Review: Forever by Maggie Stiefvater

Forever by Maggie Stiefvater

Hardcover, 386 pages

Published July 12th 2011 by Scholastic, Inc.
Source: ARC, borrowed from friend
Buy the book: Amazon : B&N : Goodreads

From Goodreads:

The thrilling conclusion to #1 bestselling Shiver trilogy from Maggie Stievater
In Maggie Stiefvater's SHIVER, Grace and Sam found each other. In LINGER, they fought to be together. Now, in FOREVER, the stakes are even higher than before. Wolves are being hunted. Lives are being threatened. And love is harder and harder to hold on to as death comes closing in.

Forever was one of my most anticipated books for this year. The first book in the series, Shiver, was a random buy for me last year and it hooked its claws into me. The storyline was different and Stiefvater's writing style was unique. My hopes for the series fell a little when the second book, Linger, left me feeling a little empty at its conclusion. I liked where the storyline was going, but was not so sure about the way it was unfolding exactly. In many ways, I looked to Forever to be the redeemer for me and I think it lived up to my expectations.

The plot picks up where Linger left off, throwing right back into the story. A lot of background information is given throughout the first part of the book. This helps explain a lot of decisions in previous book, but does slow it down some. There were a couple of spots I just glanced through and plugged on. After that though, the story kept me interested every step of the way. The action in this book is breathtaking. As I was reading I could feel the events happening as if I was there. However, then it just drops out of that and straight into a cool status. And that is it. The book ends on this odd cool note. After re-reading the ending again, I think I can see why it ended like it did. It leaves room for the reader's imagination to take over. Do I like this? No, not really. I like more conclusive endings that leave little open for discussion and this is not one of them. Could there be a spin off from this series? In my opinion, definitely. Will there be one? One day we may see, but Stiefvater has said this is it for Mercy Falls.

I learned a lot about the characters in this book. Some of their new information helped sway me in one direction or another on actually liking them. Grace and Sam have always been likeable to me. They have a slightly odd relationship, but it definitely works for them. Cole and Isabel though, I've always teetered back and forth on them. This book helped define their fate with me. They both absolutely shine in this book. By the end I wanted to shake their hands, they were that impressive. There were others that did not shine though. I had always liked Beck because what he had done for Sam over the years. Unfortunately, some of his decisions come to life and I really second guessed a lot about him after that.

Overall the book was an excellent read. It did not have the "Wow." factor that I had anticipated, but it truly did liven up the series as needed. It makes you understand the characters more and gives you the action that binds you to the story. The slightly slow start and abrupt ending are the two main things that make me refrain from going higher with this book.