Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

This book is very similar to many others that I have read of the same genre. It is science fiction, and the main character is a strong female. One thing that I really liked about this book is the writing style. When describing something, the author uses descriptive words and phrases to not only tell the reader about it, but to show them. An example of this is when the author was describing the stairs as Sam and Grace walked on them. Instead of talking about the silence of it, the author wrote, "The stairs swallowed our footsteps and keep them". I thought that that was a beautiful illustration and there are a countless amount of these throughout the book. Another thing that I liked and thought was unique was that there were times in which the author would use a big word, and then incorporate the definition into the sentence some how. I like this a lot because it both taught the reader a word, and showed how that word could be used in context. I have not noticed this being done in many other books. I am wondering why almost all of the parents in this book are not good. Sam's, Graces and Shelby's were all horrible, and the other ones were not even mentioned. I am not sure that it added to the story or not, but it seamed that all the adults were mean, or twisted in some way, even Beck, and I am curious as to why that was. I thought it was interesting also that Grace didn't transform, she just possessed some of the qualities of a wolf. I thought that was an interesting addition to the story.