This book is amazing - breathtaking prose, characters that instantly came to life, and heart-wrenching emotion (I cried twice). This is definitely the must-read of August.
When she was 11, Grace Brisbane was dragged from her tire swing and attacked by wolves, but one wolf - the one with yellow eyes - saved her. And ever since then, she's watched him - her wolf - in the winters when he lingers at the edge of the forest and her backyard.Sam Roth is a werewolf - only not the kind of werewolf of legend. Actual werewolves are humans during the spring and summer when it's warm and when the temperature drops, they shift into wolves for the winter. Only as the years go by, they spend longer periods of time as a wolf and less and less time as human, until eventually, they become a wolf forever.
Sam knows with haunting certainty, this is the last year he'll be human. And it's the year that Sam and Grace finally meet and fall in love after six winters of longing for each other. Now Sam has to fight to figure out a way to stay human - or lose himself and Grace forever.
This book was A-Mazing, so to keep from rambling on too much about it and giving away anything, here are the top three reasons it's a must-read:
1. The Writing: Maggie Stiefvater's prose is beautiful. The descriptions and imagery are so magical and emotional that it's easy to overlook. This is a book you read once for the story because you're so sucked in you can't pause to appreciate the beauty of the words. Then you read it over and over again to appreciate the fact that it's art.
2. Grace and Sam: Both characters are real and distinct. They each have a strong, unique voice, and within the first ten pages they came alive to me, and despite the fantasy element to the story, I identified with both of them until the very end. And of course my favorite part is that Grace is the strong one, the take charge, get things done, take care of the people she loves character - Sam is strong in his own right of course, but Grace doesn't take a back seat to him.
3. The Romance: Unlike many of the vapid supernatural YA romances that have been part of the recent post-Twilight craze, there's more to Grace and Sam's relationship than just an inexplicable draw. Grace isn't just drawn to Sam because he's gorgeous and dangerous - in fact she never actually says anything specific about his looks other than the draw of his eyes. But they do things together, like go on dates, talk about poetry and books, watch bad movies, cook.
Check out Maggie Stiefvater's website.