Book Review - Linger

I should have done this last week but I didn't so I'm getting it done now while I have some time.

Title: Linger
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Date: 26/7/2010 PM
Source: Bought
Description: Their eyes, human eyes in wolf skulls, remind me of water: the clear blue of water reflecting the spring sky, the brown of a brook churning with rainfall, the green of the lake in summer as the algae begins to bloom, the gray of a snow-choked river. It used to be only Sam's yellow eyes that watched me from between the rain-soaked birches, but no, I feel the weight of the entire pack's gaze. The weight of things known, things unsaid. (Taken from Goodreads)
My Review: It's needless to say that I was *really* super-duper excited to read this after how amazing Shiver was. I devoured the whole book in a few hours but when I finished it I have to say that I preferred Shiver. Now before you right me off as a lunatic (which you'd be quite within your rights to do btw) I'll first explain that it's not that I didn't like Linger, on the contrary I really enjoyed it but there was one rather major thing which annoyed the heck outta me and is the reason why I couldn't give the book 5 stars. 


But first I'll talk about what I liked. Of course Maggie's writing is simply gorgeous like before, she's got a way with description that really puts you right there in Mercy Falls and inside the character's heads. Like I did last time I have to mention how freaking wonderful Sam is, seeing his happiness at being able to spend the winter with Grace as a human is so sweet to read about, his joy at being able to play in the snow without fear of turning back into a wolf makes me smile so much. I also liked how he really stepped up as a leader with Beck being stuck as a wolf and dealt with Cole and Victor and their crazy wolfy problems.


Now I have to rant a little about my one major tiff with this book - Grace's Parents. Seriously what the *hell* was up with them?! In Shiver they were the airy-fairy, insanely hands-off non-parents who didn't care one way or the other that Grace might be doing stuff they don't know about, but in the few months between Shiver and Linger they seem to have morphed into psycho-dictatorial parent-bots. What the feck? What is it about Sam that makes them go from being all nice to him to thinking he's Satan-spawned or something? Just because he's a few months older than Grace doesn't mean he's out only to steal her virtue and then leave her. For crying out loud the guy has been in love with her since he was freaking 12!! I find the whole pissiness about Sam and Grace sleeping together a bit daft because obviously over in Britain the age of consent is 16 not 18 so it would be perfectly alright for them to get all hot 'n' heavy over here so long as they were being sensible with protection and whatnot. And what boggles my mind is how Grace's parents seem determined to ignore the fact that their daughter is the epitome of practicality and would never be quite so stupid as to enter into a physical relationship without taking precautions and knowing that it was what she wanted. 


The fact that her parent's have basically relied on her all these years makes me think that they were feeling threatened by Sam because he represents the future and that Grace will eventually move out and they decided to react like five-year olds who've had their old favourite teddy taken off them. Banning Grace from seeing Sam was such a ridiculous thing to do since their relationship was not having an adverse effect on her school work and it's not like he was keeping her from her friends since she still hung out with Rachel and Isabel, and Olivia is a bloody wolf for all of the book (another slight bugbear, why no mention of Olivia after the scene with her brother?). Their behaviour was totally unreasonable for the seriousness of the situation and was guaranteed to backfire by making Grace act out against them. 


Ok I've complained about that for long enough now. Overall I really enjoyed Linger and I'm super excited to read Forever cos I really want to know what's gonna happen to Grace and Sam. I hope there's more of the other wolves in the last book since we've only ever seen them through Sam's memories, also I want something nasty to happen to Isabel's father because, let's be honest he *really* deserves it :P


My Rating: 4.5 Stars out of 5


So there you go, it's taken me two or three sittings spaced quite far apart to finish it but it's finally done! Now I've just got 12 millions more reviews to do before I'm caught up. Joking I'm *never* gonna be able to catch up on everything I've read but I'm gonna try and review several of my recent reads e.g. By Midnight, Emma and Something Like Fate (I read that last night after my sister finished it)


So I'm gonna haul myself off to bed and try and finish Endless Summer before my sister has a coronary (she's become such a demanding little book monster!).
LadyV