Book Review: Forever

Forever
by  Maggie Stiefvater
Date Read:  4/24/2013
Rating:  ★ ★ ★ 

I started this book I think 3 times.  It was soo hard to get into this book.  I’m not really sure why.  It wasn’t very exciting.  It was actually pretty slow.  And what was weird is that I found myself only wanting to read chapters from Cole’s and Isabel’s perspectives.  So perhaps the whining from Sam and Grace is what made it hard for me to get into this book.  I’m not sure.  All I know is that it took me 3 times to be able to get through this book.

That’s disappointing because I really enjoyed Shiver.  Ling was okay – it wasn’t nearly as good as Shiver, but I was able to get through it pretty quickly still.  But Forever let me down.  It’s not the book was bad.  It wasn’t.  But it also wasn’t very captivating, which is strange for the final novel in a series.  But then, this entire series hasn’t been all that exciting.  It’s mostly about the relationship between Sam and Grace with some werewolf stuff on the side.  So now that I said that, perhaps that’s why by book 3, it was boring.  The romance was no longer new and sweet.  It just got old, and there wasn’t enough excitement to keep the rest of the book going.

We do get POV from Cole and Isabel in this book though, which I really liked.  Even though Cole can be a bit of a jerk, his background with science was intriguing.  I enjoyed watching him try to solve the way to cure the wolves, or to cause Sam to turn back into one.  And he had an interesting back story.  You really saw who he used to be, and you got to watch him transform into someone with purpose.  I think he was probably my favorite character.

I also liked Isabel.  Watching her start to open herself up to someone.  She grew a lot as a person in this book actually, and I loved watching it.  I wish I knew how their story really ends.  I didn’t get quite enough to be satisfied on their story.

This whole book revolved around the hunt and the fact that Grace is now a wolf.  The parts where she was a wolf and Sam didn’t know where she was were super boring.  All it was was whining.  And though we as women always want to know our man misses us, this was a bit excessive.  And even when they finally found each other, it was boring.  I don’t know, I think I hit the nail on what bothered me earlier about this book – the fact that Grace and Sam’s relationship got old.  So I’m really glad Stiefvater added Cole and Isabel’s perspectives to keep the story moving along for me.

Stiefvater  is very good at the descriptions of scenery though.  I was always able to see exactly what she was describing, whether it was the woods, or the house, or the lake.  So I enjoyed that, because it did feel like I was there.

I’m glad she added several casualties to the story.  I was not going to believe the story if some wolves didn’t get killed in the hunt.  So with about 40 pages left, it finally got exciting as the hunt started.  But then I realized, “What? The climax of the story is just <b>starting</b> at 40 pages left??” So what did that mean for the wrap up?  Or did that mean the climax would only last 3 pages?

Well, it was the former.  There was virtually no wrap up.  I think there were about 5 pages.  Maybe 10.  No, I don’t think it was 10.  I felt very unsatisfied with the wrap up.  You’re ending a series.  You need to tie up more loose ends; you need to give us more a good-bye to the characters.  All of that was missing.  I have no idea what happened to Grace – does meningitis cure her?  Did she and Sam ever get married?  Did Isabel and Cole figure out their relationship? Did he follow her to California?  Too many loose ends for my liking.

Overall I liked the series though.  I liked the unique take on werewolves.  They were actually like wolves.  And they had a real story to them – a believable story.  Humans got upset that wolves were killing humans, so they decided to strike back.  I think it was a good story.  I just wish it was more exciting.   I liked the back story on all the important characters – everyone was unique and it added to the story – why they did what they did.  I think Stiefvater is a great writer; she just needs something more exciting to write about.  Which I think she’s managed to do with the Scorpio Races and The Raven Boys.  I’m excited to pick these up soon.