Linger (Wolves of Mercy Falls, Book 2) - Hardcover

Stiefvater, Maggie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0545123283 ISBN 13: 9780545123280

Publisher: Scholastic Press, 2010

Synopsis

In Maggie Stiefvater's 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 a very dangerous secret about her own well-being.

For Sam, this means grappling with his werewolf past - and figuring out a way to survive in the future.

Add into the mix a new wolf named Cole, whose own past has the potential to destroy the whole pack. And Isabelle, who already lost her brother to the wolves - and is nonetheless drawn to Cole.

At turns harrowing and euphoric, Linger is a spellbinding love story that explores both sides of love-the light and the dark, the warm and the cold-in a way you will never forget.

About this title

About the Author

Maggie Stiefvater is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the novels Shiver, Linger, and Forever. She is also the author of Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception and Ballad: A Gathering of Faerie. She lives in Virginia with her husband and their two children.

Reviews

Gr 9 Up–The wolves of Mercy Falls return in this sequel to Shiver (Scholastic, 2009), and familiar characters mingle with more recent recruits into the Minnesota werewolf pack. Sam, now cured of his werewolf affliction, is adjusting to year-round life as a human. His girlfriend, Grace, suffers from headaches and other symptoms that may be related to a childhood wolf bite. When her parents discover Sam sleeping in her bed, they ground her and threaten to keep the two apart permanently. Tremendous angst and declarations that parents just don't understand ensue. Meanwhile Isabel, whose brother did not survive the meningitis cure that saved Sam, feels a strong connection with Cole St. Clair, one of the newest members of the pack. In his old life, Cole was the lead singer of a rock band. This volatile bad boy is a welcome foil to Sam, who is sulky this time around. The addition of Isabel and Cole as narrators dilutes the intensity of Grace and Sam's relationship, and the spark between Isabel and Cole remains underdeveloped. The tantalizing possibility of Cole's true identity being exposed also deserves more exploration. The cliff-hanger ending suggests that the author will cover this territory in a future installment. Still, Stiefvater's slow-perk style of crafting suspense builds to a satisfying boil in the final pages. This novel works better as a sequel than as a stand-alone read, but it's still highly recommended for fans of Shiver and the blockbuster supernatural romance genre.Amy Pickett, Ridley High School, Folsom, PA
© Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Sam, who spent most of his life as a werewolf, has undergone an unlikely cure and no longer transitions between fur and skin as the temperature changes from cold to hot. This should be a happy time for Sam and true-love Grace, but just as he begins to trust his new human life, Grace feels her humanity slipping away. Sam's focus is split between worry for Grace and his role as caretaker of the werewolf pack, which for the first time in years includes new members. Stiefvater continues what she started in Shiver (2009), and readers will definitely want to read it before diving into this equally appealing sequel. As in the opener, this story's tension stems from watching sympathetic characters cope with what appears to be a hopeless situation. Although this was resolved to a point by the first book's ending, this follow-up flips that resolution on its head and sets up a situation that leaves readers hanging in anticipation for the next installment. Grades 8-11. --Cindy Welch

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

From Linger

Mercy Falls, Minnesota looked different when you knew you'd be human for the rest of your life. Before it had been a place that only existed in the heat of summer, concrete sidewalks and leaves curved up toward the sun, everything smelling of warm asphalt and dissipating truck exhaust.

Now, as the spring branches shared seldom-seen firlls of tender pink- it was where I belonged.

In the months since I'd lost my lupine skin, I'd tried to learn how to be a boy again. I'd gotten my old job back at the Crooked Shelf, surrounded by new workds and the sound of pages turning. I'd traded my inherited SUV, full of the scent of Beck and my life with the wolves, for a Volkswagen Golf just big enough for me and Grace and my guitar. I tried not to flinch when I felt the cold rush in through a suddenly open door. I tried to remember I was no longer alone. At night, Grace and I crept into her room and I folded myself against her body, breathing in the smell of my new life and matching my heartbeat to hers.

If my chest caught when I heard the wolves' slow howls in the wind, at least I had the balm of this simple, ordinary life to console me. I could look forward to years of Christmases with this girl in my arms, the privilege of growing old in this unfamiliar skin of mine. I knew that. I had everything.

Edition details

• Publisher: Scholastic Press
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0545123283
• ISBN 13: 9780545123280
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368