Review: Forever by Maggie Stiefvater

Forever (Wolves of Mercy Falls #3) by Maggie Stiefvater
Published: 12 July 2011
Publisher: Scholastic UK


Goodreads Description:



In Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver, Grace and Sam found each other. InLinger, 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


My thoughts:


When I read the end of Linger I was heartbroken. I swore I would never read Forever because Maggie Stiefvater was EVIL and how could she do this to me?? But then, as time wore on, I become more rational (or maybe I just forgot how upset I was) and started to wonder what exactly had happened to the wolves of Mercy Falls. So I read Forever after all, and I'm so glad I did.


The characters are some of the most complex and well developed of any book series I've read. Their issues and their struggles to overcome them seem to real and so tangible. You can really empathise with these characters like no others. Cole really came into himself in this novel which I loved, as he's probably my favourite character. It was nice to see him less self-destructive. Sam and Grace's relationship has to be the cutest relationship in the whole of YA. Like the characters it's so real, it doesn't feel forced or included for the sake of a love interest to swoon over. You want them to have a happy ending, no you need them to have a happy ending because if they don't deserve one then who does. I really loved Isabel as well, she's probably my other favourite character alongside Cole. I love their complicated interactions and how they both feel about each other, it's perfect because you're screaming at them to confess their undying love for each other, and yet if they did that the relationship would lose all of it's potency. There's a delicate balance for me between too much and not enough in a YA relationship, and this hits that balance perfectly.


The writing is what I adore most about these novels. It has such a melancholy and introspective feel to it that really sucks you inside the characters heads. The multiple POVs work so well, and the stylistic elements involved are pure genius. I wish I could write like this, it's art. 


I actually really liked the plot, I felt the pacing was no different to the other two novels, though I have seen people claim it was too slow. These books for me focus more on the effects the events in them have on the individuals rather than on the events themselves and it's something I really like about this series. 


The ending however, OMG I was on the edge of my seat, frantically reading, desperate to find out what happened. Again, I wasn't bothered by the simplicity of the solution for the reason I noted above. I thought the very end was perfect, the right amount of ambiguity for me. I don't think I would have wanted it to end any other way. I am sad to see the end of this series, but I felt the last book totally did it justice.


5/5