Shiver your way through August heat

Take a break from the sweltering August heat and pick up a copy of Maggie Stiefvater’s new book ‘Shiver.’

You won’t regret your reading experience.

From the beginning to the end, Maggie brings you into the world of Grace and Sam. With sight, and sound, texture and feel, Maggie weaves you into the world they inhabit that will satisfy readers whether they normally read fantasy genre or not. For those that do regularly read fantasy there’s enough out-of-normalness to keep you entertained, but for those that don’t read fantasy she keeps it real enough and so plausible to make you want to look around at people and wonder.

Maggie’s first book, “Lament – The Faerie Queen’s Deception” is also a good book along those lines. Yes, it deals with homicidal faeries which I mostly hope we don’t really encounter that much, but Maggie does a good job of keeping it ‘real’ enough to believe it could be possible.

As you read them you will see Maggie’s growth as a writer. And makes you anticipate seeing her new books in both of the series.

As a writer I admired her writing for its vivid use of sight, sound, and feel. As a reader I was caught up in the bittersweet story that had its moments of humor and heart.

As both a reader and a writer it is easy to get caught up in Maggie’s easy flow of words and characters that are so well written that even the secondary characters stand out and make it hard to wait for the next book to tell you what you didn’t find out here. And Isabel will manage to kick you if you don’t agree. She will be peeved that you are ruining her expensive shoes but she won’t be afraid to use them on you. Okay, so obviously you need to read the book to see what I mean. But Isabel also offers the humor needed to give a bit of relief from the taut tension that Maggie seems to effortlessly create.

And since the hard thing about reviews is to talk open and honestly about a story yet not spoil the fun for the new readers, I’ll just say that I think a Lot of people will enjoy this book. Maggie’s expressive taut writing will captivate the writers, her descriptive imagery will captivate the reader. This book will touch the heart of both.

And like this passage in the very early pages of the book demonstrates, it did:

“…. Behind the counter, I slouched on my stool in the sun and sucked in the summer as if I could hold every drop of it inside of me. As the hours crept by, the afternoon sunlight bleached all the books on the shelves to pale, gilded versions of themselves and warmed the paper and ink inside the covers so that the smell of unread words hung in the air.

This is what I loved, when I was human.”

For those intrigued enough to come back tomorrow I will be posting an Interview with Maggie!

So do come back tomorrow and also be sure to visit the James River Writers website and check out the Conference where you can meet and talk with Maggie for yourself in October. And have her sign your very own copy of Shiver. So pick it up and have it help you stay cool until then.

http://jamesriverwriters.org/jrw_programs/conference/

We sure hope to see you there!