Book Review: Linger by Maggie Stiefvater.

Product details:
Publisher: Scholastic UK.
Paperback, 416 pages.
Release date: July 20th 2010.
Ages: Young Adult.
Rating: 3 out of 5.
Series: The Wolves of Mercy Falls.

In 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 dangerous secrets. For Sam, it means grappling with his werewolf past ... and figuring out a way to survive the future. But just when they manage to find happiness, Grace finds herself changing in ways she could never have expected...

I was all prepared to fall in love with Linger, the second book in Maggie Stiefvater’s Wolves of Mercy Falls series, and while I ultimately found it to be a worthwhile read, I encountered more than a few stumbling blocks along the way…

Just like Shiver, I found Linger to be quite slow moving. This worked for me in Shiver as I loved getting to know the characters of Sam and Grace, and seeing their relationship develop, but I felt as though the storyline dragged a little here. Linger unfolds through the voices of four different narrators, so along with Sam and Grace, we now hear the voices of snarky Isabel Culpeper, who also featured in Shiver, and hot newcomer, rock star turned werewolf, Cole St. Clair. These two are pretty strong characters, and while I liked the four-person viewpoint, and felt it was very well handled, I thought that Sam and Grace were pushed into the background a little due mainly to the introduction of Cole. I found Cole to be an extremely compelling character - he’s an edgy bad boy with a dark past, and for me, I’m afraid, Sam seemed a little mundane by comparison. Sam is very sweet, but I always like those bad boys!

Sam and Grace didn‘t work for me in this novel like they did in Shiver. I found that most of the time, those two did not act or speak like a teenage couple in love. They are saccharine sweet to the point where I almost fell into a sugar coma. While their relationship was quite passionate in Shiver, they now talk of poetry, coffee pots and marriage. Yes, I understand why focusing on the future is very important to them with the struggles they are facing, but ultimately their behaviour in this book was not endearing to me. The pair’s behaviour then doesn’t explain why Grace’s parents, notably laidback and bohemian in the first book, now decide to become ultra protective of her, while at the same time taking an intense dislike to Sam. This was one of several plot holes in the book that I wasn‘t happy with- another being that Cole is presented to us as a famous rock star, and yet goes largely unrecognised by the teenage trio of Sam, Grace and Isabel.

If it sounds like I’m nitpicking, I’m not. I had high expectations for this book, and I’ve seen a lot of five-starred reviews for it, which led me to believe that I would fall in love with it too. I’m very fond of the first book in this series, and while I also enjoyed reading this one, due largely to Steifvater’s special way with words, at times the storyline just did not work for me. I found it very predictable in parts, and I personally feel that it was just missing that something special. That said, the ending of the book does present some surprises, and sets things up nicely for the final book in this trilogy Forever, released 2011, which I am looking forward to. I think this will be a good one, where Stiefvater weaves everything together beautifully. One things for sure, it’s not going to be an easy ride for Sam and Grace from this point on!