say about the books, it’s because I love these fictional friends.
Stiefvater has a way with words that I have been in awe of since Shiver. She uses analogies like they are a long-time friend of hers and they don’t even mind being used by her because of their special relationship. One of my favorite lines is about the middle of the book. Grace has recently shifted back to human and she wakes in Sam’s bedroom before him for the first time ever. She walks to the basement with the coffee pot and looks around Beck’s library and just visually takes in the room. She sees the tidy shelves of books and guesses that there must be over one thousand books in the library and in her head she makes this comment. “I wanted a library like this by the time I was Beck’s age. Not THIS library. A cave of words that I’d made myself. I didn’t know if that would be possible now.” I just think the way Stiefvater words this idea is so beautiful. A cave of words that I’d made myself. It’s a true enough statement. I love inheriting books, but my most precious books are the ones that speak to me and maybe no one else likes them or reads them, but for this time and this place in my life, I loved these words and this book and it spoke volumes to me. I can see what Grace dreams of, a library of her own that she has put together. Love it!
As discussed in the previous Shiver blogs, these books are very emotional for me. I have rolled my eyes, laughed, and cried with every one of the characters. This series takes you on such a rollercoaster ride of emotion in such a short time that I hang on every word.
Well I guess that is the end of this blog. Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it. What did you think of the ending? What do you think happened if there would have been one more chapter?
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