Forever by Maggie Stiefvater
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Review Featured on the Figment Review.
http://blog.figment.com/2011/07/12/forev...


Forever is the last installment in Maggie Stiefvater’s The Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy. When I heard Scholastic had copies at Book Expo America, I literally screamed with happiness. I got ahold of a copy at the show and kept it as a treasure. But I didn’t read it. Why? I was scared. So I let the book run free to all my friends, until Ellen, my editor from Figment, sent me her copy. So…ta-da! Here is your July review from Kay!

We all know that with Maggie’s books there comes a feeling of angst married with the joy of reading. You get both or nothing. And believe me, you get a truckload of teenage angst delivered right to your front door with Forever.

But seriously, Forever was the book of patience; the book where characters fight their own ghosts. Cole faces his desire to disappear from the face of the earth, Sam confronts his need to stay Sam, Grace struggles to embrace herself openly for the first time no matter what, and Isabel finally stands up for something other than new shoes.

In this book, you get to live Grace’s first spring as a wolf, Sam’s first spring as Sam, Cole’s first spring as a decent human being, and Isabel’s first spring caring about someone other than herself.

Forever begins after a girl’s body shows up mutilated by wolves in the middle of the woods. Isabel’s dad, that dear, stubborn Culpepper, plans to bring the big guns into the woods to take care of the wolf problem once and for all.

Get the big picture? I’m talking about helicopters, guns pointed, and bullets shooting cold-blooded straight into the characters you’ve learned to love over the last 2 years.

So Cole’s evil genius plays a big role in this game. His goal? Be darn awesome. Specifically, try to reverse-engineer the mix that’s allowed Sam to stay Sam. He’s trying to find an actual cure for “wolfism”, experimenting on his body over and over again. But that isn’t enough; the hunt date is coming, so Cole, Sam, Grace, and Isabel need come up with a plan, take action, and learn to trust the unknown. Fast.

Forever is the book of longing, waiting, more longing, and more waiting. You have the chance to be behind the scenes of what makes the characters be the way they are. You wait and hope for Grace to become Grace again. Wait for Sam to take action, wait for Cole to not kill himself doing something stupid, and wait for Isabel to not swear and be helpful for the first time in her life. You read and wait, read and wait—but the wait is well worth it.

Within the book, there are these three brilliant scenes that broke me in half and that I will treasure until the end of my days. Key words are: “If I loved you,” “Dress,” and “Shower.” That’s all I’m saying. These 3 scenes…They made me stare blankly for hours. They were like a good chocolate truffle. So well written, soulful, and worming their way underneath my skin to stay.

I loved every little step of the way. Does it feel slow? Yes, but in a way that builds the feelings of longing,of having no time left, of despair at being at someone else’s mercy.

Now about the ending. When I finished reading, my first instinct was to ask, “Where are the last 15 pages of this book?” I’m still thinking about that today; drawing conclusions in my head of what could have happened. Yes, Forever is one of those books you might want to discuss with people. I have this bittersweet taste in my mouth about how the series ends.

Have you guys read The Time Traveler’s Wife? You know that warm, fuzzy feeling; not quite happy, but with hope? That’s how I feel about the ending of Forever. There’s hope. Just enough hope to close the series, yet not enough to make a happy ending for everyone. Which is perfect, because ladies and gents… I don’t know if you knew this, but life isn’t fair.

Maggie knows what she’s doing;, she knows what she wants her readers to feel and works backwards from there, at least that’s my theory.

I highly recommend that everyone get a hold of Forever. Read it to know what I’m talking about and post comments below when you are ready! We would love to hear what you think!




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Hello world,
It's been a while. Why? I've been working in many goodies coming out in the next month or so. Doing the CRAZY INSANE HOURS. The things we do for our Art.
The fun part of this season compared to others, is that some of the books will extend from the Library Market into retail bookstores!!! Pretty insane, and exciting. TRADE here we GO! So hold on PEEPS.
So what's Up? Other than the ceiling, many things. I've been writing, concepting books, Art Directing, and Designing = HAVING A BLAST.  Being Me. Working with ridiculous talented people everyday. I know I'm lucky. Stress is High, not going to lie. But who cares. There is always a challenge. My brain seems to feed on it constantly.
I wanted to share with you the new babies that are about to come out for our new line of Picture Books. The images you are about to see are from our soon to be release  Picture Window Book, Capstone Fiction, from the title Crabby Pants.

The concept started a 3 month ago. Went through revisions, The first idea was having Roger , the main Character standing instead of the letter "n". But It didn't flight. =0

The Illustrator is a RockStar, Richard Watson from the UK. He is one of the most talented and easy people to work with, his style blows my mind, the emotions in the characters are ridiculous.
This book is going to be pretty sexy at the end of the day... Trust me. I made it. =)

Until next time my friends... More of these treasures to come. Show and tell Thursday is done... so I'm out!

-Kay-

Here is an update in my crazy life adventure of writing. I've finished my first novel. I can't believe it. It's been an amazing experience. Just feeling the story flow in your head the twists and turns. The development of the characters telling you what they want to say at the end of the day.

 The many hours I've spent writting and re-writting, reviewing and talking to my best friend Jess about it, to test the concept, and pick of her brain of course.

The novel was finished 3 weeks ago, it's a trilogy. I've started working on the second  book this weekend and can't wait to see where this adventure takes me.

I'm in the mist of finding a talented editor to work on cleaning the structure of the book.  

So far the story has been read fully by 5 people. The reactions so far, amazingly possitive, I can't believe they love it talk about the characters, like they would about friends. Brings tears to my eyes. 

Here it's my friends! Check it out!

So it's been a couple weeks now that I've been trying to update the look and feel of my own identity for freelance proposes... That was the reason behind updating this blog look and feel but for some reason is super hard to get to the B.cards... Seems soo personal. I started struggling with my own confort... and what represents me as a designer. Judging my solutions way to up close, so i had to get away from it for a couple days until Eureka! Took long enough right.

"Designers hardest judge has to be the designer himself" I always thought... but only if they take their art seriously... And the big responsability that intails.

 Anyways here are the results of lots of work and re-work... The are being printed , with spot UV. I always wanted to do that... =) My question is would I change my cell phone again way to soon? Hey i would totally do it for an Iphone =) thought my little palm has work her magic on me. Vote for your favourite, vertical or horizontal! 

If anybody is wondering where did i got these done here is a the link! They are pretty awesome! http://4colorprint.com

This year has been such and amazing year, I've been travelling a lot! I've been so lucky
and blessed to have a supportive family. I've been to London, Paris, NYC and Buenos Aires.
All in less than a year! I know ridiculous... The best trips of my life...
Here are some of my favourite shots i gathered! I'm sharing some of them with you guys.
Please let me know if you are interested in prints it would be an honor to share them with
you. One of my best friends already asked me for prints, I gave them to her this afternoon.
She loved them and said Wow these are amazing so professional! That is the best of
compliments... Makes going throw 1000000 pictures plus adjusting contrast, colors and
crop in each one of them sooo worth it. 

 

  John and I started an Enviroimental re-design upgrade to our main room in the house.
We went to Ikea last weekend and made it out of thin air. It was an amazing experience
to team up our brains and actually create something together, and hard work on it,
with sweat and tears. Literally. The result our amazing 11 feet tall entretainment
center/bookshelve/Art holder... I know is pretty different and amazing... I hope you
guys hope so. It completly change the look and feel of the room.