Book Review | Sinner | Maggie Stiefvater

Title: Sinner
Author: Maggie Stiefvater (web | twitter)
Series: The Wolves of Mercy Falls #4
Genre: Paranormal YA
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Publisher: Scholastic
Release date: July 1, 2014
Source: ARC from BEA

Sinner follows Cole St. Clair, a pivotal character from the #1 New York Times bestselling Shiver Trilogy. Everybody thinks they know Cole’s story. Stardom. Addiction. Downfall. Disappearance. But only a few people know Cole’s darkest secret — his ability to shift into a wolf. One of these people is Isabel. At one point, they may have even loved each other. But that feels like a lifetime ago. Now Cole is back. Back in the spotlight. Back in the danger zone. Back in Isabel’s life. Can this sinner be saved?

SINNER by Maggie Stiefvater is both a continuation of sorts of her Wolves of Mercy Falls series and something completely separate. Because it’s more of a companion than a sequel, the story of Cole and Isabel has a very different, but still wonderful, vibe from the first three books in the series, and I flew through it. It was nice to touch base with these two again! I didn’t realize how much I missed them and their strong emotional connection and banter. It might’ve helped me to rereread some of the original three books, just to get a refresher on Cole and Isabel’s past together, but I still found SINNER pretty satisfying.

SINNER takes place some time after the end of FOREVER. Cole St. Clair has gone to Los Angeles to appear on a reality TV show meant to showcase his rare musical gifts and to resurrect his band, NARKOTIKA. At least those are his motives on the surface. In reality, Isabel Culpeper has also moved to Los Angeles with her mother, and is working at a trendy clothing boutique while going to nursing school. Cole is putting himself back into the spotlight that nearly killed him once before so that he can try and salvage his relationship with Isabel, who is fighting against her feelings for Cole every day.

One of the things I really liked about SINNER was the way it felt completely different. Where the first three books in the Wolves of Mercy Falls series focus pretty strongly on the wolves and becoming a wolf, SINNER really focuses on Cole and Isabel as humans. Their attraction is palpable and combustible, when they give in to it. Isabel tries to resist it and is sometimes successful, other times not. SINNER reads more like a contemporary romance than a paranormal about werewolves, but despite the wolves being the foundation of this series, I didn’t think SINNER suffered for it at all.

That’s not to say that werewolves don’t play a role in SINNER at all. Maggie Stiefvater takes Cole’s wolfishness and his drug addiction and melds them together in a really great way where Cole isn’t doing narcotics anymore, but he IS taking his “turn me into a werewolf” cocktail and treating his transformation as a way for him to achieve the same end–oblivion from things that are getting to him. I liked this little twist quite a bit. I think it spoke to Cole’s personality well. It’s difficult to overcome addiction, and Cole struggles with it and his guilt over some things that happened earlier in the series. There’s definitely fine line, I think, but what I took away from it is that Cole just has so much haunting him, and being a wolf is one of the only thing that eases his mind. Honestly, it was super hard for me to not want to give Cole ALL THE HUGS.

Mostly, I wanted to give Cole all the hugs because of the glimpses we get of his celebrity persona. It’s completely fake but also weird and interesting and totally unselfconscious and amusing. But when we see him interacting with Isabel, it’s plain that this isn’t the real Cole, and the fact that he can’t be himself kind of broke my heart.

Isabel is her prickly, difficult self and I LOVED IT. She has some AMAZING zingers. I forgot how rough around the edges she is. Living with her mother and aunt and cousin made for an interesting environment for her, particularly her relationship with her cousin. They’re such different girls and I think they are good influences on each other in different ways. But it’s obvious that Isabel is still fighting some very strong feelings for Cole while simultaneously not being able to fight them at all.

The heart of SINNER, though, isn’t about Cole and his reality TV show and it isn’t about Isabel and her crumbling relationship with her family. It’s not even really about wolves, which makes SINNER really stand on its own. Sam and Grace are mentioned very briefly, but you might barely notice them. That’s the force of Cole and Isabel’s attraction to one another. The bottom line is that Maggie Stiefvater has created these two characters who can see through the constructed personas and abrasive defenses and it’s awesome. I can’t imagine these two fitting with anyone else. I loved how Isabel hates that she still has feelings for Cole, and I loved how Cole pursues her but also gives her space. The way they come together and then bounce off and away from one another makes SINNER really satisfying.

Friends, I honestly have never read a Maggie Stiefvater book that I didn’t like at the very least. It’s hard to compare SINNER to the other books in this series because it’s really so insulated, but I enjoyed it all the same. I wouldn’t mind one bit if she decided to write a straight-up contemporary romance one of these days. Obviously I’d read anything she writes, but Cole and Isabel are proof that Maggie Stiefvater can write messed up people who belong together. Who doesn’t love stories like that?