| Title | : | Forever (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #3) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 390 |
| Publication | : | First published July 12, 2011 |
| Awards | : | Goodreads Choice Award Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction and for Favorite Book and for Goodreads Author (2011) |
When Sam met Grace, he was a wolf and she was a girl. Eventually he found a way to become a boy, and their love moved from curious distance to the intense closeness of shared lives.
now.
That should have been the end of their story. But Grace was not meant to stay human. Now she is the wolf. And the wolves of Mercy Falls are about to be killed in one final, spectacular hunt.
forever.
Sam would do anything for Grace. But can one boy and one love really change a hostile, predatory world? The past, the present, and the future are about to collide in one pure moment--a moment of death or life, farewell or forever.
Forever (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #3) Reviews
-
This is probably the hardest review I’ve ever had to write.
Shiver tears my heart in two every single time I read it. I felt
Linger had its problems, mostly in the diluted narrative with the addition of two more POVs, but it was still extremely moving and I wanted to see what happened next. How strange it is, then, to read Forever and experience nothing even close to the emotions the first two books inspired.
The Wolves of Mercy Falls series is love story told almost like a fairy tale. Aside from the bittersweet urgency of the romance, one of the most poignant elements in the books to me has been the wolves’ desperate struggle to hang onto their human selves. The knowledge that they will lose every shard of awareness of who they are moves me unbearably, and Sam and Grace together are unlike any other couple I’ve ever read.
I am far less interested in Isabel and Cole. I like them just fine, even though they are both just typical YA characters that can be found in 100 other novels. If they had an entirely different book to themselves I probably would like them better—but they don’t. They’re stuck right in the middle of Sam and Grace’s story, and the intrusiveness of losing momentum in every other chapter as the story switched to their first person POVs became an increasingly frustrating experience. This is the end. There are no more books. I don’t give a shit about Isabel’s ongoing daddy issues or Cole’s woe-is-me rock star problems , all of which are rehashes from the previous book, I care about what happens to Sam and Grace. The story is even further fragmented by the addition of yet another POV, which was completely unnecessary and added nothing to the story.
There are too many starts and stops that interrupt the flow of the action, there is a scene of shocking ugliness that I thought was completely out of place, and the actual resolution to the problem seemed to be dragged out far too long. I also didn’t find a single quote that I wanted to pull. I normally am rapturous over the author’s prose as well, but even the language in Forever didn’t move me as much. Sam and Grace also seemed like shadows of their former selves, and I found myself becoming impatient with the way their narratives dawdled over insignificant details.
The only scene that really moved me—yes, the only scene—comes very early in the book when Sam is racing to pick up Grace after she’s turned human again for the first time and the awful feelings he experiences . There are a few good scenes later in the novel that involve some sacrifices, but I read them with a fairly detached attitude. I’m not sure if I’d just become so numb by that time that I wasn’t able to fully immerse myself again, or whether they really just didn’t hold the same urgency and depth that I've come to expect from this series.
What I found most disappointing, however, is that so many scenes did not ring emotionally true. If you’ve been separated from the love of your life for months, the first thing you would do when you become human again is to findhimfindhimfindhim and hang on tight before you lose yourself again. It’s not to wander out to have a random meaningless conversation with someone else. (And he would probably not have let you out of his sight to begin with.) The reunion scene was incredibly distant and anticlimactic, and the actual ending was even more of an emotional dodge. Everything honestly felt as though it was done for sake of a writing technique rather than something that was really true to the characters--or true to human nature.
Readers who are invested in Isabel and Cole’s story will probably like this one much better than I did. But for me, this story has always been about the boy who became a wolf in winter and the girl who loved him. I am unbearably saddened that their beautiful story has become so diluted and so…mundane. It’s possible a future re-reading may make me look upon this book with a different perspective, but frankly that’s pretty hard to believe at this point. I bleeding heart love Shiver and will always be grateful for the beauty and wisdom and romance it brought into my life. But I will probably be much happier if I forever look upon it as a standalone novel that is perfect in and of itself.
It breaks my heart to do this, but this is a 2.5 star book for me.
This review also appears in
The Midnight Garden. -
The Written Review
New week,
New BookTube Video - all about the best (and worst) literary couples
Book 1: Boy loves Girl. Girl loves Wolf. Wolf turns into Boy. Girl Loves Boy. Boy hides tragic secret(TM). Girl saves Boy's life.
Book 2: Boy is a permanent Boy (no Wolf). Girl hides a tragic(TM) secret. Boy saves Girl's Life. Girl is now Wolf.
Book 3:Boy loves Girl. Girl is Wolf. Boy pines over wolf-girl. Wolf-girl pines over Boy. Very tragic(TM), plus a wolf-hunt.
Essentially, this one was good - a definite uptick from the previous - but it still didn't grip me the way I wanted it too.
I wanted the all-consuming experience of reading a book past midnight because you don't need sleep, you need answers.
And what I got was...a book that I could pick up, put down, return to the library and check it out months later without much fanfare.
I think it was (in part) because of the frustrating side characters - I get that the parents are supposed to misunderstand the teens and provide much of the backlash for the book...but by-Gawd...did Stiefvater have to make them THAT dumb?
In addition...I don't think my mind can comprehend the sheer amount of pining present between all the characters.
There's the pining between Sam and Grace - separated by the werewolfism and teenage angst.
Then the pining between Cole and Isabelle - the couple that can never be.
Then there's Grace and Isabelle's pining over lost friendships.
Then Cole and Sam's pining - for each other's lives.
Good. Lawd.
My brain couldn't handle it.
So. Mother-effing done.
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Let me say this.. Just because I didn't like this book doesn't mean I'm telling everyone not to read it. Everyone has different tastes and different opinions. And if your opinion is to come on MY review and tell me how awesome this book is and that I got it wrong. No I'm pretty sure I read this book correctly ..twice in fact. So keep to yourself, or write your own 5 star review so I can go on it and write "omg!! You are wrong this book it terrible!! You have to hate it to bc I do!"
Giving it two stars but I will probably drop it down to one the more I think about this book and it's horrible ending. Did she forget to finish the book? Is there a chapter that they accidentally didn't put in the end? I felt like shiver and linger are two totally separate books from this one .. The first two were so good what the hell was this ?? I want my money back...and the more I think about this bull crap about the reader having to decide what happens in the end the more pissed off I get. No Maggie S I do not want to decide what happens in the end!! I want an ending..If I wanted to use my imagination I wouldnt have paid for a book! -
“People shouldn't have to earn kindness. They should have to earn cruelty.”
I think what kept me from reading Forever years ago, was my fear that something depressing would happen to Grace and Sam. But most of all I didn't want the series to end, because I loved it so much. Some books just make you feel happy from inside out, they give you the feeling of being home between their pages. That's what The Wolves of Mercy Falls is for me. And this last part of the series was as good as the first and second one.
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"It was a little after midnight, and I was trying to sleep mostly out of self-defense."
My initial rating for this book was 4.5 stars. Then, while I was trying to write a review (I say trying because all my attempts have been pretty unsuccessful by my standards), I just went ahead and changed it to 5. It felt like the right thing to do. I suppose it would be easy enough to start pointing out flaws, complain about this and that, compare this book to
Linger and especially
Shiver, but I don’t want to do any of that. Not to Forever. The truth is, even if it didn’t have as many breathtaking moments as the two books before it, I was still very happy with how it was done. Besides, Maggie Stiefvater deserved better than that. What she gave me with this trilogy cannot be measured in stars. It cannot be taken apart or put into words. I’d always believed that there’s nothing beyond language, but this time, words really are inadequate. And, my dear GoodReaders, you have no idea how much it costs me to admit it.
Maggie Stiefvater has a way of making me see beauty in the simplest things. She doesn’t create it, she just uses her words to point out what was already there and show it in a completely different light. Never before have I stopped to notice the quiet sadness in the most mundane, repetitive moments but it doesn’t surprise me at all that it was Stiefvater who pulled that particular heartstring and woke me up. And I do feel awakened, at least for now.
All these characters started as one thing, and ended up as their true selves. People keep talking about Cole and how much he’s grown in Forever, but Grace did too, just in a less obvious way. Cole found purpose, Isabel found softness, Sam found determination and Grace found completion. Honestly, what more can you ask?
"It was like I’d unfolded all my paper crane memories and found something unfamiliar printed on them. Somehow along the way, hope had been folded into one of those birds. My whole life, I had thought that my story was, again and again: Once upon a time, there was a boy, and he had to risk everything to keep what he loved. But the real story was: Once upon a time, there was a boy, and his fear ate him alive. I was done being afraid."
While rereading these books will certainly not be the same as reading them for the first time, the very fact that I will be rereading them, and probably many times at that, gives me a reason not to say goodbye right now. I can never do this book justice. I will never be able to write anything worthy of Stiefvater’s beautiful prose, so I might as well stop trying. After 1150 pages full of emotions and truth, all I can say is: Thank you. -
YOU GUYS.
With a release date of July 12, I feel that's about all I can say. So since I can't talk about the book, I'd like to take a minute to talk about the acknowledgments section, where Maggie says goodbye to Mercy Falls and the world she created there. It was one of my favorite worlds to read in over the past few years, since first picking up Shiver on a whim at Book Expo in 2009.
And when she wrote about Sam and Grace's relationship, and her statement to readers who always ask how they can find their brand of loyal, enduring love, I couldn't help but get a huge fat emo tear in my eye. I didn't grow up surrounded by healthy relationships and have had to push and shove my way into becoming an adult who can recognize and participate fully in one. So it's no surprise I have a soft spot for working with older tweens and teens who aren't either in that position either. To have a book that I can place into their hands without being totally obvious what I'm trying to point out to them is powerful and I know from those few sentences alone that Maggie gets the importance of it too. I've got so much respect for her and love following her travels or hearing where her next big talk will be.
Over the past 48 hours, I've had a hard time trying to explain the series to those who haven't heard of or read it. It's funny to hear myself get choked up with enthusiasm while talking about what is -- essentially - a werewolf book. But the cathartic response I had to finishing the series on my day off from work bathing in the late afternoon sunlight as the wind rustled through the trees was so strong that I'm sure it will stay with me a long time. -
** SPOILERS ** ** SPOILERS ** ** SPOILERS **
This is a difficult review to write, mostly due to the fact that my fists are clenched with the need to punch Ms. Stiefvater in the face. Seriously. Plus, it's actually taken me a few days to stew on and eventually digest the strange rollercoaster ride which is Forever.
So what happened? Well, there were some pacing problems. Big ones. At times the story seemed to get bogged down and Ms. Stiefvater's normally melodic prose became a little heavy handed. And while the alternating narrative added depth to the story, it occasionally made for some bumpy transitions. Again (yes, it happened in all three books). But most of these things are forgivable as, overall, Ms. Stiefvater's writing is lovely and the world she created is vivid and alive.
So why the two stars? Well, now we get to the unforgivable stuff. For starters, everything worked out a little too neatly and yet, surprisingly, there were some plot threads left completely and utterly abandoned.
First, let's take the situation with Grace's parents. There's zero resolution with them. None. It seemed as though there might be some, but it never quite got there and eventually the entire thread was simply dropped. Not fair, Ms. Steifvater, just because you paint yourself into a corner doesn't mean your audience should suffer. Get a grip, figure it out, spend more time in re-writes, don't just toss it away because it's more convenient that way. That's simply cheating.
Second issue: the wolves. There's a hugely dramatic scene at the end of this novel, with an aerial hunt involving Mr. Culpeper. Wolves are killed. We learn of two characters that were definitely killed off and others eluded to, but it's unclear who survived. This left me scratching my head and feeling, again, a little cheated. Is it too much to ask to get some closure for characters you've introduced? Just because they were filler, and no time was taken to develop them, doesn't mean they don't count and simply get tossed by the wayside with Grace's parents.
Third: the cure. Or as I like to call it: the non-cure. That's right, after Sam turns himself back into a wolf to save Grace and we're led to believe it will all work out, the cure is still... meningitis? It felt like a copout to me. Scratch that, it was a copout. And, again, I'd like to toss in the word: cheating.
Fourth: Sam. He spends the entire novel vacillating. In one breath seeming to overcome his trauma and heartbreak, and in the next he's moping and griping that his life is worthless without Grace. In this installment he's reached a whole new level of morose and it's not very becoming. Ms. Stiefvater, you've turned Sam from sweet and affectionate to sadly pathetic. In your words, in this novel, Sam is truly a leaky womb.
Fifth: Officer Koenig (introduced briefly in Shiver). Eleventh hour he just strolls up and says "Hi Grace and Sam, why don't you and your werewolf buddies mooch off me for the rest of your lives at this sweet little resort I own miles from nowhere"? And there's no explanation/motivation to save the wolves other than his moderate dislike for Culpeper. This stretches the bounds of plausibility to a whole new level. And, oh, what's that you ask? That's right, it's CHEATING!
Sixth: Culpeper himself. Yes, I understand his role in the hunt and the necessity of that story arc but there's no resolution with this character. After all is said and done, the family just packs up and moves back to California? WTF? Okay, new adjective: unsportsmanlike. And I'm calling that a foul.
Seventh: Cole. He dies. Well, sort of. Only not quite. So that makes him, what, a zombie-werewolf? Okay, maybe that's a little unfair, but under the circumstances I felt the author cheated again. No, scratch that, the author definitely cheated, and was lazy. Worst. Flaw. Ever. If you want to write a series, have the balls to see it through, otherwise don't commit. It's completely unfair to change the rules, simply because you've given up and have moved on to something else.
Finally, we come to ambiguity. Aside from all the other things left unsaid and undone, I had hoped for resolution for Grace and Sam. It just wasn't there. I get that the author left it to the reader to decide their fate, and I respect that to an extent, but with so many other issues left to linger (no pun intended), I had hoped for something more tangible for this couple.
Here's the crux of my issue condensed into a simple sentence: Nothing is ever earned in this novel. The characters reap rewards they have neither struggled for nor earned. They are subjected to hardships that simply vanish with no plausible explanation. They encounter tumultuous relationships which conveniently vanish into the ether. They are ostensibly left squeaky clean, because they did nothing to earn the grit they should have been slathered in. The author made them impotent by not allowing her characters to get dirty by rolling up their sleeves and doing the hard work. And it shows in every single story arc which was simply dropped for convenience sake.
However, if you're a true fan of this series don't completely lose faith, here's what worked well: Cole and Isabel are the shining stars of this novel and the sole reason this received two stars instead of one. The joy was not solely due to the dynamics between the two, but because I enjoyed watching them struggle and evolve independently of each other. Their narratives offered a great peek into their respective psyches and I loved that they maintained their own unique voices throughout the novel. They were a joy to get to know and I wished more time was given to them because they absolutely saved the day where this final book is concerned.
The ending, aside from the above issues, was a crazy, breathtaking adventure. Wow! Did Ms. Stiefvater hit a home run where the action is concerned! The final fifty odd pages was like being in a getaway car with fifty troopers on your tail, Thelma and Louise style! And for anyone who has read the first two books and loved them, these scenes alone are worth reading the third.
As always, Ms. Stiefvater's writing is melodic and maybe I'm just being grumpy about all the other stuff... maybe. -
I just don't know. I feel like I'm betraying myself by not loving this book more.
To say I was disappointed in this book, the conclusion to one of my favorite series (okay, really just book, as I had a really hard time with Linger), is almost giving it too much credit. Disappointment carries with it some emotion, and the problem I had with Forever--much like I did with Maggie's latest, The Scorpio Races--was that I just didn't feel much of anything from it.
Sam Roth has been my number one book crush for almost two years now, and after Linger crushed my heart into a million pieces on his behalf, I swore up and down I wouldn't read Forever until someone who loved him as much as I did gave me the all-clear. I just needed to know if this book was going to rip out my soul and crush it into dust.
It didn't.
But it also didn't make me feel much of anything else, either. Maybe my wariness to read translated into a distance from the characters, but even Sam Roth felt like a pale shadow of the boy I'd fallen in love with in Shiver. There was just no substance behind him. Everything he did and felt and said was muted. Even his interaction with Grace was understated to the point of complacency. I didn't need any burning passion between them--that's not their style or the reason I fell in love with them in the first place--but I wanted to feel some strong emotions. I wanted to feel their need for one another. Something more than just Cole telling me their love was more real than anything in the world. Show me that it is. Don't just tell me through someone else's perspective.
And speaking of perspectives... the alternating points of view. What purpose did they serve? Cole is an interesting character and played an important role in the plot, but he would have been just as interesting and important through either Grace or Sam's POV. Same goes for Isabel. I like their characters, but their narrations were at best distracting, at worst completely unnecessary.
The constant shift in point of view added a lot to my feelings of distance from the story. It felt as though every time I finally started to settle into a character, get my bearings, the tone shifted again.
And after three hundred pages of talk, the action was short-lived and didn't even bring full resolution--very few questions posed through two and a half books were answered.
All in all, a very disappointing end to a story that probably should have ended with the first book, anyway. Shiver took my heart, Linger crushed it, but Forever hardly even touched it. -
Forever (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #3), Maggie Stiefvater
Shelby finds Olivia and kills her. Grace turns into a human and manages to call Sam, but by the time he arrives for her, she has already turned back. A desperate Cole tries to call Isabel but since she's still upset at his rejection, he leaves 20 voicemails on her machine.
Grace is chased into a sinkhole by Shelby. Sam and Cole find her and manage to save her, locking her in the bathroom until she can change back. Isabel is shocked to discover that her father is arranging for the wolves to be removed from the protected species list.
Cole reads Beck's diaries and discovers that the wolves have been moved once before, when Hannah, a wolf who could retain her human memories in wolf form, lead them.
Sam is interrogated by Officer Koenig as he is the suspect to be behind the death and possible rape (as she was found naked) of Olivia, and Grace's disappearance. Sam and Grace tell him about the wolves and he tells them that he owns land just outside Mercy Falls where the wolves would be safe.
Grace visits her parents to say goodbye, but they have replaced her with a cat. Cole captures Beck and calls Sam and Grace. He injects Beck with a substance he has made, despite Sam's protests, and it turns Beck human again. They tell him that Sam was successfully cured but they have to move the wolves.
Beck tells them about Hannah and turns back into a wolf, agreeing to help. Cole injects Sam and himself, turning them into wolves. The helicopter catches up to them and Beck is killed. The pack splits when Shelby and Sam fight. Shelby attacks Cole but they are shot.
Isabel, who has driven up to the commotion, is hurt by Cole's apparent death and drives onto the scene. Her father texts her to leave, but she refuses The hunt stops and the wolves arrive safely.
Finally, Isabel discovers that her parents are sending her to California for ruining the hunt. Cole calls her and she is thrilled that he is alive. He admits that he needed to talk to her before he saw Sam and Grace. She tells him to keep her number, and they say goodbye.
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز بیست و چهارم ماه ژانویه سال 2020 میلادی
عنوان: تا ابد (برای همیشه)؛ کتاب سوم سری سرنگونی گرگهای رحمت؛ نویسنده: مگی استیفواتر؛
گریس توسط شلبی تعقیب میشود. سام و کول او را پیدا میکنند و میتوانند او را نجات دهند، ...؛ ا. شربیانی -
I wanted to start this review selfishly. I even wrote "I'm going to be selfish and begin this review by saying...", but decided against it after thinking for several minutes. I realized something during that time - I still couldn't extricate myself from the characters of the book, even though it was over. And I felt bad for it.
Another epiphany occurred moments later. This isn't supposed to happen. You read the book(s), you learn about the characters, you love them (or hate them), and you let them go. That's what made this process - my personal goodbye to Grace, Sam, Cole, and Isabel - so painful. I didn't want to let them go.
I'm sure I've said it before: I aspire to write as well as Maggie Stiefvater. At sixteen, there are many things I have to improve about my writing, and many more things I have to learn in order to do so. I honestly feel like reading this series has pushed me in the right direction. Stiefvater's writing flows so beautifully and seamlessly, and it appears easy and natural. To me, Forever is just one big favorite quote.
The characters. I don't think I've been as emotionally invested in any book's characters as much as the ones in this trilogy. They're all so perfectly nuanced and deep. A conversation between Cole and Isabel could make me laugh out loud, and fifty pages later another dialogue between them reduce me to tears. Sam and Grace, I believe, are the golden couple. As much as I would love to have Sam for myself, he truly belongs with Grace, and I'm happy with the way the book ended.
I could go on and on about the characters, especially the way Stiefvater threw in small details and thoughts that caused them to come alive. Instead, I'll conclude this review by not saying goodbye. Sam, Grace, Isabel, Cole, and Mercy Falls will remain in my heart. Forever.
*cross-posted from my blog,
the quiet voice. -
I usually have a habit of not finishing trilogys...just because I never want them to end. But this is one of the few where I just wanted to read about the characters so bad I had to read it! It did take me a while because I wanted to take my time with it and not rush the entire book in a day (which I could have easily done...)
This series has been on my tbr for a solid 5 years maybe(?) and I really regret not reading it sooner. I went into it thinking eh I'm probably not gonna like this but it was just so incredible.
The final book was so fast paced, especially near the end, and I just loved every page. The ending was amazing (though it left a few things open I'm hoping are addressed in Sinner) and I couldn't've asked for a better ending. It just felt really rounded to me like we came full circle in a way and it was just great (I did cry a little though js :'))
Maggie's writing is just incredible, this is the first series I've read from her and it's definitely won't be the last, I'm pretty sure I want to read everything she's ever written. I haven't had a connection to characters like I did with Sam and Grace (and Cole and Isabel) in a while and it was so nice to love characters so much that it made me urgent to read again!
Anyway 5/5 for the entire series, it was amazing I totally recommend it. I wonder how many more good series I have sitting on my shelves unread... -
"There was something vaguely
glorious about having a purpose again."
I have mixed feelings about Forever. The plot is pretty awesome (the second half), and I love Cole and Isabel together, but I’m disappointed with the storyline of Sam and Grace.
Maggie Stiefvater’s style is still as amazing in Forever as it was in Shiver and Linger. The story-building and the alternating viewpoints are delineated professionally.
The first half of the novel basically gives a sitrep of the characters and is about waiting for Grace to change back from wolf into human.
In the second half a serious threat comes up and the story speeds up: it is filled with danger, thrilling action, tension, uncertainty, unpredictability, sacrifices, and losses.
But the ending!! Readers are left in doubt – I really, really hate it! I want a proof that everyone is happy!
Cole & Isabel
Cole is unsettling, impudent, confident, and brilliant. And more than this! He overshines everyone. I loved his charisma, and I was amazed by his development, his research, and discoveries.
He discovers not only certain things about being a wolf, but important things about being Cole.I had thought there’d be nothing left of me, once you took away the pounding bass of NARKOTIKA and the screams of a few hundred thousand fans and a calendar black with tour dates. But here it was, months later, and it turned out that there was fresh skin underneath the scab I’d picked off.
I loved his bitter humor, self-irony, and courage. He gambles with his own body, own life to save the others.I’d planned out a few experiments that didn’t require a lab — just luck, my body, and some balls.
Isabel. She is practical and without hesitation. But she is still building walls around herself. It is very difficult for her to open up. The only one she feels comfortable with is Cole.“Cole,” I said, “do you think I’m lovable?”
“Maybe,” he said. “But you won’t let anybody try.”
Sam & Grace
Sam is incapable to exist without Grace. His life without her is about waiting, thinking, dreaming, and waiting again. Sam and Grace’s love is said to be beautiful, limitless, and strong, but sadly I couldn’t feel it. There is a distance between them, some kind of alienation, deep melancholy.
Sam always hesitates, and hates confrontation.Sam about himself:
There was something in my expression that I didn’t recognize, something at once helpless and failing; whoever this Sam was, I didn’t know him.
He is often helpless, tends to give up. At the end of the story, he agrees to risk something very important to save his pack. I understand Sam’s it, and I feel sympathy for him, but he merely does what he is told by Cole. Furthermore, it is not clear if , and I hate not knowing the long-term consequences of his deed.
All in all
5 stars to Cole and Isabel, 2 stars to Sam and Grace.
My favorite quotes. -
Ms. Stiefvater completely outdid herself writing Forever. The characters that we met, loved, and sometimes despised,in Shiver and Linger are more vibrant than ever. We get to know Isabel and Cole much better in Forever, and that knowledge makes them each a bit more endearing. The relationship between Grace and Sam still feels new and exciting, yet undoubtedly true and well...."forever" love. This stunning conclusion moves faster than even Shiver and Linger did, sometimes I wanted to find out what happened next so badly, that I'm afraid I missed some of the amazing and unique details that I love so much in Ms. Stiefvater's novels. Along with her many other fans, I have been anxiously awaiting this book, and I was not, for one milli-second, disappointed. This was totally true to Ms. Stiefvater---not everything is tied up with a pretty bow, the good guy doesn't always win, and the bad guy isn't always apprehended....but the reader is completely satisfied!
I have purchased all three books as a gift for my niece, and I will pre-order another Scorpio Races, just for her. -
DNF
I don't now why I even bothered with this book after the whole fiasco with
Linger (Book 2).
These last two books are a complete change of dynamics from
Shiver (Book 1). It went from a sweet magical romance to a typical young-adult fantasy series with characters an plot-lines I couldn't care less about or find less interesting.
The romance is what I loved so much about
Shiver, it was beautiful, slow-building and tragic. That air of melancholy, that bubble of magic went away completely in the last two books.
If you love romance I would recommend to read just the first book, it works perfectly as a standalone and it's charming.
Shiver (Wolves of Mercy Falls #1) - 4.5 stars
Linger (Wolves of Mercy Falls #2) - 2 stars
So, I went and read the following installments. Saying that I regretted it is an understatement. For a long time I was very angry about how this series ended up being. I thought that the two following installments weren't loyal to the first book and they were a mayor disappointment for me.
Today (August 17, 2018), I answered a friend's comment that got me thinking. I realized that what I found with Shiver and did not find with the following books had more to do with me and who I am, than with the actual books. My friend
AussieMum wrote in a comment about
Wolfsong (Green Creek #1), a book she absolutely loved: "[...]The funny thing is that I'm reading the sequel now and not loving it at all. [...]. Gonna put it down and read something else, clear my head before I give it another go. It's funny how one book can speak so much to you and another makes no impact whatsoever."
Reading her last sentence got me thinking. I saw myself in the same situation as her with The Wolves of Mercy Falls series. So I shared that common experience with her and told her that for whatever reason I found Shiver mesmerizing and utterly amazing, that the way it was written, the story and its characters got to me (which I believe was also how she felt about Wolfsong). And that yet, when I moved on to the second installment I couldn't be more disappointed, that it was such a let down, I had to force myself to finish it and I ended up wishing I had never read the second one and to have consider Shiver as a stand alone. After that, I had my realization:
The thing is, I think, occasionally, we find a book that matches with us deeply, with our mood, situations, wants, dreams and personality so much that we see something entirely different from what other people might see, something even different than what the author intended for us to see. We miss other aspects of it, directions the writer wants to take us towards. So when we get the sequel we expect the same as before, the place where the first book took us. But the story has moved on in another direction, a direction we missed the first time because we took our own particular turn, a turn that made us read a completely different book that what it was intended to be.
This realization makes sense to me and it has helped me to come to terms with my feelings towards this series. I am not angry anymore, or disappointed. Now, I just understand myself better. -
It's a testament to how well the author can write that I am in love with this book as I have always read books about supernatural/paranormal romance, but I have always had a fastidious distaste of werewolves.
I got this book by accident, and when I found out it was about werewolves, I didn't want to read it. But the cover (the uk cover) was so beautiful that I couldn't help but read it.
I fell in love with the book and its fluid plot line along with the gorgeous descriptive writing from Sam's eyes to the woods that Grace haunts.
I really am hooked on this book, and it takes a very good author to make someone change genre.
So its a 5 star review from me on both Shiver and Linger, and I am excitedly awaiting Forever.
Also, this book really did make me cry, both from joy and sadness, though don't let that deter you. -
2.5 Stars!!
“Mutual, respectful, enduring love is completely attainable as long as you swear you won't settle for less.”
Beautiful writing as always!! But I feel like something happened with this book. It ends so abruptly that I am left feeling at a loss. An extreme loss. I am glad that I found out there is one more book in this series- otherwise I would be like WHAT THE HECK?!?! I did not find this one to be as engaging as the first two. With the second one being so action packed, I just knew this one would go out with a bang- sadly it didn't.
At this point, I find Grace and Sam to be incredibly boring - and I only looked forward to Isabel and Coles POVs. So the one thing I am very excited to know is that the next book is all about Cole and Isabel- or else I would probably be done. -
Que final! Me da mucha nostalgia despedirme de estos personajes, si bien me costo más adentrarme en la trama que es bastante más lenta que las anteriores y deja un final un tanto inconcluso, casi a la interpretación del lector. Sin embargo, duele despedirse de Mercy Falls, sobretodo de Sam, Grace y Cole.
Me quedo con esta frase de la autora “el amor correspondido, respetuoso y duradero es alcanzable mientras estés decidido a no conformarte con menos” -
So, I think it is only fair to state that I had average feelings on the first book in this series and also really disliked the second book, before beginning this third instalment. Going in to this I was less than enthusiastic, which may have hindered my enjoyment before I even began. Why begin a book I was so sure I wasn't going to enjoy, you ask? Because I'm clearly a glutton for punishment with minor OCD about finishing a book series.
I did find this a vast improvement from the previous book, where literally NOTHING happened, but there was still far too much angst for me to immerse myself in the story. Sam and Grace are the most melodramatic protagonists, and I could not care less about their whiny and repetitive perspectives. The previous side characters, that continued to be given a larger role as the series progressed, were this book's saving grace. Isabel and Cole each had so much sass and seeing their burgeoning romance and growing character developments felt truly special, opposed to the instantaneous attraction and endless endearments uttered by Sam and Grace.
The actual plot was accessible, if pretty predictable, but not completely horrible and, as before, Stiefvater's writing continued to shine. This story, as a whole, is just not for me, but I have not written myself off from trying more of Stiefvater's renowned book series. -
My memory about this series is that it was my favorite in middle school, and I started it when either only two books were out or just two were translated, then I never got to read the third one, because before I could, someone told me both Sam and Grace will become wolfs forever, and it was too depressing for me.
But weirdly, none of the information was new to me.
How can this be possible? I'm pretty sure I never read it, and I even had a false information about it, yet I felt like I've read it before. Am I a psychic? -
LOVE LOVE LOVE this conclusion to Sam and Grace's story. One thing I love about Maggie Stiefvater's writing is the way she manage to bring her characters to the end of a personal journey over the course of their narrative arc. And that was so rewarding to read here. Grace is a wolf when we start out. Sam is human, and missing her terribly. We soon find out the wolves are in terribe danger and Sam and Cole must figure out how to keep the pack safe permanently.
Loved.
Please excuse typos. Entered on screen reader. -
We apparently have a different opinion on what "forever" means. :S
First and foremost, To Whomever wrote that synopsis or whatever up at the top, "thrilling" is not a word that I would use to describe the first 250 pages...
Basically, I did not like this installment. More often than not it was a bore and a chore to get through. And I hate typing that! Shiver is still one of my favorite novels ever, and I did enjoy Linger, though not quite as much. This whole series and its progression really got me wondering why it is that nearly EVERY non-contemp YA book is being turned into a trilogy/series, because with each book I felt a little less magic. A little less pizazz.
Why specifically did Forever not work for me? First of all, it seemed overly dramatic in a way that Shiver and Linger were not. If you thought that any of the first two books were slow or prone to melodrama (as I know that others have said), then in my opinion, you may find Forever challenging. Unlike most finale books in a series, it is not more fast-paced. In my opinion, it actually seemed slower. There were several periods throughout most of the chapters when the characters - especially Sam - would have these really long, drawn out personal reflections. Flashbacks would occur randomly, and I'd say for about the first 200 pages, the plot just kind of meandered along. Characters would drift in and out of contact, and oh the angst. Yeah, the series has always been dramatic, emotional too, but I never thought the angst was overdone until now. Sam - whom I absolutely adored in Shiver - just kind of moped around and really didn't do much of anything but feel sorry for himself. Cole sat around thinking about how his life used to be. Grace kept shifting and bolting. One or two times and it's dramatic, but four times? Then it just gets downright annoying, I'm sorry to say. I don't like it when authors have things happen over and over again with the same results. In my playbook, that's repetition, not suspense or excitement.
For me, though, I could have forgotten the slow start and the aggravating parts but for the ending. Guys, when you hear the word "forever," what do you think of? Maybe if you're like me, you hear Squints from The Sandlot pulling out the word like "foooooorrreeeevvveeeerrrr" over and over (haha). But you think of something that has closure, right? For me, it's practically false advertising when you've got the final book in a series titled something permanent sounding like Forever, and the ending doesn't have a whole lot of closure. I get it, really I do. I get that it's bad to give teen characters any kind of "permanent closure," because after all, they're only 18, right? For me, though, it does not work to feed me a story, a fictional story (that really is not in the least bit obligated to reflect, endorse, or champion "reality") in which characters have this serious, mature, real-deal love...and then turn around and leave the ending open-ended. Did I expect the kind of ending that was found in the epilogue of Deathly Hallows? Well, maybe. And really, who knows better how to end a [modern] YA series than JK Rowing?
I also kind of took issue with the last chapter in general, really. Grace, to me, made a decision that seemed extremely out-of-character for her, given her relationship and previous history with Sam. All I'm wanting is for a series ending to accurately reflect the series as a whole, and here, it was my perception that the author pulled back a little and went with a more "realistic" ending. And that just didn't work for me in a series like this.
I realize that was a really long, lengthy (and highly opinionated) explanation, but I do feel like I need to explain what it was that left me disappointed. -
Συνανάγνωση με την Αθηνούλα που κι εκείνη τρέφει αδυναμία για τα λυκάκια (αουυυυυ). Τώρα που διάβασα και το τελευταίο μέρος της τριλογίας έχω μία σφαιρική εικόνα. Το πρώτο βιβλίο της σειράς-που τιτλοφορείται ρίγος- ήταν μακράννννννν το καλύτερο. Νοερή υπενθύμιση να αλλάξω την βαθμολογία σε πέντε. Η γνωριμία, το πρώτο δειλό φιλί μεταξύ Σαμ και Γκρέις, η ποίηση, οι αναστεναγμοί του δάσους. Σαν να ήμασταν μόνιμα εκτεθειμένες στο παγερό κρύο και στην απεραντοσύνη της νύχτας.
Κατενθουσιασμένη καταπιάστηκα με το δεύτερο βιβλίο-άπνοια- που ήταν υποδεέστερο. Δεν είχε τη μαγεία του πρώτου αλλά φύσηξε ένας αέρας ανανέωσης χάρη στον Κόουλ. Ο αντισυμβατικός Κόουλ-εν αντιθέσει με τον μελαγχολικό Σαμ-κρατάει το ενδιαφέρον και τον καπελώνει. Είναι η πρώτη φορά στα χρονικά που παραγκωνίζω το αρχικό πρωταγωνιστικό ζευγάρι προς χάρη του νέου, του ωραίου. Όλες οι τσαλακωμένες σελίδες είναι only Κόουλ.
Στο τρίτο βιβλίο η Stiefvater βρήκε τον ρυθμό των λέξεων αλλά ανά διαστήματα τον έχανε ειδικά όσο πλησιάζαμε προς το τέλος. Ευτυχώς συνέχισε το μοτίβο με την εναλλαγή αφήγησης και ανέπτυξε τον χαρακτήρα του Κόουλ (που σε αυτόν οφείλουμε την πιο ρομαντική στιγμή του βιβλίου). Έμεινα ολίγον ανικανοποίητη από το φινάλε γιατί περίμενα κάτι πιο λυρικό από τη συγγραφέα αφού είχε τη δυνατότητα. Όπως στο πρώτο βιβλίο ήθελα ν’ αφήσουν τα δάκρυα …λίγα κρυστάλλινα ίχνη στα μάγουλά μου. -
Actual rating: 3.5 stars
In a recent Q&A discussion, Maggie Stiefvater mentioned that she loves to write books that will make you cry your little eyes out. And I did...for
Shiver. I'm not sure what it is, but
Linger and
Forever just did not string up the same emotions. Did I enjoy them? Sure. But the magic just wasn't there like it was in Shiver.
Forever picks up a few weeks after the events in Linger. Sam is pretty much going through the motions until Grace shifts back into human form. The new threat in the novel is Isabel's father attempting to get the wolves taken off the protective list and Shelby, the crazy she-wolf, attacking and murdering new pack members.
Now, while the sparks didn't exactly fly between Forever and I, there were a few things that I did really enjoy about this book:
1. Maggie has such beautiful prose. It is undeniable. I LOVED it. Her writing style calls to me and speaks my soul's language. I think this is most quotes I have "liked" from just one book. I could quote her books all day long because it is so poetic. She just has a wonderful way with words that can invoke so much feeling with so few words. This book can easily be described as "emo," but never comes across as too much teen angst. The feelings the characters displayed seemed very realistic and believable to me.
2. Cole. Need I say more? Dude is made of that special flavor of awesome sauce. His witty, comedic voice was the fudge icing on my German chocolate cake. YUM.
3. Grace's relationship with her parents. In a lot of YA novels these days, parents are conveniently out of the picture while out hero or heroine is running of saving the world. Usually, this is unrealistic. However, I really liked how this was handled in this series. Yes, Grace's parents are not around, BUT this is acknowledged that it wasn't a good thing or normal. In fact, Grace confronts her parents in Forever about this. I think this was important to address because Grace needed her parents and was forced to grow up without them.
4. Isabel's feelings about Jack. They were so spot on for how a sibling feels about losing the other. So accurate.
One main problem I had with this book was that every time something big or interesting was about to happen to one of the characters, it immediately switches to another character's POV. As a result, a lot of the action happens "off-screen" and we are later told about it through another POV. I found this irritating.
I'm not entirely sure how I liked the ending. On one hand, I think it is a very realistic end and it works. But on the other, I feel like it just *ends*. It didn't really disappoint me, but it didn't satisfy me either.
All in all, this series was a good read and I'm really looking forward to future works from Maggie Stiefvater.
More reviews and more at
Cuddlebuggery Book Blog. -
Bir seri daha bitti. Bu seri tempo açısından çok değişken bir seriydi bana göre. Ebedi'yi okurken ilk başlarda o kadar sıkıldım ki bitse de başka bir şeyler okusam, dedim. 120-130. sayfaya zor geldim açıkçası. Sonrasında kitap daha okunası bir hale geldi ve okurken sıkılmamaya başladım ama beni fazla süründürdü o kısma kadar ya. Son sayfaları hızlı geçti, neyse ki biraz heyecan yaratayım diye düşünmüş yazar fakat kitap genel anlamda "okudum, bitti, eh işte sevdim ya" ayarındaydı. Okudum bitti bayıldım bee demeyi çok isterdim ama yok yani.
Tekrar söylüyorum, serinin en büyük problemi aksiyona yeterince yer vermeyişi. Daha çok Grace ve Sam aşkına odaklı ilerliyor hikaye. Dört karakterin (Sam, Grace, Isabel ve Cole'un) bakış açısıyla anlatmayı tercih etmiş yine yazar. O açıdan da bir sıkıntı yok benim için. Tek sıkıntım: Neden. Daha. Heyecanlı. Değildi? Herhangi bir kitabı okurken sürünmemeyi tercih ederim. Ebedi ilk başta süründürüp sonradan sevdirdi kendini.
Kurt adamlı kitapları sevenler bu kitabı düşük aksiyonlu bulabilirler ama yok illa eksik kalmasın, ben bunu da okumak istiyorum derseniz anlatımı güzel bir aşk romanı okumuş olursunuz. Not: karakterler arada bir kurda dönüşüyor sadece. -
i can't with this series anymore
-
**3.5 STARS**
Forever by Maggie Stiefvater is the conclusion to the Wolves of Mercy Falls series. Its always hard to review a finale because there's so much to be said about how everything turned out. Honestly, I feel like I just became a wolf like Grace and Sam and all my human thoughts have abandoned me. I can only think in short thoughts right now so I'm just going to go with it.
What I Liked:
1. The imagery was top notch as usual. Maggie Stiefvater has a way of describing things that makes them feel so visceral and exciting.
2. Isabel and Cole are life! They are infinitely fascinating characters and I can't wait to read their spin off novel.
3. Sam and Grace being in wolf love is the most adorable thing I ever read. I'm just picturing them touching snouts and its wonderful.
4. The open-ended, bittersweet ending really fit the series as a whole. I don't usually like endings like this but in this case, there was a strange sense of hope about the whole thing that I really loved.
What I Didn't Like:
1. Shelby is just a monster and I hate her. I wish there were more chapters than just one from her perspective. Maybe it would have given me some kind of empathy for her.
2. The pacing felt off. I don't know... at times it felt stagnant and slow and at other times it was everything happening all at once. However, it wasn't as stagnant as Linger so there's that at least.
3. There wasn't nearly enough Isabel and Cole chapters!
4. Why are all the parents in Mercy Falls a bunch of buttholes? Occasionally, I sort of liked Isabel's mom but she's not winning a parent of the year award by any means.
Overall, I enjoyed the finale to the Wolves of Mercy Falls series. I got what I needed out of it to feel like the story was complete and I was happy with how things turned out. There are some loose ends that were never addressed but they were just the minor practical things like are they selling Beck's house and moving to the lodge or what are they going to do in the future for money and whatnot. Really, I'm more excited that the spin off is a primarily Isabel and Cole story. I can't wait to get into that one. -
I know this series is a hit or miss series, and for most it's a miss, but for me this was a hit. I love the characters too much to hate this story. I am absolutely happy with the conclusion to this story. There are a few unanswered questions at the end but knowing Sinner exists I'm not upset about them. I just adored this trilogy and this is actually one of those series that I think about sometimes without realizing it. It makes me nostalgic for twilight since its basically the wolves story in twilight of vampires didn't exist and Bella met only Jacob and it just makes me happy.
-
:Spoilers:
This series has been one long roller-coaster of pure emotional agony from the very first book till it hits the very last page in the third and final installment in, Forever.
We have shared epic love, sorrow and an adventure with these characters that I have never had the pleasure to do with other books. The writing is truly like a piece of art work. I'm sad to see this gorgeous series go and while I had my moments, both the good and the bad, these books will always be treasured in my heart.
I swear, there is nothing like reading a Maggie Stiefvater book. Her whimsical words are like magic to a drowning person, desperate to finally get what we've been craving for nearly a year.
Maggie's writing is pure art, pure poetry and I'll never get tired of it.
I love these characters, but I think Cole should take a bow in this book. I actually got to liking him much more in this round, he's still erratic and a bit of a punk, but I admired his dedication and strength and when honest, is truly something to witness. Isabel will always be a character that I will enjoy, I love her stubbornness and fire. I wish we had more scenes between Sam and Grace in the beginning. The wait was truly painful. But what moments we did get were well worth the wait.
I don't have to much to say about Grace's parents, except that they got more then they deserved in my opinion. As for Beck? <3!!!!!!
Sam and Grace is a couple that will always be unforgettable in my eyes and heart. They have such a passion and such a love that people only dream about. I have never wanted so much for one couple before and never knew one that deserved it as much as these two.
Reading this book was slow exhausting torture, but in the sweetest way possible. My stomach was in knots wanting so desperately for it to turn out with a HEA, almost needing it to the point of physical pain.
I kid you not.
Ever page was laced with a teasing tone of uncertainty which made the experience that much thicker, richer and earned an appreciation I didn't think could exist even more then what I already feel for it.
As for the ending, well, I feel that I should be truthful. Was I satisfied? Yes and...no. I'm content, lets put it that way, but I feel that the biggest question still lingered and I hate that I'll forever be thinking about it every time I visit this world again. It ended on the tone that pretty much described the entire series. With mystery and suspense and above all, hope. So if your looking for an ending with absolute closure, you wont find it here my friends. I wish there was a few more pages or a few last final lines that would make it all okay. But there wasn't and apart of me is very sad about that.
So...I'm just going to have to hold on to what Cole wisely said;
"The thing I was beginning to figure out about Sam and Grace, the thing about Sam not being able to function without her, was that that sort of love only worked when you were sure both people would always be around for each other. If one half of the equation left, or died, or was slightly less perfect in their love, it became the most tragic, pathetic story invented, laughable in it's absurdity. Without Grace, Sam was a joke without a punch line."
...and so with that, I believe Grace and Sam do get their happily ever after...cause it would be wrong to imagine anything less.
They will be missed.
Congrats to Maggie on the success of her The Wolves of Mercy Falls series. I will never forget them and look forward to your next new adventure.
Bravo! -
In a nutshell: I really liked it. Not quite as much as the first two books, but I still liked it.
There were a lot of things I really appreciated about this series. I'm not a huge fan of paranormal romance because they all tend to be exactly the same, so I like that the Wolves of Mercy Falls had its unique traits. For example, Maggie Stiefvater actually bothered to create her own werewolf mythology/rules/etc. and not just, "I'm a werewolf ... just because." I really like the world she created and what she did with her idea.
Secondly, I really like her writing style. It's kind of a shame that her first popular series had to be a werewolf series because it caused people to go into it thinking, "Oh, this is going to be exactly like Twilight" and therefore losing respect for her. And yeah, there is a lot of mushy-gushy stuff in the series. But I see a lot of potential in Stiefvater's writing and ideas and I expect even greater things to come from her in the future.
Thirdly, I'm so glad there was no love triangle in these books. I'm so effing sick of love triangles that the very idea often makes me want to explode. When I first heard about Cole coming into the series I was like, "Oh no ..." But thankfully, he was not a threat to the main relationship. I really liked him and Isabel as a couple. And I like that Grace is dedicated to Sam and not going around, leading on every boy who comes along. I mean, she's not the greatest character on the planet, but at least she's a somewhat better role model than many YA heroines (if you could even call them that) out there.
So, yeah. Writing, story, characters ... Good stuff.
There were only a couple of issues I had with this book in particular.
1) The whole thing with Koenig ...
2) The ending didn't leave me with much of a sense of closure. Usually when I finish a series I really like, I'm left with this powerful feeling––this cross between satisfaction and sadness that the series is over. For example, I finished reading
Goliath by Scott Westerfeld yesterday, and when I finished it, I was like, "OMG THAT WAS SO GOOD. BUT NOOOO IT'S OVER. *SOBS*" With Forever, I didn't really feel that way. It left me with more of an empty feeling, like I didn't think things had quite been tied together. I think the main issue was that it all seemed really rushed. Pretty much the whole ending happened within the last 20-30 pages or so. The first two books also had somewhat rushed endings, but at least there was more buildup to them and I found the endings more satisfactory.
Anyway, in the end it was a good book and I enjoyed it. I just felt it wasn't as good as the first two and didn't leave me feeling as satisfied as I wished it would.
