Title: Shiver by Maggie StiefavaterGenre: YA paranormal romance
Pro-Feminist content: ★ (That's one Susan B. Anthony Silver Dollar star out of five)
Rage-Induction: >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( (That's 5/5 rages)
One of my biggest flaws is my Lookist attitude. No, not when it comes to people. I'm Lookist when it comes to books.
A pretty cover can do me in faster than you can say "don't judge a book by it." I was looking forward to reading this one because it was described by many internet denizens as the anti-Twilight. Rough summary: Grace Brisbane gets mauled by her neighborhood wolves as a 12 year old but is saved by one particular wolf. She also almost dies of a fever the same week because her idiot father leaves her in a car during the hottest summer day in memory, and somehow this perfectly capable 12 year old cannot crack open a window. As she grows older she gets obsessed with watching the wolves outside her home, and one day in high school, Jack Culpeper, the local bully, supposedly gets mauled and dies. Grace can't believe her precious wolves did it, and tries to stop them from shooting her special wolf, which turns out to be an 18 year old hottie named Sam Roth. Yep, they're werewolves, and Jack is too, only he's missing while he can't control his transformation. Isabel, Jack's older sister, knows Grace knows something about her brother's "death" but Grace tries to keep it a secret and pulls a bitch move not to help.
As an added incentive to read, I found a book trailer for it. Seriously, there are book trailers now. Let that sink in and I'll cover that in another post.
Anyway, take a look at it:
The stop-motion animation really brings out my inner hipster, so much so that I'm tossing the cans of Pabst from my bed as I type. The wolves kind of look more like bears in a few frames, but that's okay because it makes 'em cuter if they're wolves of the Pooh variety rather than the MJ-in-Thriller variety. The author herself apparently did all the artwork for the trailer (and composed the music for it as well), and while she didn't do the cover herself, it's a really good approximation of Stiefvater's artistic style.
Here's my unasked for advice: stick to what you're good at, Ms. Stiefvater. Because I'm feeling rather generous after eating a truckload of bruschetta, I'll toss in this hint gratis: it's not writing.
I don't understand why people are saying this is anti-Twilight. This is the exact same book, repackaged. Because I am that girl, I made a point-by-point comparison chart of the striking similarities in the books and their respective authors. Behold, my chart of excellence:
Twilight by Stephanie Meyer | Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater | |
Are There Werewolves? | Yes | Yes |
Heroine’s Relationships with Men | Has all the guys in the book fawning over her (Mike, Chess Club Eric, Edward, Jacob, her father Charlie in the non-romantic sense) | Has all the guys in the book fawning over her (Olivia’s older brother, Sam, Beck in the non-romantic sense) |
Heroine Description | Pretty much a skinny version of the author* (info found on author’s website), though not described in the book itself so that the reader can insert herself in Bella’s place | Pretty much a skinnier, prettier version of the author* judging by her “cast choices” for the movie version on her website, though not described in the book itself possibly so that the reader can insert herself in Grace’s place |
Heroine Name | Isabella “Bella” Swan: translates to “beautiful swan” | Grace Brisbane: Grace means, well, grace |
Heroine’s Treatment of Friends | · Is a condescending bitch to her friends (Angela, Jessica) and a bitch to the kickass girls who the reader is supposed to hate but are really awesome (Rosalie Hale, Leah Clearwater) · Hyper friend: Alice Cullen | · Is a condescending bitch to her friends (Olivia) and a bitch to the kickass girl who tries to befriend her that the reader is supposed to hate (Isabel Culpeper) · Hyper friend: Rachel |
Heroine’s Family Situation | Only child to scatterbrained mother (Renée) and neglectful but caring father (Charlie). They are both so incompetent that she has to take care of the household. | Only child to scatterbrained mother (Mrs. Brisbane) and neglectful to the point of almost killing her by leaving her in an overheated car father (Mr. Brisbane). They are both so incompetent that she has to take care of the household. |
Heroine’s Transportation | Big ass truck that she loves that her dad gets for free for her, a motorbike that Jacob helps her rebuild, and eventually I think in a sequel, a shiny sports car like Edward’s | Shitty unnamed vehicle that gets replaced with a giant-ass Ford Bronco that her dad buys her with his bonus, and eventually, a small Mazda coupe to replace the Ford Bronco she totals while looking for the wolves |
Heroine’s Special Snowflake Traits | · Blood that is unusually attractive to vamps. Smells like freesia to them (why the hell would flowers smell appetizing? Chocolate or pizza, maybe, but flowers) · Is the only person whose thoughts Edward cannot read | · Was bitten by werewolves but is the only known person who wasn’t affected by it, in terms of being able to change into wolf form. · Smells unusually good to Sam. · Has enhanced smell and the ability to see pictures communicated non-verbally by other werewolves |
Heroine’s Supposed Interests and Character Traits | · Cooking/housekeeping · We are told she is so smart, but that’s only because she did all the work at her old school. Says she does her homework but doesn’t appear to take interest in it. · Likes to read, especially classic authors of romance/romantic subplots (Shakespeare, the Brontës, Austen) · Says she doesn’t care about superficial things (clothes, money, looks, etc.) but spends all her time describing how hot and rich the Cullens are · Mooning over hot supernatural boyfriend | · Cooking/housekeeping · We are told she is so smart, but there isn’t any evidence to back it up. Says she does her homework but doesn’t appear to take interest in it. · Likes to read. We are told initially that she loves non-fiction and practical stuff, but then it’s implied she reads a lot of fiction on the tire swing because “books become more real when you read them outside” · Implies she doesn’t care about superficial things (clothes, money, looks, etc.) but spends an overly large amount of time describing how fancy Beck’s pad is and how hot Sam’s eyes are · Mooning over hot supernatural boyfriend |
Heroine’s Greatest Wish | For Edward to bite her so she can stay young, beautiful, and stay with him forever | For either herself to change into a wolf or Sam to stay human like her so she can stay with him forever |
Heroine’s Attitudes Towards Sex | · Wants to do it with her boyfriend who chastely pushes her away as much as possible, even while sharing her bed for a few months. · Hero soon gives in | · Wants to do it with her boyfriend who chastely pushes her away as much as possible, even while sharing her bed for a few months. · Hero soon gives in |
Creepiness of Heroine’s Relationship | Edward’s technically over 100 years old. Chris Hansen’s going to ask him to take a seat over there, since he can’t stop thinking about 17 year old Bella | The way Grace talks about “her wolf” sounds like she’s in love with the wolf before she even knows it is Sam. That’s bestiality. |
Hero’s Name | Edward Cullen: an old-fashioned first name meaning “rich guard” and a Jewish last name for a gentile character | Samuel “Sam” Roth: an old-fashioned first name meaning “name of God” and a typically German/Jewish last name for a gentile character (really—his parents were evangelical Christians) |
Hero’s Tragic Family Story | Adopted by Esme and Carlisle Cullen after his mother died from the Influenza Epidemic of 1918. He was turned into a vampire after he was bitten by Carlisle to save his life since he too got the flu after he came back from the Great War. Lives with his adopted siblings Alice and Emmett Cullen and Jasper and Rosalie Hale. His sister Rosalie hates Bella and thinks she’s coming between him and the rest of the family. | “Adopted” by Beck (main father figure), Paul, Ulrich, Salem, and the rest of the pack after his parents were arrested for trying to slit his wrists under the bath because he kept transforming erratically after he first got bitten by the werewolf. Was attacked and changed by Paul, who wanted a son after his wife died. Lives with his adopted pack member Shelby who thinks Grace is coming between her and Sam becoming alpha female and alpha male respectively. Will have new recruits (the unnamed teens, plus Jack Culpeper for like all of 5 minutes, and potentially, Olivia) as pack members. |
Hero’s Physical Description | Basically an Adonis with color changing but usually topaz (which can be either blue, or more commonly yellow) eyes and dark bronze hair. | Hot guy with a yellow eyes as a wolf and as a man (though nearly all wolves have yellow eyes, so wtf?) and dark hair. |
Hero’s Lame Talents and Interests | · Plays piano, composes music for his girl all the time · Pretentious name-dropping: likes Debussy’s Clair de Lune | · Plays guitar, composes painfully corny songs for his girl all the time · Pretentious name-dropping: likes Rainer Maria Rilke |
Shitty Setting | Forks, Washington in the Pacific Northwest. It rains all the time, so the Cullens can hide their sparkly skin. | Mercy Falls, Minnesota in the northern part of the Midwestern states. It’s cold all the time, which somehow is supposed to help protect the pack from changing too frequently, even though the cold is what causes them to change in the first place (see Plotholes and Georgraphical and Medical Conundrums) |
Word Abuse | · Chagrin: mis- and over-used throughout · Dazzle: What. The. Hell. | · Charmed: overused and abused in a manner similar to “dazzled” |
Plotholes and Geographical and Medical Conundrums | · The “scientific” explanation that vamps have an extra chromosome. When Bella conceives (a plothole in itself, since vamp body fluids are supposedly replaced by venom) a half-vamp, half-human, it should have some sort of trisomy that gives it Downs or some other serious birth defect. · Carlisle the vamp is a surgeon. He’s around a stash of human blood he can use legally without having to hunt people or animals. Just run the best damn Red Cross campaign ever, since you all are so dazzling, goddamn. · There is no “west coast of Brazil” | · The “scientific” explanation for Grace not changing after her first bite was that she had a super high fever the next day and she was trapped in the car on the hottest May day on record. It’s not like inducing fever works, since after they inject Jack with it he dies. Also, Grace was 11 when she was bitten. Eleven year olds are able to crawl to the front seat and crack open the damn window or door if it gets too hot. How was she not able to do that? · Isabel is a high school student whose mother works at the clinic. How did she know how to draw blood? How was she able to convince the meningitis patient she was a nurse? How was she able to stash three vials of contaminated blood for a week in the clinic before anyone noticed? And how did they not send a red alert for a missing shooting victim after Sam escaped from the hospital? · Why live in such a cold area if you change when it’s too cold? Even though the explanation that going to Texas wouldn’t work because that makes them hypersensitive to any change (i.e. passing an air conditioned door causes them to change), why not move to a temperate locale like Hawaii or California where it never gets too hot or cold? And why not stay inside, wear lots of clothing, get better insulation, and take hot showers in the winter? |
Cover Design | Beautiful—red apple stands out on a black cover | Beautiful—red splotch stands out on white background with blue-gray tree pattern |
About the Author | Fat but pretty Mormon housewife* who obtained a BA in English Lit by some miracle of God. Listens to shitty music while she writes which she then incorporates into “soundtracks” for her books that she posts on her website. Married young and after a quick courtship. | Slightly chubby but plain housewife* who by her own admission is shit at keeping jobs. Creates mediocre music and (pretty) art which she incorporates into book trailers that she posts on her website. Married young after dating for a month and a half. Doesn’t believe in long courtships. |
Is There a True Antagonist? | Not really, only people and situations that stand in the way of Bella and Edward’s love. Antagonists don’t provide a solid enough obstacle to overcome. | Not really, only people and situations that stand in the way of Grace and Sam’s love. Antagonists don’t provide a solid enough obstacle to overcome. |
Does the Heroine Ever Learn Anything? | No | No |
Plot? | What plot? It is 400 pages of no action or character development. | What plot? It is 400 pages of no action or character development. |
The one major difference I could come up with was that Twilight is written solely from Bella's POV while Shiver was written in chapters alternating Grace's POV with Sam's POV. I can't even say that's a legitimate difference, though, because I kept having to flip back to the first page of each chapter to figure out who was talking. Both of the characters sounded like they were twentysomething female romance novel writers, not seventeen and eighteen year old female and male teenagers. Hmm, I wonder why that is?
Sam's character is so off-the-charts-feminine on the gender continuum spectrum that he breaks the scale. I wish I could say I was joking when I said that. At one point, Sam is talking to Grace's mother and he says he "fail[ed] the testosterone test" because he favored the blue version of a painting (which Grace's mother calls the Love version) over the red version (the Lust version, because lust is never a valid part of adult relationships, doncha know). I commend Stiefvater in the same way I commend SMeyer: they both know how to completely emasculate potential love interests in order to appeal to their target demographics: nerdy/bookish girls (Stiefvater) and average/boring girls with inflated self-importance (SMeyer), both of which might lack in male attention. It's Lisa Simpson all over again:
While it is concerning that Stiefvater doesn't present a more balanced character in terms of gendered behavior, it does provide me with endless snarkable tidbits. Sam is a terrible lyricist. If Stiefvater was a more thoughtful author, I might assume that this was part of her plan to showcase a realistic teenage voice. I mean, this stuff is even more cringewothy than my old diary entries I found back in April. For example:
“Anything’s possible in this lush rabbit hole/Is it mirror or portrait you’ve given to me?/All of these permutations of dreams will patrol/this lovely wasteland of color I see.”-Sam, pg 228
“I was a leaking womb bulging with the promise of conscious thoughts…”-Sam, pg 63
Let's reflect on that last one. I am not sure most women would describe transformation in terms of a uterus. Why would a male describe something with an organ he doesn't even have? Next time I write about my transformation into a total bitch, I'm going to use the phrase "I was a throbbing prostate bulging with the promise of mental seminal fluids..." And leaking? Why on earth would a uterus be leaking? Shedding a lining, sure, but leaking just makes it sound like us women have got faulty plumbing. Newsflash men of the world, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the female body.
Even Grace uses trite language to describe things, and she's supposed to be the analytical, rational one. In this example, one can see how the the prose is so purple that it veers off the visible light portion of the spectrum and heads straight into ultraviolet territory:
“ ‘I think I would remember someone telling me every little detail about this part of the woods, down to the color of the glittering air. I don’t even know how someone could’ve told me all that.”-Grace, pg 131
One of the facets of sisterhood, and plain humanity, is helping one another, which is why I don't understand why Grace doesn't fess up about what happened to Jack, the kid she's known since kindergarten. Grace is painted as a sympathetic, caring character but she doesn't display these traits. She's actually super selfish. Take for example even her treatment of her friend Olivia. Jack calls Grace at one point stating he's bitten Olivia (who was taking pictures of the wolves), and her first thought isn't to see if her best friend is okay. Instead, she worries about whether or not her boyfriend of two months is hurt. What? Sam wasn't even involved in the damn thing, so why worry about him? Olivia's troubles barely register in the course of the story beyond Grace having to forge a note about Olivia running away towards the end of the book.
Lastly, I'm really troubled by the violent imagery and the passivity displayed in the following scene:
"I remember lying in the snow...surrounded by wolves. They were licking me, biting me, worrying at my body, pressing in... Their tongues melted me skin; their careless teeth ripped at my sleeves and snagged through my hair, pushing at my collarbone, the pulse at my neck. I could have screamed, but I didn't. I just lay there and let it happen, watching the winter-white sky go gray above me."-Grace, somewhere in the first few chapters
What the fuck. She gets mauled by a pack of wolves and she just lays there. I remember that in Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones, the main character, Susie, uses a similar description of watching the dark roof above her when she gives up during the most horrific moment of her life—her rape and murder. However, she only gives up after she fights back and is muzzled by her hat and realizes she is underground where no one can hear her scream. Grace just lays there to die. Where is her will to fight? Grace's passivity and uselessness is again highlighted by the fact that at 12 years old she couldn't operate the locks on her car door. Beyond the age of five, every kid knows how to unlock the damn door.
When the scene is written from Sam’s POV, he basically calls her “the most beautiful girl I had ever seen, a tiny, bloody angel in the snow.” HOW THE HELL IS THAT ATTRACTIVE, IT IS HORRIFYING! I feel like it almost implies that a woman experiencing violence is taking part in a form of ritualized beautification.
When it comes down to it, Grace is passive, selfish, and obsessed with her boyfriend. That's exactly the kind of female heroine girls shouldn't be thinking of as a role model.
Oh, and if Maggie Stiefvater comments on this, I'll know she's been googling herself. It didn't go over too well here. I mean, the Internet never forgets.
When it comes down to it, Grace is passive, selfish, and obsessed with her boyfriend. That's exactly the kind of female heroine girls shouldn't be thinking of as a role model.
Oh, and if Maggie Stiefvater comments on this, I'll know she's been googling herself. It didn't go over too well here. I mean, the Internet never forgets.
*You may ask why I'm commenting on the authors' looks as that's seen as anti-feminist and is an ad hominem attack rather than a reasonable critique. What I'm trying to do here is illustrate a common trend among the current crop of popular YA authors. The protagonists tend to be Mary Sue versions of the authors themselves rather than a more realistic self-insert. For instance, Stanley Yelnats is described as dorky more than handsome, much like Louis Sachar himself, and most famously, JK Rowling's self-insert Hermione is repeatedly described as a frizzy-haired, buck-toothed nerd who can only look hot if she spends hours getting ready. Keep in mind these are two writers I hold in high regard--their self-inserts actually indicate a certain degree of awareness that they have flaws. It also seems like there is a tendency of the really popular authors to be from similar backgrounds and have shared values, which can be great if were all in Eden singing Kumbaya, but we're in the real world and I'd at least appreciate some diversity. And I'd like to make it clear that I'm trying to take down the cult of personality that exists right now within the YA author community, so my criticisms are often relevant, or so wikipedia tells me.
Yes.
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