Friday Book Recommendation!

LINGER by Maggie Stiefvater

• Reading level: Young Adult
• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic Press; 1 edition (July 13, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0545123283
• ISBN-13: 978-0545123280

This is the story of a boy who used to be a wolf and a girl who was becoming one.

Just a few months ago, it was Sam who was the mythical creature. His was the disease we couldn't cure. His was the good-bye that meant the most. He had the body that was a mystery, too strange and wonderful and terrifying to comprehend.

But now it is spring. With the heat, the remaining wolves will soon be falling out of their wolf pelts and back into their human bodies. Sam stays Sam, and Cole stays Cole, and it's only me who's not firmly in my own skin. 

*****

If you've already read SHIVER (and I'm sure you have, because it's amazing) then you are already familiar with Maggie Stiefvater's beautiful, lyrical prose. Like SHIVER, this cover is absolutely gorgeous. It is definitely a must-buy book, both for aesthetic purposes (it looks fantastic on a book shelf) and for reading and re-reading pleasure.  I liked LINGER even more than SHIVER, and that's saying something. This book is told from the POV of Sam, Grace, Isabel, and a new character Cole. All fantastic characters and all with some sort of personal baggage that makes Linger such a great story. It's every bit as hauntingly, achingly, beautifully, sad (and happy! There's happy stuff too!) as it's prequel.