Linger - fifth and last post

Now I´ve finished the book and I’m not going to retell everything that I’ve read because in the Easter holiday I’ve read over 300 pages. The last chapters went past very fast because I just wanted to know the solution of the story and how the whole book would end. But I noticed that after four weeks of reading in English I’ve become more and more comfortable  with the language and less and less used to read Swedish texts.

The book starts with “This is the story about a boy who used to be a wolf and a girl who was becoming one.” I´ve thought a lot about that line because Maggie Stiefvater has chosen to end “Linger” with the exact same line as in the beginning. When I read it on the first page I thought about what she wanted me to think, which conclusions did she want me to make? My thoughts went wild about what she really meant with that line as her story starter. She must be really smart to put that sentence first in the book. After that you desperately need to read on to see what she means. And you get your answer in the last two chapters so you’re eager to read all the time.  I got a little annoyed about it because she hadn’t written anything about Grace was near to shift into a werewolf in the first book. It came as a lightning from clear sky for me, as you would say in Swedish. But now afterwards I think it was that sentence that made “Linger” my temporary drug. Even though I later on forgot the sentence and got completely overwhelmed by the story.
I can’t wait until July 12^th this summer when the third and last book in the series releases. And I’ve decided that I’m going to read it in English because everything felt more closely described and well written than when I read “Frost”. But also because it’s so much fun reading and learning English! J (Or it’s because the book won’t show up in stores on Swedish much later than the English one…) I’ve also considered reading “Linger” and “Forever” (the third book) in Swedish so I can compare if the English version really is better than the Swedish. Maybe I will keep reading in English after that.
I’m still stuck in Maggie Stiefvater’s way of writing. She catches that specific emotion and creates the perfect balance of the environment and the characters behavior in every situation in an excellent way. Now when I’ve started to read a new book I think the “new” author is far behind in her writing skills. But maybe I hadn’t thought that way if I hadn’t been reading Linger by wonderful Maggie Stiefvater.

 /Dynamit-Harry

Linger - fourth post

This was supposed to be my last text about this book but since I’ve not even read less than half of the book I will write a short last post next week on the Easter holiday.

This time I read about 40 pages and Sam has become nineteen. Grace thought of surprising him on his work with a romantic take-away dinner. But then she realized there is no such place near Mercy Falls, so she went to Subway. Not that romantic but better than nothing. Since Grace’s parents like Sam less and less, so instead of going home they stayed in the bookstore on the private loft.
On Grace’s birthday, the same year as the two of them met, Sam read his favorite poem to Grace. Since then she’s started to read poetry and really liked it. She wanted to thank Sam so she lighted some candle sticks, turned off the lights and laid a paper in his hand. There was a written text by Grace that said that Sam was paid for a singing audition I Duluth.
Sam’s biggest hobby is to sing and play the guitar so he got completely overwhelmed. But the same night, when they were going to bed Grace was very hot. And in the middle of the night Sam woke up by the sound of a screaming and crying Grace. He puts his hand on her forehead and she was burning hot but it was something else to…
She smelled strongly of wolf! When you’re near to change into a wolf you smell like a it.  And in the first book you get to know that Grace had been bitten by a wolf. Later she got looked in their car by her dad. It was so hot that she was cured from being a werewolf. To make Sam cured; they got him a malaria injection when he was transformed into a wolf. At the same time they tried to cure Isabel´s brother but he didn´t make it in his human body.  Sam won’t believe that he no longer transforms into a wolf on the cold parts of the year. But he is still not shore of the cure and worries about it almost all the time. You could say that Sam was prepared that something bad would happen.
When Sam tries to calm Grace, who is asleep sleep, Grace’s parents come into the room and sees Sam in there. They didn’t know he has slept there for the last two months.
Grace’s father tells Sam to go home, away from their house and to think about if he really should contact Grace again. The Brisbane family went to the hospital though both Sam and Grace try to explain the situation. None of the parents were open for any suggestions what so ever. So when Grace needs Sam the most, he has no choice than drive to his own home.
But where is his home? He’s always been at Grace’s place and he was adapted to Mercy Falls so he can’t go to his parents. He decides to go to the bookstore but change his mind and turns the car to the wolf packs house in the woods. There he meets Isabel and the new member of the pack, Cole. Isabel explains that he can’t stay at her place. Her parents will go nuts if they see him so he needs to stay in the house. Like Sam doesn’t have enough of problems as it is! Cole gets a bed and then both guys go to sleep.
In the morning when Sam has gone to work, Cole decides to sneak around a bit. He wants to know more about Sam. In a drawer in the desk he finds Sam’s adoption papers, some documents that say that the house belongs to him and Beck and an article from a newspaper. The text is about why Sam was adopted. His parents had tried to kill him in the bathtub by cutting his wrists with a razorblade. When Cole takes a look at the photos in the house he can see the scares on Sam’s arms. And suddenly Cole doesn’t feel that sorry for himself anymore.
I haven’t got to know Cole so much, but when I read this chapter about Cole’s little mission, I realized I don’t know so much about Sam either. But I still feel like I know Sam extremely well. The author, Maggie Stiefvater, is amazing and she succeeds to write in a way that I can make my own conclusion of Sam.  In my opinion he’s that guy every girl really needs. A guy that’s caring, fun, intelligent, gorgeous (oh yes, he’s very good looking in my mind), confident and radiates calmness around him, but still feels mysterious. If a guy like this is available, I’m the first in line. I really hope these three books will affect the rest of the world and that some good director can make films of them. I will be the first in that line too!

Written by Dynamit-Harry

Linger - third post

This week I’ve read enormously more than the other two weeks. The new guy, Cole, has shifted into a wolf for the first time and has found his way to Mercy falls, the village Grace and Sam live in.  One day when it’s minus 10 degrees outside he shifts back to human and meet Sam in the wolf pack’s hidden cottage in the forest. Sam doesn’t know who Cole is at the start but then he remembers that three new wolves have been recruited to the pack. In the middle of their conversation Cole’s body notices the cold and starts to shiver and shake. After a minute he’s in his wolf body but he keeps on staring at Sam. A normal wolf would have run away in the moment it got its paws but not Cole. Sam hasn’t got that much information about Cole from the alpha male (because he turned into a wolf a little bit early than expected and he’s so old that he’s never going to changes back to human again.) , but he knows that Cole was prepared for the werewolf life. Beck, the last pack leader, said that he picked the three new guys/wolves for a special reason. And I’ve already written about Cole’s previous life: drugs, parties and big gigs. The author also choosed to tell that he didn’t want to live his own life but hadn’t enough life spirit to keep it up and change it.

The last chapter I’ve read was from Cole’s perspective, and it was about him getting to know Mercy Falls. A new wolf is sensitive to large temperature changes, and this time Cole felt that it was too warm for him to stay wolf. He saw a house and thought of what Sam hade said to him:
“The house has got a fan heater, some food and clothing. In the box that says SAM, something ought to fit.”
Cole was terribly hungry and was freezing like a pig so he went into the house through the back door. I understood it like Cole didn’t think about that it wasn’t a little cottage but a mansion but I guess he was too confused to think relevant. Of course, you don’t wear clothing like a wolf so Cole is in this stage, completely naked and when he hears a girl’s voice in the other end of the corridor he stops. He has been walking in to  Isabel Culpeper’s house. I don’t know if I mentioned it before but Isabel is nowadays Grace’s best friend. Isabel  is one of few persons that Grace and Sam told the whole story about the wolves to. But that’s because her brother got bitten by a werewolf and then he became one himself. In the first book Grace and Isabel tried to cure him and Sam but only Sam made it.
Ever since her brother Jack died because of the-almost-cure-accident, her parents have start fighting every day and night. Her mother ignores Isabel totally or treats her like she doesn’t understand anything. Her father on the other hand always has a lot to tell her not to do, not to behave and not to say. Before Jack’s dead, her father was one of her closest friends but I have understood it like Jack always had been both of their parents’ favorite. He was older, he was extraordinary in school, was successful in different kinds of sports. But most important was that he loved hunting and so did his father. Its wrong word to use but Isabel was a little lonely bit outside the others in the Culpeper family, but it didn’t get better when the families’ star died. They went to therapy in many weeks but Isabel’s mother still doesn’t change her ridiculous behavior and now Isabel doesn’t have the energy to do something about it.
 Isabel is Mercy Fall’s Paris Hilton, with describing words; a real bitch. But not always when she’s hanging out with Grace and Sam. I think that when you’re popular, in the way Isabel is, you don’t get that much friends. You get contacts, but that’s where it stays, so maybe when she’s with friendly Grace and good old Sam she feels more comfortable and relived. She doesn’t need to have the latest Gucci bag or Prada shoes; she’s able to be just Isabel Culpeper. And who doesn’t prefer that?
I think is really funny to read how she grows as a person and gets a stronger self confidence. She has gone from being Graces most hated person in Mercy Falls, to now be her closest friend. That’s a real change and I like it! J
I finish my post with a quote from an “Isabel chapter”:
“I had my usual group of girls who sat around me, eyes painted like mine. Being popular in a town the size of Marcy Falls was ridiculously easy. You only had to believe you were a hot commodity, and you were. It really wasn’t like San Diego where being popular was like a full-time career. The effects of attending the assembly-an hour-long as for the Isabel Culpeper brand-would last for a week.”
By Dynamit-Harry

Linger by Dynamit-Harry and Uglies by Kråkfot - second post

Linger - first post

I'm reading the book Linger by Maggie Stiefvater and it's the second part in a planned trilogy. I've just past page 30 and it's already exciting.

The book is about Grace, a teenage girl who has a life filled with werewolves. When she was just a baby a werewolf dragged her into the forest behind her house. In a strange way she connected with one of the wolves. The wolf (Sam) took her home again, away from the other wolves’ attacks. Grace and Sam got some sort of bond that would last forever; despite all werewolves have no humanlike feelings in their werewolf bodies. They can't think abstract thoughts.

When it's warm outside the werewolves transform into humans, but for over ten years Sam stood on the same place in the forest behind Grace's house watching her and waiting for the summer to come. That's the three months he gets to make Grace notice him as a human, not just like a wolf.

In "Frost"(the first book) they meet and, of course, fall in love. With the help of some friends they succeed to cure Sam from the werewolf transformation, so in "Linger" he's still a human. I haven't got that far in the story of the book yet, but Grace's best friend Olivia got bitten by a werewolf in the end of the last book. Now her parents think that she has ran away because of a letter she wrote to hide the truth from them. That she turns into a werewolf nowadays. A cop thinks he saw Olivia in the forest, as a human of course, since people in common don't know about the wolves. So he went to Sam's job and Grace's home to question them about the case of Olivia. Sam is a terrible liar but he managed to answer the questions without leaving any information or truly lie.

Sam and Grace are in the age to pick a college soon. Grace has been distracted by Sam's presence in the house and hasn't really decided yet. Sam hasn't even thought about a college because he just three months ago became a werewolf every time it was cold around him. (Cold weather means shape shifting)
When I started to read I thought a lot about and around Sam as a person. How the author wanted him to act in different situations, his language or what he brings to the story. Especially his acting in the quote form example:
"But instead of answering my college question, Sam stood and went to the kitchen. I watched him put on the tea kettle and he brought down to mugs from the cabinet over the stove. What now?" /Grace

Grace haven't had that much of god contact with her parents, because they work almost all the time. Now when Sam is staying at theri place(though Grace's parents don't know) she's never alone, but she still got a "parent" in the house. Sam.

When you're in "werewolf mode" you don't age. So basically Sam is much older than he seems to be. He always thinks before talking or acting and I as a reader feel comfortable and pleased every time Sam is in the chapter. The first "thing" that popped up in my head to compare with was Edward Cullen in twilight. Booth are these good guys with an old mind, cute and have a proper behavior. But still they feel mystical and unreachable. Too good to be true, and that’s why I think something is going to happen. Something around Sam that will make me change my mind about him. But I hope I´m wrong! Now in the beginning the story needs him more than ever, to speed the action a bit. I want to get to the more exciting part.


/Dynamit Harry