SHIVER by Maggie Stiefvater
Chapters 43-45: Sam and Grace

Olivia returns to school and talks to Grace about Jack after Grace confronts her about the photos. Grace tells Olivia that she was bitten by the wolves, but she never changed, despite what Jack said about her being cured.

After school, Sam asks Grace to go somewhere with him, somewhere out of town. They head toward Duluth to visit a candy shop Sam knew. Sam asks Grace to really smell the shop, not just the chocolate, but the ingredients themselves. Sam buys them hot chocolate, and the girl behind the counter asks how long they’ve been together. “Six years”; and both of them learn how long they’ve really cared for each other. When they leave the shop, they see ripped cloths and a pair of fresh paw prints in the snow.

On the way back from Duluth, Sam’s phone rings, which Grace didn’t even know he had. Beck wanted to know if Sam was ok since it was so cold, and to try to make Sam understand what he’d done. Grace admits that she wants to meet Beck. Sam tells Grace the story of how he was bitten, though now he sees it in a completely different light. They get back to Grace’s empty house, where they go straight to bed, but do very little sleeping. Later Grace wakes up to a phone ringing, and picks it up before she realizes it’s Sam’s. Beck is calling to tell Sam that Paul has been very badly hurt, and it had to be a wolf that did it. Beck asks Sam to come, and tells Grace (whose name he doesn’t know yet) that he wants to meet her.

Memorable Quotes:

“His sad eyes implored me to explore something I’d left untouched for years. Something more than untouched-something I’d buried alive.” (279)

“I wasn’t quite bold enough to look at either of them when I admitted, ‘Well, it was love at first sight” (282)

“She looked beautiful, moonlit, tempting, smelling of peppermint and soap and skin.” (292)

Questions for consideration:

Why did Sam never realize Beck bit him on purpose until now? What does this change?

Why is it so important for beck to meet Grace?

More here.

SHIVER by Maggie Stiefvater
Chapters 37-39: Sam and Grace

Sam rushes downstairs to see Grace pinned to the cabinets by Shelby, in wolf form. The moment Grace sees him, she cries out to him. Sam grabs a skillet and hits Shelby in the hip. She turns and snarls, in her eyes Sam sees the flash of her plan: Grace dying on the kitchen floor while Shelby watches. Sam jumps at her, grabbing her wind pipe, just like Mr. Dario’s dogs, and pins her to the floor. Behind him he hears Grace call out a warning to her dad, then an explosion happens close by. Shelby falls out of Sam’s grip; shot. Sam looks at his arms and sees blood. He flashes back to his parents counting back from three, and somewhere far off he hears Grace call for her parents to help her move him someplace warm.

At the hospital, Grace has explained to her parents what Sam’s parents did to him. Grace’s mother expresses her concern that Sam could become unstable someday, and that maybe Grace shouldn’t see him. Grace says not a chance, and her mother gives up easily. When Sam comes back in, he admits that he doesn’t feel bad about Shelby being dead. Grace and Sam both get rabies shots, because neither of them are going to tell the hospital what was really going on with the wolf. After the shots, the nurse is called away to a female patient going crazy in another room.

The next day, Sam feels exhausted from fighting his almost-change the day before, and Grace tries to finish her homework; but they end up talking about how werewolves came into being. When Grace’s dad comes home, she asks what he did with the body. He tells her he moved it to the porch, and assumes it’s gone because someone called animal control. Grace said she didn’t and her mother is never that on the ball. Sam and Grace realize that Shelby must be alive.

Memorable Quotes:

“Grace. I held on to that one name. If I kept that in my head, I would be okay. Grace.” (237)

“But what if-I asked you not to see him?’ I hadn’t expected that. My voice was brittle. ‘I would say that by virtue of your not acting parental up to this point, you’ve relinquished your ability to wield any power now. Sam and I are together. It’s not an option” (239)

“Grace persisted, ‘Tell me, then. Is it science? Or magic? What you are?’  ‘Does it matter which?’ ‘Of course,’ she said, and her voice was frustrated. ‘Magic would be intangible. Science has cures. Haven’t you ever wondered how it all started?” (244)

Questions for consideration

What does Grace hope to find out about a cure? Do you think there is one?

More here.

SHIVER by Maggie Stiefvater
Chapters 33-36: Sam and Grace

Sam has a dream about Mr. Dario’s (a neighbor of Beck’s) dogs. When Sam was thirteen a new neighbor moved in who had vicious guard dogs. He showed them to everyone living in Beck’s house; he explained that they had electric shock collars so they wouldn’t be able to get off the property. The power box for the shock collars was near the house, covered in black powder. Sam was worried about the dogs, he continually asked Beck to show him how to kill the dogs so he would know how if he had to. Beck started with raw chicken, then videos of dog fights. All of this made Sam sick, but he needed to know how to kill them so he fought through it.

One day towards the beginning of fall, he heard a dog fight break out nearby. Two of Mr. Dario’s dogs were fighting with a black wolf, Paul, and were viciously tearing him apart. Sam started yelling at the dogs and one turned toward him and rushed at him. Sam called for Beck. Sam grabbed the dog attacking Paul, while the other had a death grip on Sam’s shoulder. Sam didn’t let go of the dog attacking Paul, choking him, and the dog attacking him was causing him to lose feeling in his other arm. He threw up that hand to cover the dog’s nose, trying to suffocate it. Ulrik (as a wolf) and Beck showed up; Ulrick jumped into the fight as Beck shot the dogs. Shelby stood in the background, her hands smeared with black powder.

Sam woke up to the sound of toenails on the deck.Over the weekend the two of them watched TV, and Sam asks Grace about her parents. She tries to avoid the subject, but she blurts out how she really feels: neglected and unloved. Later her parents get home and she introduces them to Sam. Even later while grace was doing homework, Sam wanders into Grace’s mother’s studio and she shows him around. Sam plays her a song he wrote for Grace. They sit in silence for a moment after he finishes. Downstairs there is a sudden scream, followed by a snarl.

Memorable Quotes:

‘Is that you, Grace?’ Mom’s voice called lightly from the hallway. ‘Or are you a burglar?’ ‘Burglar,’ I called back. ‘I’m going to wet myself,’ Sam whispered in my ear.” (223)

It’s the summer of our lives; we’ll contain it for awhile/She holds the heat, the breeze of summer in the circle of her hand/I’d be happy with this summer if it’s all we ever had (232)

“Shelby put her shirt back down. ‘It must be hell when we kill something. We must be the worst way to die’ (233).

Questions for consideration:Why do you think Shelby released the dogs?

More here.

SHIVER by Maggie Stiefvater
Chapters 30-32

After school Grace wants to go by Olivia’s.  On the way Sam tries to explain poetry to her when he yelled for her to stop the car.  He had seen Jack the wolf and leapt out of the car to chase after him.  Jack was too far ahead of Sam and Grace pulled him to a stop as it was obvious he was getting too cold.  Once back in the Bronco, Sam warms up and Grace tells him that Isabel talked to Jack.

After Sam dropped Grace off at school the next day, he decided to go back to Beck’s – just in case Beck was there.  Sam isn’t sure how to deal with Jack and would like another human to help him.   When he arrives at Beck’s he sees an SUV and then Beck.  The two are happy to see ach other but Sam feels like something is off.  The two caught up on bits and pieces of what had been going on with them when Sam asked what was thumping in the SUV.  Beck revealed three humans who had obviously been bitten.  Sam is shocked and Beck explains he did it to protect the future of the wolves, to protect their secret.  Sam will have no part of it and leaves.  That night he has trouble sleeping.

The next day is a Saturday and Sam announces to Grace that he’s going to take her on a proper date.  On their way to Mercy Falls, Sam asks Grace if she remembers anything about being attacked.  She tried very hard to remember and then remembered that he had carried her back into her yard.  Giggling with happiness, Grace follows Sam to the bookstore for their first stop on their date.  He takes her up into a loft area and recites poetry to her. When they left the bookstore in search of lunch, they run into Olivia and her brother on the sidewalk. The girls apologize to each other and Olivia asks Grace if she can call her later.  By the time Grace and Sam are in bed, she realizes that she had tried to call Olivia twice and Olivia hadn’t called back.

Memorable Quotes:

“You’re like a song that I herd when I was a little kid but forgot I knew until I heard it again.”

Questions for consideration:

What do you think is going on with Olivia?

More here.

SHIVER by Maggie Stiefvater
Chapters 27-29

When Grace and Sam pull up to her house, her parents are home.  Grace snuck Sam into the house.  As they get into bed, Sam is having thoughts of being closer to Grace.  She admits that she wished she had changed into wolf when she was bitten.  Sam tells her that she doesn’t want it, because you lose yourself in the process. They talk about Sam and how he didn’t change this year except when he got shot.  He thinks Grace realizes too that it’s his last year as a human.

Rachel surprised Grace and Sam when she jumped into the Bronco at school the next morning.  Rachel is crazy hyper on coffee and isn’t too inquisitive about Sam.  She does mention that there is wolf action going on that Olivia knows about.  Rachel tells Grace that a wolf showed up on Olivia’s porch and that Rachel wants her and Olivia to go on vacation with her over Christmas break (she said she was hyper!).  Isabel Culpepper approaches Grace in class and demands to speak with her.  Isabel says that she saw Jack and he told her that Grace knew about him.  Grace lied and said she knew nothing.

While Sam waits for Grace to finish school for the day, he drives to the post office to check Beck’s post office box.  Sam recalls Beck and the other wolves teaching him as a boy.  He remembers Shelby and her fiery attitude and how Beck tried to protect him from the truth that he would ultimately not be human.  Once he arrived at the post office, he finds that there isn’t much mail, which means someone has checked it recently.

Memorable Quotes:

“Right now, every phrase, every lyric that I had in my head ended with the same word: love.”

Questions for consideration: