Wolves of Mercy Falls

The Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy, written by Maggie Stiefvater, contains the three books, Shiver (published 1 August 2009), Linger (published 13 July 2010) and Forever (published 12 July 2011). The books follow Grace Brisbane and Sam Roth. Shiver is written from both Grace and Sam’s point of view. Linger is written from Grace, Sam, Isabel and Cole’s view point. Forever is written from Grace, Sam, Isabel and Cole’s point of view, with a small prologue from Shelby. The series is set in the fictional town Mercy Falls. Stiefvater has said that the real town of Ely in Minnesota would be the closest in destination to Mercy Falls.

Usually, this is not my type of reading, but a few years ago I found the first book from the trilogy, Shiver, in my local book store. I was intrigued by the cover of the book (here I should mention that I read  Shiver and Linger in Bulgarian and I was intrigued by the Bulgarian covers, they are awesome) and I decided to bay it. At the beginning I was a bit skeptical about the book, but after a couple of chapters I was speechless and couldn’t get enough of it. I read it for a couple of days and I can’t tell how I was able to wait another year for the second one and so on.  My favorite character is Cole, who I can’t really remember when exactly appears in the books. He is definitely a big part of the second and the third (he is one of the narrators there), but I can’t remember does he appears in the first one. It’s been a while since I read it :D. Also I am not a fan of Sam, who is the main character, he is presented like some kind of emo-boy and he is too sensitive, while Cole is more into the action, he is smart, he is good looking and he knows it. Moreover, the connection that he has with Isabel is awesome, they are my favorites.

This below are the Bulgarian covers, which as you can see are much cooler :). The author herself admit it, when she was in Bulgaria.

Plot

Shiver

For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf — her wolf — is a chilling presence she cannot seem to live without. Sam has lived two lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the protection

of the pack, and the silent company of a fearless girl. In summer, a few precious months of being human… until the cold makes him shift back again. Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It is her wolf. It has to be. But as winter nears, Sam

must fight to stay human — or risk losing himself and Grace forever.

Shiver has been licensed in over 32 foreign territories and remained on the bestseller list for over 32 weeks, selling 130,996 copies in 2009.

  Linger

In Shiver, Grace and Sam found each other. In Linger, they must fight to be together. For Grace, this means defying her parents and keeping a very dangerous secret about her own well-being. For Sam, this means grappling with his werewolf past… and figuring out a way to survive into the future. Add into the mix a new wolf named Cole, whose own past has the potential to destroy the whole pack. And Isabel, who already lost her brother to the wolves… and is nonetheless drawn to Cole. At turns harrowing and euphoric, Linger is a spellbinding love story that explores both sides of love – the light and the dark, the warm and the cold.

Forever

Forever is the final book of the trilogy. It was published on July 12, 2011.

In Forever, the stakes are even higher than before. Wolves are being hunted. Lives are being threatened. And love is harder and harder to hold on to as death comes closing in.

On February 14, 2011, Stiefvater read a two-page excerpt of Forever in which Shelby was confirmed as being a narrator.

Character list

• Grace Brisbane was attacked and bitten by the wolves behind her house when she was 11. When she is saved from them by a yellowed-eyed wolf, Sam, she begins to feel a deep connection with him. In Shiver they meet after Sam is shot, and begin a relationship. However, in Linger it is not Sam’s humanity that is in jeopardy but Grace’s as she comes down with an unknown illness and almost dies. She is re-bitten by Cole and shifts at the end of Linger. In Forever, she tries to make her way back to Sam, but in her wolf form and with the ever present worry of shifting it becomes hard. And as the wolves are hunted by Isabel’s father she risks losing not only her friends but her life. She has dark blonde hair and brown eyes.

• Samuel (Sam) Roth was bitten by Beck when he was 7. After his parents tried to kill him he was adopted by Beck. When the wolves are hunted and he is shot, Grace finds him on her back porch and they start a relationship. When they discover that by injecting meningitis into their system shifting will be stopped, Sam and Jack volunteer to be injected. Jack later dies, and after Sam shifts halfway through the injection, Grace assumes that he has died too. He did survive and they are reunited. During Linger Sam has to come to terms that he is now fully human along with the help of an increasingly sick Grace, whom he loses at the end of Linger when she is re-bitten by Cole. In Forever, when the wolves are under threat, Sam is injected by Cole so he can shift and lead the wolves to the peninsula Officer Koenig gave them. He has black hair and yellow eyes.

• Isabel Culpeper was the sister of Jack Culpeper until he died in “Shiver”. She and her family were originally from California but moved to Minnesota when Isabel was 14 (before the books started). She found out about the wolves after Jack, whom the town believed to be dead, came to her. It was because of Isabel that they were able to get meningitis infected blood. Isabel stays with Jack as he is slowly killed by the meningitis, and blames herself for his death. She and Cole have an on-off sort of relationship in Linger. At the end of Forever, Isabel is heart broken when she assumes Cole has been killed, and cries with relief when he phones her in the second last chapter. Isabel was sent back to California by her parents after she interrupted the hunt. She is a highly sarcastic person, and is described as ‘cold’ by other characters. She has long blonde hair in Shiver which she cuts before the start of Linger, and blue eyes.

• Cole St. Clair was bitten by Beck and infected along with two others, his friend and band mate Victor being one of them, while touring for his band in Canada. He was introduced in Linger. After becoming a wolf he quit the band. He was known to have led a troubled life, experimenting with drugs and sleeping with his female fans whilst on tour. He was almost killed in Forever by Shelby. He is described as having brown hair and green eyes.

• Shelby is a troubled werewolf who was taken in by the pack after Beck found and took her from a place that was never named, but it is assumed she was sexually, physically and/or emotionally abused there. Sam states that what Shelby wanted most was for Sam to take over from Paul as alpha, when she would then be his mate. She attempts to kill Grace in Shiver to achieve this goal. In Forever she kills Olivia. She is killed by Cole in Forever. She is said to have white-blonde hair. We are told that she has a strong southern accent.

 Film adaptation

Unique Features, in association with Warner Bros., optioned Shiver’s film rights shortly after Shiver was released. A script has been written by Nick Pustay but casting has not yet begun.On 3 March 2010, Pustay tweeted “To all my new SHIVER followers: Happy to tell you the SHIVER movie has taken a BIG step forward recently. That’s all I can say for now…” On March 13, IMDB updated its Shiver page by saying that two new producers, Leah Holzer and Mark Kaufman, had joined Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne to help produce the project. The Shiver project is known to have an oscar-nominated director attached.  On the 2nd February, 2012, Nick Pustay revealed that the screenplay was finished and that the producers were pursuing a financial deal.

Source (Plot, Charecters, Film adaptation) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wolves_of_Mercy_Falls