Linger by Maggie Stiefvater

“Mrs. Lepetit, why are you reading that book?” I looked up to see Brianca staring at me with an expression somewhere between disbelief and annoyance. “Excuse me?” “Why are you reading that book? You know how it ends, don’t you?” “Uh, I have an idea,” I answered lowering the book to my lap, “but it will be OK. I’m sure the author will work it out in the next book.” “Mmm. Well, I don’t understand,” and Brianca returned slowly to her desk, shaking her head disapprovingly as she went.

In spite of Brianca’s warning, I actually went ahead and read Linger. I’m reckless like that. Shockingly, I thought it was great. I mean I’ve only been yakking about Shiver over and over again to anyone who’ll listen (or pretends to listen) and this is the sequel.

What makes it so great, you ask? Really? Haven’t you been paying any attention at all? Fine. Grace Brisbane is one of the greatest female YA heroines around. She is still smart (for the most part), independent, and is missing all of the things about girls that I don’t like - whining (I really hate whining), gossiping, obsessing over everything. In short, she is amazing.

That said, I do not like everyone in Shiver. Grace’s parents are pretty much failures as parents. You don’t ignore your teenaged child - unless you actually want them to turn into drug addicts - and if you are stupid or lazy enough to do so, you can’t expect to be able to turn around suddenly and start telling them what to do. In this case, the child is definitely smarter than the parents.

As for the story, we’re still working with werewolves here. Interestingly, even without the werewolves, this story would absolutely still work. The werewolves just make everything more awesome.

So what was Brianca’s problem? OK, so the ending might not be entirely satisfactory, but the direction it takes seems logical - that is, if stories about werewolves can be logical. Besides, the next book is titled Forever, and if you have any higher reading skills whatsoever, you can guess that everything will work out fine.

LAME FACTOR: A very big 0 for lameness - in spite of Grace’s highly irritating mother.

YOUR PARENTS WILL FREAK FACTOR: Some drug, alcohol, and sex references but nothing too explicit. It’s hard to imagine that anyone will care - unless, of course, your mom turns out to be like Grace’s mom.

BRAIN POWER: Well-written but manageable for anyone with a brain.