Forever, by Maggie Stiefvater
Forever, by Maggie Stiefvater
Book 3 – Wolves of Mercy Falls
Reviewed by Saluki
Forever is the last book in the Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy. I’ve been looking forward to reading this book for some time. I loved Shiver and Linger and have been wondering how the author was going to wrap up the series. Well, with this book we have our answers…at least some of them. There will be spoilers ahead, so if you want to avoid them, go ahead and read the book. It is worth the read ;)
This book starts out a few months after Grace escaped from the hospital. As a new wolf, she can’t control her shifting, so she has spent most of her time in the forest around Mercy Falls. Sam is lost without her. Isabel is as miserable as ever. And Cole, well, he’s still trying to figure out a way to stop infected humans from shifting into wolves. Each of the characters are lost in their own darkness until Isabel finds out that her father has found a way to get the wolves taken off the protected list and targeted for extermination. Knowing the wolves are going to be mercilessly hunted down is the shot each of the characters need to start focusing on something bigger than their own problems. Trying to prevent the wolf hunt brings Grace, Sam, Cole and Isabel closer to each other and forces them to grow up in ways they weren’t expecting.
Once again, this book is full of emotion. Longing, anger, hurt, frustration, love – the character’s emotions soar off the page and get under your skin. Her writing taps into all of your senses, lingering long after the last chapter is finished. There are very few authors who I read that I can feel the emotions pouring out of the pages – but Maggie Stiefvater is one of them. Her writing is almost poetic and I often found myself re-reading sentences to revel in their beauty.
Forever is more than just pretty prose. The characters are well written and we can see their growth over the series. I especially loved the part of the story that focused on Isabel and Cole. Grace and Sam can almost seem too sweet – too perfect at times, and Isabel and Cole are the perfect balance. I tend to like the characters that are a bit rough around the edges, and these two fit that description perfectly. Isabel, using her razor sharp wit and Cole using his disarming charm to keep everyone at arm’s length. The author writes characters that are richly layered and feel very real. They grow and change through the series, but through it all they retain the core elements that made you love them or hate them in the beginning. Cole is still cocky and brash – the events of the book just allow the reader to see Cole in a different light. Sam is still sensitive and quiet – but we get to see that there is more to Sam than his books and music. And Isabel – she is the character I disliked the most through the first two books and now love the most. Maggie Stiefvater writes characters in such an incredibly honest and real way that you will wish they were people you knew.
The plot of the book is very well crafted and paced in such a way that the book continually builds to the final showdown. The story is told from the POV of all four characters, which can be disconcerting at first I will admit. However, I grew to like hearing the story told from different characters. I felt like I got to know each of the characters so much better than if the story was only told from Same or Grace’s POV. There were several plot lines that the author needed to deal with in the book and I thought she did a brilliant job of tying them all together. I don’t want to spoil the ending for you, but I will say that it has sparked some controversy. I can’t say that I was thrilled with how the author chose to end the series, but at the same time, I don’t dislike the ending enough to ruin my love for the trilogy. In fact, I still give the book 5 out of 5 fangs.
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