History Literature / WolvesOfMercyFallsSeries

* DoingInTheWizard: The mechanics for lycanthropy have fairly clear rules but no explanation in ''Shiver'', but in ''Linger'', Cole puts his blood under a microscope and determines that lycanthropy has a physical, if not entirely scientific, cause. Werewolves transform as an immune response to a toxin, and such transformation can be induced with drugs.

* TheImmune: Grace was bitten by the wolves as a child but failed to transform to the confusion of Sam and Beck. A few weeks after the attack, Grace's parents left her in behind in a hot car and the heatstroke seemingly cured her lycanthropy. In ''Shiver'', [[spoiler:Shelby]] attacks her in the present but she still fails to transform. [[spoiler:This immunity is downplayed in ''Linger'' as she is still has the toxin that triggers the transformations in the first place and falls ill because of it. Cole then reinfects her to save her life and triggers her transformation.]]

* SupernaturalGoldEyes: Sam has a pair of golden eyes like a wolf in both forms, and is a werewolf. [[spoiler: Subverted as he was born with them as a totally normal boy. However, Beck targeted him for conversion because of them, believing he was born to be a werewolf.]]

* TheyWouldCutYouUp: Sam cites this as the reason why the wolves never sought medical help for their condition and take great legal and physical pains to conceal their existence. However, a side character travels to Minneapolis in ''Forever'' and tells the doctors at a mental hospital that he transforms into a wolf ... and returns with anti-psychotics as they didn't take him seriously. %% TF's his name?

* LowFantasy: Sinner especially has little to do with the werewolf aspect at all

* TechnicolorEyes: Sam's eyes are naturally yellow. Upon first meeting Grace and Rachel at the bookstore, he explains them as being contacts to deflect attention.

At the start of ''Shiver'', Grace is bitten by the wolves that live behind her house, but she is saved by a different wolf with mysterious yellow eyes. After that incident, Grace becomes obsessed with the wolves; more specifically, her yellow-eyed wolf.

The yellow-eyed wolf, however, lives a double life. During the winter, he is an animal wandering through the forest, but when summer arrives, Sam and all the other wolves behind Grace's house turn human.

The second book, ''Linger'', was published in July 2010. The conclusion, ''Forever'', was released in July 2011. A fourth entry in the series ''Sinner,'' a continuation focusing on side characters [[AscendedExtra Cole and Isabel]] was released in 2014.

* BrilliantButLazy: Cole, a playboy rockstar rolling in drugs and money. He also turns out to a fairly good chemist who determines the real reason why the werewolves transform and develops a serum to induce it on demand.

* InvoluntaryShapeshifting: The werewolves transform depending on the temperature. How cold it needs to be for a werewolf to shift from human to wolf and back again depends. [[spoiler: Due to his [[PowerIncontinence]], Cole develops a serum that induces transformation on demand.]]

* PowerIncontinence: Cole St. Clair in ''Linger'' can't stay a wolf [[spoiler: due to heavy use of drugs affecting his brain chemistry]].

* TechnicolorEyes: Sam's eyes are naturally yellow.
* TheirFirstTime: Sam and Grace in ''Shiver''
* TheyWouldCutYouUp: Sam cites this as the reason why the wolves never sought medical help for their condition and take great legal and physical pains to conceal their existence. However, a side character travels to Minneapolis in ''Forever'' and tells the doctors at a mental hospital that he transforms into a wolf ... and returns with anti-psychotics as they didn't take him seriously.

%%* AmbitionIsEvil: Shelby

** In ''Sinner'', Victor's sister calls out Cole for partying and participating in a reality show while Victor is still missing. Cole says Victor's in rehab [[spoiler: but in reality was killed by Mr. Culpeper in ''Linger'']].

** As a child, Grace got dragged out of her backyard swingset and into the woods by a pack of wolves, and it is implied that they were going to ''eat her'' if not for Sam's intervention. She then gets left behind in a locked car and nearly dies of heatstroke.

* BrokenPedestal: Sam looks up to his adoptive father and mentor Beck, but that image unravels when he discovers that [[spoiler: Beck was responsible for making him a werewolf in the first place and has been making more werewolves when he said he wouldn't subject anyone else to the curse]].

* IJustWantToBeNormal: Many of the werewolves feel this way.

* InvoluntaryShapeshifting: The werewolves. Shifting all depends on the temperature. How cold it needs to be for a werewolf to shift from human to wolf depends.

* TheKeyIsBehindTheLock: In ''Shiver'', Grace locks herself and Sam out of her car while the keys are still hanging in the ignition. PlayedForDrama as it is rapidly getting colder and Sam needs to warm up.

* LossOfIdentity: The werewolves effectively lose all memories of who they were as humans and [[TheMindIsAPlayThingOfTheBody receive the minds of wolves]] when they transform. This is eventually permanent.
%%* LoveAtFirstSight: Grace and Sam.
%% * LoveMakesYouEvil: Shelby.

* PlotHole: In ''Shiver'', Grace somehow manages to lock herself out of the Bronco ... while the keys are still hanging in the ignition.

* NakedFirstImpression: Isabel and Cole in ''Linger''

* {{Foreshadowing}}: In ''Shiver'', while Grace is buying a new car [[spoiler:Sam jokes to Grace that if the car "hit a deer it would just hiccup and keep going". Much later the car does in fact hit a deer and breaks down. To make matters worse, without the car heater keeping Sam warm, he finally shifts permanently into a wolf but not before tearfully saying goodbye to Grace and Beck]].

* LoveMakesYouEvil: Shelby.

* ShapeshifterModeLock: After a number of winters, werewolves stop transforming back into humans and stay wolves for roughly the natural lifespan of a normal wolf. In ''Shiver'', Beck and Sam are both facing their last winters.

%%* InterSpeciesRomance: Sam and Grace.

* PowerIncontinence: Cole St. Clair in ''Linger'' can't stay a wolf due to heavy use of drugs affecting his brain chemistry.

* WakingUpInTheMorgue: Implied to have happened with Jack, as his body was mentioned to have disappeared from the morgue after being attacked by wolves.

%%* AlphaBitch: Isabel starts off as this.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: The series has a rather... odd explanation for werewolf transformation. Once you're bitten, the transformation into a full-blown wolf is triggered by cold temperatures. (Living in a hot climate to stop this has no effect, since even a sudden blast of air conditioning can kick off the transformation.) But it's not this. In one of the books, one of the characters has not taken well to being bitten, and it is then discovered that perhaps bacterial meningitis could stop the transformation, seeing as breaking out into a fever pre-transformation almost cured one of the characters. So yeah... injecting somebody with bacterial meningitis somehow ''helps'' rather than hinders.

* BrokenPedestal: Sam looks up to his adoptive father and mentor Beck, but that image unravels when he discovers that [[spoiler: Beck was responsible for making him a werewolf in the first place and has been making more werewolves when he said he would subject anyone else to the curse]].

* FullyEmbracedFiend: Shelby. And Cole to a lesser extent

%%* LastNameBasis: Beck.

* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: The wolves receive their ability when they are bitten by a person already infected with the werewolf disease. Unlike traditional werewolves, they turn into wolves only during the winter; in warm weather they are normal human beings. The older they get however, the longer they stay wolves, until finally one summer they don't change back at all. And they can't just move south; if they do they only become more sensitive to temperature change, to the point where even the slightest change in temperature can cause them to shift. The first book ''Shiver'' is about a boy and a girl who try to find a way to fight this. [[spoiler:In the sequel ''Linger'', we find out that the cure from the first book might not be a cure at all -- and that the reason they change into wolves might have more to do with brain chemistry than the weather]].

* SupernaturalGoldEyes: Sam in both human and wolf form.

%%* BrilliantButLazy: Cole

* ArtMajorBiology: The series has a rather... odd explanation for werewolf transformation. Once you're bitten, the transformation into a full-blown wolf is triggered by cold temperatures. (Living in a hot climate to stop this has no effect, since even a sudden blast of air conditioning can kick off the transformation.) But it's not this. In one of the books, one of the characters has not taken well to being bitten, and it is then discovered that perhaps bacterial meningitis could stop the transformation, seeing as breaking out into a fever pre-transformation almost cured one of the characters. So yeah... injecting somebody with bacterial meningitis somehow ''helps'' rather than hinders.

* StalkerWithACrush: Sam, even if he was a wolf at the time, and Shelby gets like this with Sam, too.

* AlphaBitch: Isabel starts off as this.
* AmbitionIsEvil: Shelby

* BrilliantButLazy: Cole
* CallingTheOldManOut: Grace does this to her parents [[OnceASeason Once A Book]].
* ChekhovsGunman: Officer Koening
*ContrivedCoincidence: So, wait, our [[HeelFaceTurn new ally]] [[spoiler: Officer Koenig]] just ''happens'' to have [[spoiler: inherited a tract of land which is absolutely ''perfect'' for relocating the pack?]] Really?

* EarnYourHappyEnding

* GenkiGirl: Grace's friend Rachel.

* ImportantHaircut: Isabel gets one in ''Linger''.
* InterSpeciesRomance: Sam and Grace.
* InsufferableGenius: Isabel

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Isabel and Cole.
* LastNameBasis: Beck.
* LoveAtFirstSight: Grace and Sam.

* FoodPorn: The description of the candy shop in ''Shiver'' may make you drool. * FreudianExcuse: Subverted. Although readers are told that Shelby's past life was appalling (and heck, it must have been to create someone so spectacularly fucked-up) her backstory is never used to justify her AxCrazy deeds.

* IJustWantToBeNormal: Many of the werewolves feel this way.

* WrongGenreSavvy: Rachel displays this in ''Literature/{{Forever}}'', refusing to come near Sam (who is a suspected murderer), and basically displaying more sense than any girl in a horror movie ever has...too bad she's in a teen romance book, and not the next ''Film/FridayThe13th''.

%% * AbusiveParents: ''All of them''. Sam's parents take the cake, but Grace's should've been put away for neglect long ago. Also Shelby's parents, and possibly the Culpepers as well.
%% * AlphaBitch: Isabel starts off as this.
%% * AmbitionIsEvil: Shelby

%% * BrilliantButLazy: Cole
%% * CallingTheOldManOut: Grace does this to her parents [[OnceASeason Once A Book]].
%% * ChekhovsGunman: Officer Koening
%% * ContrivedCoincidence: So, wait, our [[HeelFaceTurn new ally]] [[spoiler: Officer Koenig]] just ''happens'' to have [[spoiler: inherited a tract of land which is absolutely ''perfect'' for relocating the pack?]] Really?

%% * DownerEnding: The end of ''Linger'' [[spoiler:undoes ''everything'' the protagonists tried to accomplish in ''Shiver'', only mixing it up by having Grace turn into the wolf]].
%% * DroppedABridgeOnHim: The girl Shelby kills in the opening of ''Forever''? [[spoiler: Olivia, absent since the end of ''Shiver''. We don't find out it's her until later.]]
%% * EarnYourHappyEnding
%% * FakeOutMakeOut: Cole and Isabel in ''Forever''.

%% * FoodPorn: The description of the candy shop in ''Shiver'' may make you drool.
%% * FreudianExcuse: Subverted. Although readers are told that Shelby's past life was appalling (and heck, it must have been to create someone so spectacularly fucked-up) her backstory is never used to justify her AxCrazy deeds.
%% * FullyEmbracedFiend: Shelby. And Cole to a lesser extent
%% * GenkiGirl: Grace's friend Rachel.
%% * HandsOffParenting: Grace's parents. Her mom cares more about her art than her daughter essentially. In ''Forever'', she claims this is because [[FreudianExcuse her parents made her life miserable]] [[MyBelovedSmother by never letting her do anything she wanted.]]

%% * IJustWantToBeNormal: Many of the werewolves feel this way.
%% * ImportantHaircut: Isabel gets one in ''Linger''.
%% * InterSpeciesRomance: Sam and Grace.
%% * InsufferableGenius: Isabel

%% * JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Isabel and Cole.
%% * LastNameBasis: Beck.
%% * LoveAtFirstSight: Grace and Sam.
%% * LoveMakesYouEvil: Shelby.
%% * LoveTriangle: A small one with Grace/Sam/Shelby. [[LoveDodecahedron Grace/Sam/Isabel and Cole/Isabel/Sam]] are both teased -- most overtly with an IndirectKiss between Sam and Isabel at the beginning of ''Linger'' -- but [[AbortedArc neither goes anywhere.]]
%% * LowFantasy: Sinner especially has little to do with the werewolf aspect at all
%% * MadScientist: Cole in ''Forever'', extending to [[spoiler:making himself a guinea pig for his own experiments]].

%% * NakedFirstImpression: Isabel and Cole in ''Linger''
%% * NiceJobBreakingItHero: At the end of ''Linger'', it turns out [[spoiler: lycanthropy is actually the body's (super)natural defense mechanism against a toxin- spread by the bites- that kills the victim slowly. "Curing" the shifts merely causes the toxin to kill the victim ''faster'']].

%% * ProudWarriorRaceGuy: Shelby feels this way about being a wolf.

%% * RichBitch: Isabel. Until she gets CharacterDevelopment, anyway.

%% * ShadowArchetype: Cole to Sam, as TheLancer sub-type.

%% * StalkerWithACrush: Sam, even if he was a wolf at the time, and Shelby gets like this with Sam, too.

%% * SupernaturalGoldEyes: Sam in both human and wolf form.

%% * TheirFirstTime: Sam and Grace in ''Shiver''
%% * {{Tsundere}}: Isabel. She's almost always in tsun-mode but she does have her occasional dere moments,

%% * WhatTheHellHero:
%% ** Isabel to Sam in ''Linger'', for [[spoiler:ignoring the fact that Grace is ''dying'' so as not to ruin their "Dream life"]].
%% ** And again in ''Forever'', for ''still'' not doing anything about it [[spoiler:even after Grace turns wolf]].
%% * WrongGenreSavvy: Rachel displays this in ''Literature/{{Forever}}'', refusing to come near Sam (who is a suspected murderer), and basically displaying more sense than any girl in a horror movie ever has...too bad she's in a teen romance book, and not the next ''Film/FridayThe13th''.

''Wolves of Mercy Falls'' is a book trilogy written by Maggie Stiefvater which takes place in Mercy Falls, Minnesota.

* AbusiveParents: ''All of them''. Sam's parents take the cake, but Grace's should've been put away for neglect long ago. Also Shelby's parents, and possibly the Culpepers as well.
* AlphaBitch: Isabel starts off as this.
* AmbitionIsEvil: Shelby

* BrilliantButLazy: Cole
* CallingTheOldManOut: Grace does this to her parents [[OnceASeason Once A Book]].
* ChekhovsGunman: Officer Koening
* DeusExMachina / ContrivedCoincidence: So, wait, our [[HeelFaceTurn new ally]] [[spoiler: Officer Koenig]] just ''happens'' to have [[spoiler: inherited a tract of land which is absolutely ''perfect'' for relocating the pack?]] Really?
* DiabolusExMachina: In an unusual form: [[spoiler: a deer]].
* DownerEnding: The end of ''Linger'' [[spoiler: undoes ''everything'' the protagonists tried to accomplish in ''Shiver'', only mixing it up by having Grace turn into the wolf.]]
* [[DroppedABridgeOnHim Dropped A Bridge On Her]]: The girl Shelby kills in the opening of ''Forever''? [[spoiler: Olivia, absent since the end of ''Shiver''. We don't find out it's her until later.]]
* [[spoiler: EarnYourHappyEnding]]
* FakeOutMakeOut: Cole and Isabel in ''Forever''.
* ForeShadowing: While Grace is buying a new car [[spoiler: Sam jokes to Grace that if the car "hit a deer it would just hiccup and keep going." but much later the car does in fact hit a deer and breaks down. To make matters worse, without the car heater keeping Sam warm, he finally shifts permanently into a wolf but not before tearfully saying goodbye to Grace and Beck.]]
* FollowTheLeader: Then again, it does help the surge of human/non-human romance craze started by ''Twilight''.
* FoodPorn: The description of the candy shop in ''Shiver'' may make you drool.
* FreudianExcuse: Shelby has one.
** This is deconstructed somewhat. Although readers are told that Shelby's past life was appalling (and heck, it must have been to create someone so spectacularly fucked-up) her backstory is never used to justify her AxCrazy deeds.
* FullyEmbracedFiend : Shelby. And Cole to a lesser extent
* GenkiGirl: Grace's friend Rachel.
* HandsOffParenting: Grace's parents. Her mom cares more about her art than her daughter essentially. In ''Forever'', she claims this is because [[FreudianExcuse her parents made her life miserable]] [[MyBelovedSmother by never letting her do anything she wanted.]]
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Cole towards the end of ''Forever'' injects himself with his personally created serum shifting himself into his wolf form so that he may fight off Shelby giving Sam enough time to escape and lead the pack to safety from the aerial hunt, causing himself to end up getting shot after killing Shelby. He manages to survive though. Just barely]]

* IJustWantToBeNormal: Many of the werewolves feel this way.
* ImportantHaircut: Isabel gets one in ''Linger''.
* InterSpeciesRomance: Sam and Grace.
* InsufferableGenius: Isabel

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Isabel and Cole
* KarmaHoudini: Shelby [[spoiler: gets away alive despite trying to MurderTheHypotenuse in ''Shiver''.]]
** [[spoiler: She gets what she's got coming in ''Forever'', though.]]
* KillItWithFire: Technically speaking. [[spoiler: The 'cure' for the wolves is to inject them with meningitis, which they describe as 'burning out the wolf inside']]
* LastNameBasis: Beck.
* LoveAtFirstSight: Grace and Sam.
* LoveMakesYouEvil: Shelby.
* LoveTriangle: A small one with Grace/Sam/Shelby. [[LoveDodecahedron Grace/Sam/Isabel and Cole/Isabel/Sam]] are both teased -- most overtly with an IndirectKiss between Sam and Isabel at the beginning of ''Linger'' -- but [[AbortedArc neither goes anywhere.]]
* LowFantasy: Sinner especially has little to do with the werewolf aspect at all
* MadScientist: Cole in ''Forever'', extending to [[spoiler: making himself a guinea pig for his own experiments.]]
* MoralityPet: Inverted. In the first book, Isabel has a yappy little dog, appropriate to her RichBitch status. Shortly after [[spoiler: Jack]] kills the dog, she does a HeelFaceTurn for unrelated reasons.
* NakedFirstImpression: Isabel and Cole in ''Linger''
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: At the end of ''Linger'', it turns out [[spoiler: lycanthropy is actually the body's (super)natural defense mechanism against a toxin- spread by the bites- that kills the victim slowly. "Curing" the shifts merely causes the toxin to kill the victim ''faster''.]]
** Annoyingly, this plotline is then ''[[AbortedArc dropped]]'' in the third book, in favor of a CliffhangerCopOut: [[spoiler: the meningitis cure from ''Shiver'' works, but simple heat stroke -- which supposedly killed Grace's lycanthropy -- just leaves the body defenseless.]] Or something like that. Honestly, you get the feeling that [[NewRulesAsThePlotDemands Stiefvater's not too clear on how it all works, either.]]
* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: Very different indeed.
* [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Proud Warrior Race Girl]]: Shelby feels this way about being a wolf.
* ReTool: WordOfGod says that the third book was finished, then ''completely rewritten from scratch'' because [[DoingItForTheArt the author wasn't happy with it.]] Some problems resulted, possibly including the above mentioned CliffhangerCopOut.
* RichBitch: Isabel. Until she gets CharacterDevelopment, anyway.
* ShadowArchetype: Cole to Sam, as TheLancer sub-type.
* SingleTargetSexuality: Sam and Grace only have eyes for eachother.
* StalkerWithACrush: Sam, even if he was a wolf at the time, and Shelby gets like this with Sam, too.
* SummonBiggerFish: The theorized cure for lycanthropy? [[spoiler: Bacterial meningitis.]] [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique Results may vary]].
* SupernaturalGoldEyes: Sam in both human and wolf form.

* TheirFirstTime: Sam and Grace in ''Shiver''
* {{Tsundere}}: Isabel. She's almost always in tsun-mode but she does have her occasional dere moments,

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: In ''Shiver'', Three teenagers [[spoiler: are infected with lycanthropy by Beck]]. One turns out to be [[EarlyBirdCameo Cole]], the second his friend Victor, but the third never shows up again.
** In ''Forever'', chapter fifty-eight: Did [[spoiler: Isabel ask Cole in?]]
* WhatTheHellHero: Isabel to Sam in ''Linger'', for [[spoiler: ignoring the fact that Grace is ''dying'' so as not to ruin their "Dream life."]]
** And again in ''Forever'', for ''still'' not doing anything about it [[spoiler: even after Grace turns wolf.]] Sam can be a real EmoTeen sometimes...
* WrongGenreSavvy: Rachel displays this in Forever, refusing to come near Sam (who is a suspected murderer), and basically displaying more sense than any girl in a horror movie ever has...too bad she's in a teen romance book, and not the next Friday the 13th

The second book, ''Linger'', was published in July 2010. The conclusion, ''Forever'', was released in July 2011. A fourth entry in the series ''Sinner,'' a continuation focusing on side characters [[AscendedExtra Cole and Isabel]] was released in 2014 which proved to be a BaseBreaker.

The second book, ''Linger'', was published in July 2010. The conclusion, ''Forever'', was released in July 2011. A fourth entry in the series ''Sinner,'' a continuation focusing on Cole and Isabel was released in 2014 which proved to be a BaseBreaker.