Review: SHIVER

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
Book 1 of The The Wolves of Mercy Falls Trilogy
Read by Jenna Lamia and David Ledoux

Genre: urban fantasy, YA
Format: MP3 audiobook

About Shiver:

For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf—her wolf—is a chilling presence she can't seem to live without. Meanwhile, Sam has lived two lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the protection of the pack, and the silent company of a fearless girl.

Source: Info in the About Shiver was taken from the author's website at http://www.maggiestiefvater.com/novels.php#wolves on 26/06/2011.

FTC Disclosure: This audiobook was downloaded for free from AudioBookSync at http://www.audiobooksync.com on 25/06/2011. No compensation received for this review.

Review:

This is the first audiobook I've heard that has two narrators. And for this book, this technique works very well indeed! I find that the narrators become intrinsically important in the book experience, so, if the narrator(s) have a heavy accent and hard to understand, I abandon that audiobook. The book probably was good but I just couldn't listen to that narrator as I could only make out few sentences. With Jenna Lamia and David Ledoux, the words are distinct to my ears and the intonation were just right. It makes the book experience a listening pleasure!

A feature about this book which I really appreciate as a reader is that this book have a well-structured story. You have a beginning and an end. A clear central dilemma and the story ends with a satisfying resolution to that dilemma. I like that rather than just a mish mash of events and characters which are loosely related and somebody slapped an ending to. I generally wouldn't buy that author ever again. Maggie Stiefvater is clearly not that kind of author!

This book started out slow. But I persevered and after a while the story grew on me. This audiobook is in 9 parts... by Part 2, I started to like the story, though I scoffed at it at the start. I think that gives kudos to the story telling quality, that the author was able to make me like something I scoffed at and was quite skeptical of the world building to begin with. Another warning about this book, be prepared with a box of tissues when you start reading/listening to it. Good thing I was alone in the house or I would have looked a real bonkers crying by myself... or not... depending on who saw me, I guess... And at the end of it, I wanted to read the next book straight away to see how the story progressed. The story ended with a good resolution to the central dilemma, but it also tantalizingly pointed to exciting things to happen in the next book. Good thing I have Linger in my TBR shelf.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4
Character development = 4.5
World Building = 5
Story Structure = 5
Ending = 4
Cover art = 2
Narrators = 4.5

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 cherries


The Wolves of Mercy Falls series:

*This bit was added after realizing that not everybody might have been to Maggie Stiefvater's facebook:
Please note that Book 4 cover is not real, I used it as a stand-in as it doesn't have a cover yet.... mmmm.... it doesn't exist yet (am optimistic, especially after having listened to Shiver). Source of image is here: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150252067999466&set=a.414591764465.207553.412830324465.