Linger

Linger is the second book in the Wolves of Mercy Falls series by Maggie Stiefvater.  (FYI, I read on Maggie's blog that Stiefvater is pronounced "Steve-otter."  In case you were wondering.)  While I wasn't all that impressed with the first book, Shiver, I thought Linger was even worse.

Linger picks up where Shiver left off, with Sam no longer a wolf because of the bacterial meningitis that gave him a horribly high fever.  Sam continues to worry that this "cure" won't be permanent, that the cold Minnesota air will turn him back into a wolf.  That isn't his only concern, though.  Something is very wrong with his girlfriend, Grace, and while Sam thinks he knows what it is, he doesn't want to believe it because it would mean that Grace could no longer be with him.

I really had a hard time caring about anything that happened in this second book.  It felt more like it was written simply to be a bridge between the first and third books.  Things moved very slowly, and I wasn't at all interested in what was occurring until the last 40 pages of the book.  Also, Linger was written from four different points of view, and with multiple characters narrating the same chapter at times, it was difficult to keep the narrator straight.  I got confused so many times that I had to look back to remind myself who was narrating the section I was reading.

The only things I really liked about Linger were the cover (I love the bright green, with the girl walking into the woods and the wolf watching her) and the green ink the book was printed in.  I'm so disenchanted with this book that I don't know if I want to read the final book when it's released.  I will most likely skim it, but only to have some kind of closure.

2.25/5