Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Forever

It's time to say goodbye to one of the most amazing series I've read in a long time! It's so sad that series need to end at a certain point in life... I feel so miserable when it ends because they are so good. And also today, I kind of feel sad because it's all over! I'm talking about Forever by Maggie Stiefvater which is from the Wolves of Mercy Falls series. 


Sam needs to risk his own life to keep the person he loved most safe. For her he would do anything, even face his own inner demons which has been something he wanted to avoid forever. Not getting a chance to live his life, Sam will try and safe her together with the new friends he has made. But saving her also means being targeted by people and trusting people he never thought he would trust. Will all that be enough to safe her?

This book is of a series and isn't the first book in the series, if you haven't read the books then I strongly recommend not to continue and go to the review of the Shiver! If you read Shiver already then I also recommend not to read on in this review but go to my review on Linger.

Maggie Stiefvater goes out with a bang! This book, again, took me into its world of wolves and danger but also the world of all the mixed feelings and different personalities. What I adored most in this book was the fact that there were still the four plot lines like in the book before this one, Linger.

In the beginning of Linger, I wasn't sure if this was a good thing or not these extra plot lines. This mostly because during a chapter the plot lines would change. You'd start with Sam and then go over to Isabel and so on. I was a little scared of this in the beginning because there are 4 different POV's and therefore it might become a little too much and too confusing? But after a while, I had to admit that this wasn't the case at all. In fact, I really enjoyed to be in so many heads and know what they were thinking and how they were feeling in that same moment. This caused in the beginning of Forever that I was absolutely happy because I still had the chance on being in four different personalities!

Of course the two story lines which we have been in contact with the most, were the ones of Grace and Sam. In this book, their strengths were accentuated which I always have been a great fan of. Grace is the one with mostly the brains. She will think if it's a good idea, see if it's logical and if they can make it happen while Sam is her opposite and thinks mostly with his heart. This makes him somewhat weaker in comparison with her but in this book we will see that this really is his strength. Naturally, their weaknesses will come around too, there are moments where we can see they're having a hard time and feel lost in that moment. I was keen that their strengths were the most important but was also very happy that we saw their weaknesses shine through. That made sure that the characters were a lot alike us because also we have our strengths and weaknesses and we're also confronted with them daily. 

The following story line was the one of Isabel. I already mentioned in the review of Linger that I was really keen on her because she has a very sarcastic personality but also always said what needed to be said. I also said that she was suffering due to certain circumstances, in this book we see that she has gotten over those circumstances and is her best self again. Of course we often see her rethink about the past and crawl back into a dark space in her head. Yet overall we can conclude that Isabel has shown her strongest part in this book!

But also her POV won't only show you her strengths! Her weaknesses will shine through and with those we got to see another side of her. She isn't as confident as I first would have described her. Isabel will act cruel at times and her laugh could kill but because of the last important character, we can see that Isabel does suffer from her own insecurities. Above that we also get to see her bond with her parents and get to know that she doesn't like going in discussions with them. This will form a big dilemma for her near the end of the book and give us some major, shocking news! 

The person that still influences Isabel the most, is our last character that gets his own story line: Cole St. Clair. And I have to say that this character has shown the biggest development in this book. When in Linger I thought we had unraveled everything there was about Cole, I was wrong. Forever will give you the whole picture of Cole St. Clair and also show the readers how you get out of a dark place. Cole suffers a lot and will finally explain how he really feels, this time around he won't hide himself after a smile but he will be confronted with the past. This said, Cole will make a huge change and become so different that I wouldn't recognize him in comparison to the first book he came in. 

Above that this character will mostly be confronted with his weaknesses but will make them his strengths. He will give major adjustments to the story and we even could call him a big hero! What I absolutely loved with his character too were the many discussions between him and Isabel. These create tension between the characters and give a very pleasant feeling for the reader. What I did miss in the book was more interaction between them near the ending and I hoped on a lot more feelings on their bond which I really missed out on. 

This said about the characters, I feel it is time to talk a bit more about the plot itself. The plot was building further onto the plots of the first two books but was also going to it's highest point because it is the last book. This caused a lot of tension which I was absolutely crazy about! 

I still had a lot of questions from the first two books that were left unanswered and was very happy that these questions all were answered in the last book! Also one character who is discussed a lot by flashbacks of Sam will come around again and will add to the craziness in the plot! 

Yet in this book there will be a huge mission that needs to be solved and the characters will all have to work together to create a solution. This was also the part that was influenced a lot by Cole and by close bystanders of Isabel! These two persons will add more tension and create more feelings to this book! I can already tell you guys that I was shocked at the end but also very exciting by everything that was created and succeeded! 

A thing that I found a little bit confusing was the ending! I'm not going to spill anything, I'm just saying that I'm not really sure what the end really is now and how I should interpret it. This might be something only I have had a difficult time with but there might be others too. I read the author's note to find out if what I made of it might have been explained in it but there wasn't an explanation. It's a pity that the end was so abrupt and confusing on my part. But as I said, it might be me!

Overall this book was as a amazing as the first two books! The plot builds onto the other plots and answers a lot of questions. The strengths are accentuated but also the weaknesses will shine through which makes sure the characters are very reliable and very realistic. The book will give you a huge dilemma and task that's fueled and influenced by other characters which gives you all the more feels such as romance, excitement, thrill and tension! I wished this series would never, never end but of course to everything good comes an end but I can say that I'm really satisfied with this series and definitely recommend it! 

"Grace, this isn't how it ends."



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