Catching up on Reviews: Forever

Title: Forever
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal, Fiction
Pub Date: July 2011, Scholastic, Inc.
Format: Hardcover, 386 pages
Source: Purchased from Amazon.com

Synopsis

Then.

When Sam met Grace, he was a wolf and she was a girl.  Eventually he found a way to become a boy, and their love moved from a curious distance to the intense closeness of shared lives.

Now. 

That should have been the end of their story.  But Grace was not meant to stay human.  Now she is the wolf.  And the wolves of Mercy Falls are about to be killed in one final, spectacular hunt.

Forever.

Sam would do anything for Grace.  But can one boy and one love really change a hostile, predatory world?  The past, the present, and the future are about to collide in one pure moment -- a moment of death or live, farewell or forever.

My Thoughts

Well, to be blunt and 100% honest, one sentence in the above synopsis taken from the dust jacket sums up the way I feel about this book and this series: "That should have been the end of their story." For me, The Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy has gone downhill with each successive book.  I loved Shiver -- in and of itself it was a delicious read and actually felt like it could have been (and really should have been) the end of the story of Grace and Sam. I was happy when I finished that book and it really felt like a story that had been wrapped up and tied with a pretty little bow.

Forever was not wrapped up at all. A gaping hole with a giant question mark is what I felt like I came to when I reached the end.  Yes, the title implies "forever," but the ending just doesn't make me feel "forever." It's more like I'll be forever wondering what happened to Grace, Sam, Isabel, Cole, and everyone else, except that I don't think I plan to waste much time thinking about it. I suppose I should have realized after reading Linger and not enjoying it as much as Shiver, that perhaps I should be wary of the last book in the trilogy, but unless books just get progressively awful for me or I have a change in taste/preferences, I usually feel like I have to finish a series.

Oh, how I wish I'd just read Shiver and enjoyed my happily ever after. It's not that there weren't some exciting parts in Forever. The efforts to save the wolves and give them a new home made for a dramatic read and I did enjoy that aspect. I also appreciated more from Isabel's and Cole's point of view, but again, there was no closure for the two of them, either. I can live with being left hanging if I know that there is another book coming, but this is it, folks. There is no more.

Other things I appreciated: (1) The research that Stiefvater mentioned she had done on wolves in her Author's Note. I felt like what she had written about the nature of the characters as wolves seemed quite realistic and I definitely thought it added to the story. (2) The story was told from multiple points of view. I liked hearing Isabel's and Cole's voices and not focusing entirely on Grace and Sam. I guess I felt that way because I was a little bit tired of the way Grace and Sam's story was headed at this point.  But the things I did appreciate saved Forever from getting a negative rating, in the end.  After all, I do try to be fair.

My final thoughts for you are simple.  If you haven't read this series yet, read Shiver and leave it at that.  Enjoy that story for the satisfaction it provides and re-read it to your heart's content. I'm not sure if I'll be able to re-read it because I know how the rest of the story ends (or doesn't). Quite honestly, it makes me wonder if I wan to read anything else by Stiefvater -- thoughts, anyone?

My rating:

If you have reviewed this book, please feel free to leave a link to your review in the comments section!

The Sunday Salon (05.13.12): How do you review?

Happy Sunday, everyone! And perhaps most importantly, Happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers out there!  I hope you get lots of pampering today from your families. :-)

Lately I've been thinking a lot about my reviews -- everything from the general style on my blog, the way I approach writing them, and how I read to ultimately review a book.  I think this has come to mind in part because while I was on my big blogging hiatus, I continued to read books even though I wasn't writing reviews.  Now I would actually like to review a lot of them, but I didn't take any notes while I was reading, so I am not left with strong impressions that create a worthwhile review for many of these books.  Of course, there are some I do remember quite well and plan to review in the coming weeks, but I rather regret not taking some notes to stash away for reviews, even though I've never been a note-taking reader in the past.  I have been thinking that I might change my approach going forward and at least jot down a few thoughts either while I am reading or right after -- particularly because I am not necessarily reviewing books right after I read them these days, in order to catch up on reviews of older reads.

I have also been thinking about the content of my reviews here on the blog.  I tend to lean heavily towards writing about my overall impressions and how a book made me feel, more so than getting into some of the more technical aspects.  Of course, if I find something to be particularly bothersome or incredibly outstanding with respect to writing, plot, editing, etc., then I do generally make mention of it, but that doesn't seem to happen with regularity.  I also always do my best not to write "spoilerish" reviews, which I think creates the tendency for my reviews to really focus more on how a book made me feel.  Anyway, my point here really is that I think I'm going to strive for stronger content in my reviews, without making them too much longer.  I admit to being a fan of fairly concise reviews -- I don't like to drone on and on, whether it is to gush over a book or berate its weaknesses.  So I will probably continue to try to keep my thoughts to 3-4 paragraphs.  We will see what I ultimately come up with :-)

As a brief aside, I am also in the process of changing my rating system -- and by that I simply mean changing the graphic.  I am going to start using my butterflies instead of stars, though for labeling purposes I'll continue to use "stars," as "butterflies" is just such a long word for that label cloud, haha.  Of course, Blogger is being obnoxious and giving all of my images with transparent backgrounds a white background on my posts, so the effect is currently not as lovely as I would like for it to be.  (If anyone has any advice on that, I'd really appreciate it.  I have Googled the heck out of it and tried many code tweaks and CSS add-ons, but to no avail.)

But back to the point of this post, this leaves me with my parting questions for you all... How do you approach your book reviews?  Do you take notes as you read?  After you read?  What do your reviews themselves tend to focus on?  And lastly, if you have any thoughts or words of advice for me as I look to modify my own approach to reviews and how I write them, please feel free to share!

As always, Happy Reading!

Saturday Snapshot (05.12.12)

To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky at Alyce's blog, At Home With Books.

This week I thought I'd share some shots I got of last weekend's Super Moon...  (You can click on the pictures to make them bigger.)

The first I took earlier in the evening when the moon was a little lower and it was a little cloudy.  I liked the effect it created, along with the trees.  I left the flash off so the moon is glowing quite brightly.

With this next image, I took it at the peak time around 11:35pm.  I used a flash and then cropped the image so you can see as much of the detail as possible...

I wish I'd been able to see it when it first came up and would have looked even bigger!

Sneak Preview - The Fairytale Keeper: Avenging the Queen

When Andrea Cefalo contacted me about reviewing her debut novel, The Fairytale Keeper: Avenging the Queen, not only was I intrigued by the premise of the story, but by the gorgeous cover.  I am seriously in love with this cover!  And now I'm so pleased to be able to share a clip of Ms. Cefalo reading an excerpt from the book as another teaser for you.




Avenging the Queen is the first book in The Fairytale Keeper series and will be released on June 1st.  Be sure to check back here for my review, which I will be posting right around the release date.
For more information on Ms. Cefalo and The Fairytale Keeper series, please check out the links below.  The first chapter of the story is available on her website, as well, just to tempt you a little more!
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/AndreaCefalo Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/andreacefalo Website:  http://www.andreacefalo.com Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&query=the+fairytale+keeper

Teaser Tuesdays: The Fairytale Keeper: Avenging The Queen

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Here is mine this week -- I love the page I turned to, because I think this is the perfect teaser quote for this story:

Snow White is a name I do not enjoy.  It is a term of endearment from my mother, but a phrase of torment used by the artisan and merchant children who mock me for my fair skin and black hair.  I would never tell mother for it would hurt her to know, and while I have no love for the name, Snow White, I do have love for the way she speaks it.


~ pages 42-43 of The Fairytale Keeper: Avenging The Queen by Andrea Cefalo (Release date: June 1, 2012 - quotation is from an advance uncorrected proof)

Tomorrow I will be sharing another teaser of sorts, courtesy of Andrea Cefalo, as we wait for this book's release, so be sure to check back!