Paperback Castles

"Shiver" by Maggie Stiefvater left me torn and undecided, and I am lost somewhere between adoration and disgust.

The book holds a certain tone of beautiful heart shattering melancholy, and it has a ghostly atmosphere of sadness and loss. The writing contains vivid imagery, and made me feel cold on a warm spring day.
The story is by no means a realistic account of true feelings, it is rather a lyrical tale of a poetical love. The dialogue isn't witty or even believable - but it is stunning.

On the other hand, there is almost no plot at all. The majority of the pages are "wasted" on sincere descriptions of a deep love, and when something dramatic actually is happening it seems misplaced and wrong.
Grace and Sam do not feel real; they're just pretty reflections of Stiefvater's artistic phrases. And their surroundings feel flat and tame; Stiefvater does not really describe anything else but Grace and Sam, their love, their heartache and the atmosphere in the woods.

I adore Stiefvater's writing, her compositions and her words, but I despise her simple story and her lack of characterization. Sam does not feel convincing. Grace is highly illogical. And their thoughts blend together in a hazy blur, so it's impossible to tell them apart. They do not have individual personalities, they only have each other and their mutual love.