Linger by Maggie Stiefvater

Description from Waterstone's:

"In "Shiver", Grace and Sam found each other. Now, in "Linger", they must fight to be together. For Grace, this means defying her parents and keeping dangerous secrets. For Sam, it means grappling with his werewolf past ...and figuring out a way to survive the future. But just when they manage to find happiness, Grace finds herself changing in ways she could never have expected..."

My Review:

Linger was the fourth book by Maggie Stiefvater that I've read this year, and boy she never fails to impress. Her lyrical writing is beautiful and she does know how to break our hearts, well at least her characters' anyways.

At first I wasn't sure about the new narrators in Linger, Cole and Isabel, but they were added in seamlessly. Isabel is one kick-ass character, and though I personally wasn't much of a fan of Cole they were as perfect for each other as Sam and Grace were - but in an entirely different way.

Linger was beautiful and horrible all at the same time. It was a perfect middle novel for a trilogy; I must admit that I much preferred Shiver. It has definitely made me hungry for more and I cannot wait for the final instalment, Forever.

~Michaela~

Published: 21/07/2010

Publisher: Scholastic

Maggie Stiefvater's blog

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

Description from Goodreads:

"What if you had only one day to live? What would you do? Who would you kiss? And how far would you go to save your own life?

Samantha Kingston has it all—looks, popularity, the perfect boyfriend. Friday, February 12th should be just another day in her charmed life. Instead, it’s her last. The catch: Samantha still wakes up the next morning. In fact, she re-lives the last day of her life seven times, until she realizes that by making even the slightest changes, she may hold more power than she had ever imagined."

My Review:

It’s been a long time since a book has had such a great effect on me like Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver did. After I finished it, at half past two yesterday morning, I sat there staring at the book (which has the most beautiful cover). It really struck a chord with me, I think this line is one of the reasons why:

"So many things become beautiful when you really look"

As well as making the most of life this book has really reminded me to also appreciate the little things (yes, I like to dish up cheesyness).

The characters in Before I Fall were no way ‘nice’ but you couldn’t ignore them, I found it impossible to put the book down. At the start Sam was definitely a ‘mean girl’ but even as her personality stayed constant it was amazing to see how drastically different her actions were from day one to day seven. My favourite character in this book goes to Kent, hands down.

If I had one issue with Before I Fall (and I’m probably just being pedantic now) it would be that I found the student hierarchy a bit too exaggerated, though I tend to think this for a fair amount of books on secondary schools.

Lauren Oliver is a brilliant writer, and I cannot wait for her next book, a dystopian novel, Delirium. I’m not sure how to describe just how much I love this book but all in all I think it well deserves the full 5 stars. If you haven’t read Before I Fall yet, you should ASAP!

~Michaela~

Published: 22/07/2010 Publisher: Hodder Paperback
Lauren Oliver's blog