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:
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.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.
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.
