Linger by Maggie Stiefvater

Linger is the second book in the Wolves of Mercy Falls series for young adults written by Maggie Stiefvater. The hardback edition is already out and the paperback edition will be available soon.

**Spoiler Alert – If you haven’t read Shiver, you may not want to read this information. **

The sequel resumes where Shiver left off. Sam has seemingly been cured from changing into a wolf. He and Grace are back together.

In addition to reading the story from Grace and Sam’s perspectives, two other narrators are introduced in Linger. Isabel, who is trying to recover from her brother’s death, and Cole St. Clair, who is trying to recover from being a druggie musician.

Sam is torn between the duties of his old life, mainly watching out for the new wolves to return, and beginning a new life with Grace.

This time Grace is the one who is changing. The wolf bite from years ago is finally beginning to affect her. The question, though, is how she is being affected.

In the first book, Sam and Grace’s love was kindled. Now they are simply trying to hold on to one another in the midst of many things that could once again tear them apart.

The two additional narrators for the story have both a positive and negative effect on the story. On the negative side, the intimacy the story had when it was just the two lovers telling the story is now diminished. Shiver was cozy and warm as Sam and Grace fell in love with each other. With Linger, the plot is no longer just a love story.

But the fact that other dimensions are being added to the story is also a positive. The readers learn more about the world of Mercy Falls because two more perspectives are added. Isabel and Cole reveal details that Grace and Sam don’t know. So being inside their heads gives the reader new knowledge about the wolves and the other characters.

The love-hate relationship between Cole and Isabel is also an interesting addition. Their chemistry is far different than Sam and Grace’s romance and is a nice extra to give the sequel a colorful flavor.

**Spoiler Alert – Contains information about the ending of Linger**

Plot holes and problems sprang up in this book around Grace and wolf bites. According to Cole’s theory, Grace needed another wolf bite to change her and stop the disease that was killing her. However, in Shiver, Shelby busted into Grace’s house and bit her on the arm. Grace should have changed to a wolf then. Why would having a third incident of a wolf bite finally make her change?

Hopefully this will be addressed in Forever and the “science” of the cause of werewolfism that Cole and Isabel are formulating will be smoothed out more