Forever by Maggie Stiefvater
Scholastic, 2011.
Take a small, rural American town located near a forest, add a
teenage girl with loving but inattentive parents and a boy of
unknown background and you have the setting for another series in
the werewolf/shape-shifter genre.
Forever, the third and final book in Maggie Stiefvater's Wolves
of Mersey Falls series, concludes the story of Grace and Sam,
two teenagers who have been attacked by wolves and carry the
'disease' that turns them into wolves when winter's cold arrives.
The plot is driven by both action and drama, with occasional
surprises and emotional tension and with reflection by the
characters on themes such as the qualities that make us human, human
frailty, friendship, loyalty and love. By the third book the romance
between Grace and Sam becomes repetitive, but this is balanced by
the development of the relationship between bad-boy Cole and Isabel.
Stiefvater's writing has developed since writing the first book of
the series, Shiver. The prose is concise, poetic and
flowing. She nicely captures the intensity and purity of first
teenage love. Each chapter is written from a different character's
point of view, which can occasionally be confusing, but also
presents the author with the opportunity to consider the themes from
different and often unique perspectives.
Forever is most definitely a continuation of the Wolves
of Mersey Falls Series and ideally read as one of a series.
Read on its own the storyline is quite confusing with many gaps and
unanswered questions.
Forever is an engaging read for early to middle teens.
Kiera James