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Shiver
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Read Shiver
Wolves of Mercy Falls: Book 1

Shiver (2009) (edit title/settings)

by Maggie Stiefvater (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

The Cold.
Grace has spent years watching the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf -- her wolf -- watches back. He feels deeply familiar to her, but she doesn't know why.

The heat.
Sam has lived two lives. As a wolf, he keeps the silent company of the girl... read more

Summary edit see section history

Grace was attacked by wolves in the woods behind her home when she was younger. Now Grace is fascinated with them, especially one with riveting golden eyes. This wolf is Sam, the one who saved Grace in her attack. Sam has been keeping watch over Grace for the past few years but has never had... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

Grace was attacked by wolves in the woods behind her home when she was younger. Now Grace is fascinated with them, especially one with riveting golden eyes. This wolf is Sam, the one who saved Grace in her attack. Sam has been keeping watch over Grace for the past few years but has never had the courage to talk to Grace when he was human. When a boy from Grace's school gets bitten by the wolves, the towns people decide that the wolves are dangerous and need to be hunted. Sam gets shot, ending up on Grace's back deck. She takes him to the hospital, where they escape from later. Sam and Grace fall in love as they spend the little time they have together. Sam turns back into a wolf when it gets too cold, so Sam and Grace may not be together long. Sam has to figure out a way to stay human and he also has to find and teach the newly turned wolf from Grace's school the werewolves' one rule: keep the secret.

Characters edit see section history

  • Grace Brisbane: One of the two main characters of the book. About half of the chapters are written from her perspective. She is a human. Sam's love interest.
  • Sam Roth: The other main character of the book. The chapters that aren't in Grace's perspective are in his. He is a werewolf. He has a love for poetry and constantly translates his feelings into lyrics. Grace's love interest.
  • Olivia Marx: One of Grace's best friends, who loves to take pictures.
  • Jack Culpeper: A human bully who is cocky and well-known at Grace's high school. He apparently gets killed by wolves and becomes the talk of the town, but didn't actually die from the attack and was turned into a werewolf. He dies at the end when they inject the meningitis into him in the hope of it being a cure.
  • Isabel Culpeper: Jack's sister. She is pretentious and sort of a rich-kid.
  • Geoffrey Beck: Werewolf. The human leader pack leader. To Sam he is his "father."
  • Paul: Werewolf. The pack leader when they are wolves. He is the black werewolf.
  • Shelby: She-wolf with an attitude, and has a possible lust for Sam.
  • Rachel Vega: Friend to Grace and Olivia. The more outgoing one of their group. The glue that keeps the trio together.
  • Grace's Parents: Minor characters, but Sam and Grace may never have met if it wasn't for their carelessness and Grace wouldn't be as independent if it wasn't for them. They pay little attention to Grace and generally leave her to care for herself.
  • Officer Koenig: He spoke to Grace's class on becoming cops. And is also the main police officer in minennstota.
  • Ulrik: A werewolf. Speaks German and tutored Sam in German. A good friend of Beck's and Sam's.
  • John: He may sort have actually liked Grace, but not very seriously.
  • Christa: Classmate of Grace.
  • Tom Culpeper: Jack and Isabel's dad. He is noted for his love of hunting things and stuffing them as trophies.
  • Mrs. Ruminski: Grace's teacher.
  • Mr. Dario: When Sam was young, Mr. Dario was his neighbor with two mean guard dogs.
Show all 17 characters
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Quotes edit see section history

  • “You're like a song that I heard when I was a little kid but forgot I knew until I heard it again.”
    Grace
  • “I could have screamed, but I didn't. I could have fought, but I didn't. I just lay there and let it happen, watching the winter-white sky go gray above me.”
    Grace's thoughts
  • “I thought she was the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen, a tiny, bloody angel in the snow, and they were going to destroy her.”
    Sam's thoughts
  • “It would have been so easy for my lips to span the inches between our mouths. I thought I could hear the hope in her heartbeat: kiss me kiss me kiss me.”
    Sam's thoughts
  • “'Again and again, however, we know the language of love, and the little churchyard with its lamenting names and the staggeringly secret abyss in which others find their end: Again and again the two of us go out under the ancient trees, make our bed again and again between the flowers, face to face with the skies.' This is Rilke. I wish I had written it for you.”
    The note Sam left in Grace's backpack
  • “...his yellow eyes gazed at me possessively—I wondered if he realized that the way he looked at me was far more intimate than copping a feel could ever be.”
    Grace's thoughts
  • “Sam. Sam, look at me. Sam, I said, look at me, you bastard, you’re not turning into a wolf right now. Don’t you dare do this to her.”
    Isabel
  • “My lovely summer girl.”
    Sam
  • “But he was always there, watching me watching him. Never any closer to me, but never any further away.”
    Grace
  • “But criminals you can shoot, unlike a room full of juniors who won't shut up.”
    Grace
  • “Do you have a name?""Do you?"He gave a short laugh that was completely without humor but not unpleasant. "I think I like you. I'm Beck.”
    Grace and Beck
  • “Why are you so careful with me, Sam Roth?"I tried to tell her the truth. "I- It's -I'm not an animal.""I'm not afraid of you," she said.”
    Grace and Sam
  • “I just like saying Münchhausen's. It makes me think I can actually speak German.”
    Sam
  • “You're my change of skin/my summer-winter-fall/I spring to follow you/ this is loss is beautiful.”
    Sam
  • “I smelled him before I saw him, my heart instantly revving up into high gear. My wolf.”
    Grace
  • “You're an abomination to God's creation. You're cursed. You're the Devil. Where is my son? What have you done with him ?”
    Sam's Parents
  • “Peeling off my skin/ leaving just my eyes behind / You see inside my head / Still know that you are mine”
    Sam
  • “I kissed her. Just the barest brush of my lips against hers, nothing animal. Even in that moment, I deconstructed the kiss : her possible reactions to, her possible interpretations of, the way it made a shudder tighten my skin, the seconds between when I touched her lips and when she opened her eyes.”
    Sam
  • “Grace smiles at me. Her words were taunting, but her voice was gentle. "Is that all you've got ?" I touched my lips to hers again, and this time, it was a very different sort of kiss, It was six years' worth of kissing, her lips coming to life under mine, Tasting of orange and of desire.”
    Sam
  • “As the hours crept by, the afternoon sunlight bleached all the books on the shelves to pale, gilded versions of themselves and warmed the paper and ink inside the covers so that the smell of unread words hung in the air.”
    Sam
  • “Are you always this apologetic?”
    Grace
  • “I'm trying to make you think I'm a decent person. Telling you i saw you naked while I was another species does not help my case.”
    Sam
  • “"Well I guess that I failed my testosterone test then,"”
    Sam
  • “"And me holding this moment that was as fragile as a bird in my hands."”
    Sam
  • “"Spiraling through insanity together made it seem more sane."”
    Sam
  • “"And then I opened my eyes and it was just Grace and me - nothing anywhere but Grace and me - she pressing her lips together as though she were keeping my kiss inside her, and me, holding this moment that was as fragile as a bird in my hands."”
    Sam
  • “"She could've looked at the tiny miracles in front of her: my feet, my hands, my fingers, the shape of my shoulders beneath my jacket, my human body, but she only stared at my eyes. The wind whipped again, through the trees, but it had no force, no power over me. The cold bit at my fingers, but they stayed fingers. 'Grace,' I said, very softly. 'Say something.' 'Sam,' she said, and I crushed her to me."”
    Sam
  • Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
  • “‘And I want, in those silent, somehow faltering times, to be with someone who knows, or else alone. I want to reflect everything about you, and I never want to be too blind or too ancient to keep your profound wavering image with me. I want to unfold. I don’t want to be folded anywhere, because there, where I’m folded, I am a lie.’”
    Highlighted by 409 Kindle customers
  • “‘I am alone in the world, and yet not alone enough to make each hour holy. I am lowly in this world, and yet not lowly enough for me to be just a thing to you, dark and shrewd. I want my will and I want to go with my will as it moves towards action.’”
    Highlighted by 402 Kindle customers
  • And leaving you (there aren’t words to untangle it) Your life, fearful and immense and blossoming, so that, sometimes frustrated, and sometimes understanding, Your life is sometimes a stone in you, and then, a star.
    Highlighted by 322 Kindle customers
  • crashing into the trembling void stretching my hand to you losing myself to frigid regret is this fragile love a way to say good-bye
    Highlighted by 274 Kindle customers
  • You’re my change of skin / my summer-winter-fall / I spring to follow you / this loss is beautiful.
    Highlighted by 266 Kindle customers
  • ‘AGAIN AND AGAIN, HOWEVER, WE KNOW THE LANGUAGE OF LOVE, AND THE LITTLE CHURCHYARD WITH ITS LAMENTING NAMES AND THE STAGGERINGLY SECRET ABYSS IN WHICH OTHERS FIND THEIR END: AGAIN AND AGAIN THE TWO OF US GO OUT UNDER THE ANCIENT TREES, MAKE OUR BED AGAIN AND AGAIN BETWEEN THE FLOWERS, FACE TO FACE WITH THE SKIES.’ THIS IS RILKE. I WISH I HAD WRITTEN IT FOR YOU.
    Highlighted by 259 Kindle customers
  • Peeling off my skin / leaving just my eyes behind / You see inside my head / Still know that you are mine.
    Highlighted by 223 Kindle customers
  • She draws patterns on my face / These lines make shapes that can’t replace / the version of me that I hold inside / when lying with you, lying with you, lying with you.
    Highlighted by 200 Kindle customers
  • Anything’s possible in this lush rabbit hole / Is it mirror or portrait you’ve given to me? / All of these permutations of dreams will patrol / this lovely wasteland of color I see.
    Highlighted by 195 Kindle customers
  • World of words lost on the living / I take my place with the walking dead / Robbed of my voice I’m always giving / thousands of words to this nameless dread.
    Highlighted by 181 Kindle customers
Show all 37 quotes from this book

Setting & Locations edit see section history

Mercy Falls, Minnesota, the epi-center of the Shiver Trilogy, is the third character. The weather and personality of the place is just as important to the Shiver as Sam and Grace's love. Mercy Falls is an imaginary town (well, it's as real as Sam and Grace). In my head, it is located at the edge of the Boundary Waters, near the real town of Ely, Minnesota. Just south of the Canadian border, Mercy Falls, like Ely, is cold—with an average high temperature that never breaks 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
  • Boundary Wood: Forest behind Grace's backyard.
  • Duluth: Sam's hometown. Location of candy shop.
  • The Crooked Shelf: The bookstore in Duluth.
  • Grace's house: Where Grace and Sam spend most of their time together, as Grace's parent rarely spend time there.
  • Beck's House: The house Beck owns. It is used as a safe haven for the pack.

First Sentence edit see section history

I remember lying in the snow, a small red spot of warm going cold, surrounded by wolves.

Table of Contents edit see section history

There are sixty-seven chapters of varying length.

Each chapter tells the temperature, which is symbollic to Sam's life as a wolf.
For instance:


Chapter One * Grace 15 degrees F
Chapter Two * Sam 15 degrees F
Chapter Three* Grace 38 degrees F
Chapter Four* Sam 90 degrees F
Chapter Five* Grace 44 degrees F
Chapter Six* Grace 42 degrees F
Chapter Seven* Sam 42 degrees F
Chapter Eight* Grace 65 degrees F
Chapter Nine* Grace 58 degrees F
Chapter Ten* Grace 60 degrees F

and so on...

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

  • Love: (Self-explanatory.)
  • Time Is Precious: Enjoy the time you have with the ones you love for you never know when it will run out.
  • Change is uncontrollable: The seasons change, and so does Sam from human to wolf. Grace was changed by her interaction with the wolves. The idea of change versus control is recurring.
  • Wildness vs order: The Wolves are wild, Grace is very orderly but strains to hear "the call of the wild."

Series & Lists edit see section history

This is book 1 of 3 in Wolves of Mercy Falls. (standard series)

Followed by Linger.

This book is in 2011-2012 Iowa High School Book Award. (authoritative list)
This book is in Rainy Day Books (12 Best Books of 2009). (community list)

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Maggie Stiefvater (Author)

Other Contributors:

  1. Christopher Stengel (Designer) - Designer at Scholastic.
  2. David Levithan (Editor)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Scholastic Press, an Imprint of Scholastic Inc.
Country: United States of America
Publication Date: August 2009
ISBN: 9780545123266
Page Count: 390

Awards edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: PZ7.S855625 Sh 2009
  • Dewey: 813.54

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Young Adults

There is a lot of kissing in this book. May not be acceptable for kids younger than 12.

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

Movie Connections edit see section history

  • Shiver (IMDb): Scheduled to release in 2012. Unique Features is the production company.

More Books Like This edit see section history

   
  • Eternal
  • Moonlight
  • Twilight
  • The Time Traveler's Wife
  • Fallen
  • Firelight
  • Graceling

Books Influenced by This Book edit see section history

   
  • Linger
  • Forever

Books Cited by This Book edit see section history

   
  • Bel Canto

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