Linger Review

Title:  Linger
Author:  Maggie Stiefvater
Genre:  YA
Pages: 368

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 into 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. 

My Take:  Another incredibly well written book by Maggie Stiefvater.  She uses symbolism and allegories to describe much deeper human struggles.  This time, a recurring theme is birds.  But the birds are not free to fly wherever they please.  They are somehow tethered.  Interesting.

Redemption and forgiveness is another idea that floats its way throughout the book.  The characters each have their pasts and their regrets.  Each wants to make things right but wonder how to forgive themselves for the pain they may have caused others.  How does forgiveness of others work?  Sam's ghosts are more apparent as he tries to answer the question of "Now what?"  

Once again, I enjoyed the story development, the relationship development and the dialogue.   Cole is a new player on the stage and I find him to be quite interesting.  Not completely likeable but not someone I hate, either.  More of a person I really enjoy having on the stage.  He chose to life of a wolf so he could escape his life, his feelings, his regrets.  Unfortunately, the wolf just isn't taking.  This is forcing Cole to be more human than he has been in years.  In the meantime, I'm still liking Isabel, although she seems much more fragile in this book.  I wish I was privy to more of Grace and Sam's relationship development but the reader is not.


Once again, the author gives the reader credit for being intelligent.  She doesn't specifically connect the dots for the symbolism and allows the reader to draw conclusions alone.  I like having an intelligent author who makes an assumption about her audience.