Book Review: Linger, Maggie Stiefvater

 Linger, Maggie Stiefvater

My rating: 3/5

 

‘This is the story of a boy who used to be a wolf, and a girl who became one.’

I have nothing against sequels, but it is a universally known truth that they are often not *quite* as good as the original, and often exist only upon the success of the first. However, I don’t think this one feels like that. Sure, Shiver did well by itself and the idea probably began as one story fit for one instalment, but it ended in a way which needed more.

The second in the trilogy feels like a fresh start. We have established our two main characters, our alternating narrative points, and our characters who have become central to the unravelling of the story. And so, with Linger, we get into the heads of new characters, Cole, and Isobel, who we have met but whose perspective we haven’t yet heard from. And it works. Suddenly the story involves more than just the two love birds fighting for their relationship/ slightly weird attachment, a la Shiver. Instead, we have comradery and a ‘Dumbledore’s army’ approach to saving the wolves and whatever the hell is happening to Grace. I like it. Isobel’s narrative voice is a great addition to the story, and the sexual tension and almost-trauma-bonding between her and Cole adds another dynamic to the situation that I didn’t know I wanted.

           Within this sequel we have our central concerns: Where did that dead wolf come from? What killed it? and why does Grace smell so much like it? The first question pretty much remains unanswered, as does the second. The third is constantly hinted at throughout the novel… Grace gets tired, Grace has a fever, Grace smells like a wolf, she feels *different*. All along it is the point the characters themselves avoid addressing which can be so frustrating for the reader. It felt like I was yelling at them to get on with it and just talk about it. It felt like I was yelling at Stiefvater to get on with it and just make it happen.

           It does, though, right at the very end in a very climactic scene where suddenly Cole has figured this whole wolf thing out with ~science??~ and his pre-rockstar intellect and suddenly the fact Grace got almost boiled alive has nothing to do with it? Wolf-Grace escapes and Sam is suddenly left in human form without his counterpart. And we’re effectively where we ended Shiver except with the roles reversed.

‘And then she cried out, and the girl I knew was gone, and there was only a wolf with brown eyes.’

           It might sound like I’m shitting on this series, the author, the sequel in particular. I’m not. It is young adult fiction, and it is supernatural angst, and it does fall into the tropes of ‘oh that’s convenient’ at times. Linger feels less in control of its story than Shiver did, but nonetheless I enjoyed it. It’s escapism, a guilty pleasure, and I’m glad I’m finally reading it. I just think I’ve been spoilt by five years of academic literary analysis. I’m so sorry I never read this trilogy when I was 14 and could dream of nothing more than almost gothicism and teenage relationships upon whose shoulders the world seems to ride.

           I’m hoping to finish Forever much more quickly than Linger. I think part of the reason it felt like the plot dragged was because I physically dragged this book around with me for two months and read it so infrequently it makes me mad. Next time, I’ll be better.

Ellen Victoria