Wolves of Mercy Falls Books In Order

Publication Order of The Wolves of Mercy Falls Books

About Wolves of Mercy Falls:

Author Maggie Stiefvater is a famous Young Adult novelist, with three bestselling and heavily awarded series—as well as a new one to start and be released soon. Most of her novels are somewhere in the genre of fantasy, whether her characters are (or deal with) werewolves, faeries, or potentially fatal races for sport.

One sub-genre of YA literature deals with teenagers who are and/or battle against mythological creatures in an otherwise modern world. The Twilight series by Stephanie Meyers was the catalyst for many to realize that such a sub-genre exists. Whether you belong to the legions who either curse or worship the Twilight series, there are various other kinds of novels in this sub-genre that are worth checking out even if you’re among those who loathe the Twilight books.

One of such series is Maggie Stiefvater’s series: The Shiver trilogy or, as it’s also called, The Wolves of Mercy Falls series. The main trilogy consists of Shiver (2009), Linger (2010), and Forever (2011). Stiefvater has announced that a standalone fourth novel will be released later this July, and is titled Sinner.

WELCOME TO MERCY FALLS

The series takes place in a fictional town called Mercy Falls, although Stiefvater has said that for those who need to know, she considers its location to be near the (real) town of Ely, Minnesota.

Stiefvater employs a vast cast of characters for the Shiver trilogy, but the main plot focuses mainly on four main characters and their interactions with each other and those around them. These characters are Grace, Sam, Isabel, and Cole. (Grace and Sam narrate alternate chapters in Shiver, and all four of them alternate in both Linger and Forever.)

Grace Brisbane is a teenage girl who, we’re told right at the opening of Shiver, was attacked by wolves when she was 11 years old. She survived because one of those wolves saved her from the others—a white wolf with yellow eyes. Ever since then she watches out for him in her backyard, where every winter he makes several appearances—almost as if he’s watching her, making sure that she’s okay….

Sam used to be human—until he was kidnapped from his bus stop and bitten, turning him into a werewolf. Now he lives with a “pack” of other werewolves in Mercy Falls. He’s the one who saved Grace and he’s the one who goes back to visit her in his wolf form.

Isabel Culpepper is the sister of Jack, a teenager who is assumed to be dead after he’s bitten and turned into a werewolf and then disappears. She has an on-and-off relationship with Cole. Her sarcastic personality causes most people to label her as being cold and emotionless when the opposite is actually true.

Cole was a former band member before he was bitten and turned into a werewolf. As a human, he made a habit of sleeping with countless female fans and using a good amount of drugs and alcohol. As a wolf, he continues to drink and shoot up on occasion, and he has an on-and-off relationship with Isabel.

Last but not least, is Shelby—the recurring villain over the span of the Shiver trilogy. Shelby is a werewolf who’s also taken in to the “pack” in Mercy Falls, although she proves to be a lot more troubled than the others—even Cole. Where exactly she’s from is never told, but it’s made pretty clear that she was physically and sexually abused wherever that was. Becoming a werewolf gives her an able excuse to put her past far, far behind her. As a result of that, however, she becomes more than a little obsessed with her werewolf life and, of all the werewolves, she’s the most wolf-like to the point where she hardly seems human anymore.

A MOVE TO THE BIG SCREEN?

The film rights to Shiver were achieved but, according to Stiefvater, the movie ended up being canceled due to creative differences. Stiefvater says that she wouldn’t be objected to a movie being done, but that if it was done it would be done in a way that her fans would enjoy it.

SINNER

Sinner is the standalone companion for The Wolves of Mercy Falls series, and is set to be released in July of 2014. Stiefvater says that it can be read separate from the others, and that chronologically it takes place after the conclusion of Forever.

For a sizeable chunk of the Shiver trilogy, the focus—or at least the nucleus—of the plot seems to be on Grace and Sam. In Sinner, it’s Isabel and Cole’s chance to truly enter the spotlight.

Sinner gives the reader a chance to explore the characters of Isabel and Cole and their relationship—why it’s on-and-off again and whether it’ll ever be permanently on or off.

RECEPTION & REVIEWS

The Wolves of Mercy Falls series brings a powerful example of paranormal romance to the YA genre—one to rival, some may argue, even the Twilight series. Either way, critics and laymen readers alike agree that the Shiver trilogy is a series worth reckoning with.

Some readers (usually ones who also disliked the Twilight series) claim that the Shiver is an excuse to write/read about lightly shielded bestiality. They claim that Grace is selfish, that she abandons her family, her friends, and general human decency in order to protect Sam. Some even go so far as to claim that Shiver is worse than Twilight and that it doesn’t deserve the attention it’s gotten.

Defenders of the series remind the dissenters of several things: first being that Grace had a traumatic experience at a young age. Maybe Sam was initially tempted to eat her (he was starving and in his wolf form at the time), but he didn’t and Grace is completely unaware of this fact. To Grace, at a time when she most needed a savior, she saw one in the yellow-eyed wolf (later revealed to be Sam). Furthermore, her trauma and her psychologically latching onto “her wolf” (her pet name for Sam before she meets him officially) seems plausible considering that the traumatic event occurred when she was young and that her both of her parents, for the most part, pay little to no attention to her, which could encourage—or at least allow—her mind to wander to less conventional means. Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, Grace’s attachment to Sam is (initially) a non-romantic attachment. Her romantic feelings for him develop after she meets him in his human form and after they spend some time together.

Nevertheless, there is hardly any way of taking any novel that would be satisfactory for everyone. We all each have our preferences.

If you do happen to like paranormal romance, or even YA in general, then at least taking a look at The Wolves of Mercy Falls is a must.