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Updated November 21, 2021

Forever, the third book in the Shiver Trilogy by Maggie Stiefvater was hotly anticipated in my house. This wonderful YA series about teens falling in love in a small town called Mercy Falls, finding out that who you are is so much more important than what you are. As this third book in the series was announced, I actually put a note in my calendar on the release day so I could get it as soon as possible. I may or may not also have repeatedly checked between midnight and 1 AM on July 12, just in case it would actually be listed exactly as July 11 became July 12, but alas, no. Might have something to do with time zones or staff not being around listed that such a time (imagine!), but either way, having to wait until I got up in the morning was torture.

As you may remember from my review of Shiver, book one in the series, I thought it may have been the most perfect book I’d ever read. I also loved book tow, Linger, lthough not with the same fervor — most likely because living up to perfection is pretty impossible.

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So once I’d downloaded the audiobook version of Forever, you’d think I’d immediately have started reading.  But no, not really. In those first couple of days, I almost had Forever avoidance because reading the book meant being finished with the series and that was a really hard thing to think of, I eventually got a grip and moved on. A few spoilers ahead, primarily about book two, Linger.

When we last saw Sam, Grace, Cole and Isabelle, they had figured out what was wrong with Grace and how to save her from dying and in the last scene, she disappeared from the hospital room.

In Forever, spring is coming to Mercy Falls and changes are in the air. Tom Culpepper, Isabelle’s dad, is on a mission to destroy the wolf pack, campaigning for an aerial hunt. Cole is experimenting with various substances, on a quest to find a cure to save the wolves, Sam is waiting for Grace to return while being scrutinized by the Mercy Falls community and police force as the main suspect in killing her and Grace is having her own barriers to coming home (which is as vague as I can make it for those of you who haven’t read the first books). The rest of the story centers around Sam and Grace reuniting, Isabelle and Cole dancing back and forth, the quest to find a cure and saving the Boundary Woods wolf pack.

As in the two earlier books, Stiefvater’s prose is breathtaking and its melancholic grace has a habit of quietly breaking your heart (in a good way). I loved this series as a whole and each book individually, but I remain ridiculously partial to Shiver. There’s part of me that thinks it should have been a standalone book, a story of such perfection that to continue it in the same way is impossible. Any follow-up will be flawed and I’ve already shared some of my quibbles with Linger. I have less issues with Forever. There are no screechers — y’know, that awful sound of a needle skidding across a record — but still. The events became sort of easy to predict and there are moments I would’ve liked fleshed out, especially the ending. It felt rushed, not fully developed and I felt as if had there been only another 10 pages at the most, I would’ve put the book in the series down with a deeper sense of satisfaction. As it is, I felt there was something missing, as if it wasn’t quite done and nothing in the three books had prepared me for that. Stiefvater may have stuttered once or twice, but she never rushed you or the characters, so that this was sort of odd. As quibbles go, though, hardly worth mentioning.

The narration was wonderful. I still like the Sam narrator better in Shiver than the other two, but the new narrator grew on me. Jenna Lamia as Grace was pitch perfect and based on her Grace and her narration in The Help, I’m definitely going to be looking for more of the books she’s narrated. Dan Bittner as Cole and Emma Galvin as Isabelle are also beautifully cast and truly bring their characters to life.

So with my wee quibbles with moments in the Shiver Trilogy, would I still recommend it? Absolutely! I might even go out and buy the series as gifts. For several people. They are true gems; lyrical and with a quiet beauty that means I’ll be reading them again and again.

Also see my reviews of the other books in the series: Shiver (book 1) and Linger (book 2).