Sinner: Werewolf in Los Angeles

Sinner by Maggie Stiefvater
Published by Scholastic Press
Published on July 1st 2014
Pages: 357
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found.Cole St. Clair has come to California for one reason: to get Isabel Culpeper back. She fled from his damaged, drained life, and damaged and drained it even more. He doesn't just want her. He needs her.
lost. Isabel is trying to build herself a life in Los Angeles. It's not really working. She can play the game as well as all the other fakes...but what's the point? What is there to win?
sinner.Cole and Isabel share a past that never seemed to have a future. They have the power to save each other and the power to tear each other apart. The only thing for certain is that they cannot let go.

Maggie Stiefvater’s Sinner is what you get when you really want to write a book about the shitty horribleness of behind the scenes reality TV and you already have the perfect character from a previous series to star in it, a washed-up charismatic teen rock star. Add in a cold and mean yet somehow irresistible love interest, perfect prose, and a love letter to Los Angeles and you have the fourth book in the Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy series, Sinner.

It’s been a while since I read the series, but I remember loving it enough the paperback set and then sell that and purchase the beautiful hardcover box set. I’m pretty sure I didn’t like Cole and I might have been lukewarm about Isabel, but this book caused me to really get to know and even admire Cole (mostly through his undying and everlasting love for Isabel), and to admire and possibly even love Isabel for being the kind of give-no-fucks confident mean girl I’ve always wanted to be. I loved getting to know Cole through his swaggering overconfidence and how he mostly said and did stuff because he thought it sounded or looked cool. I loved how he was determined to do things his way. And I loved that he had many strings of relationships in the book, not just Isabel. His guileless friendship with not-quite-fatherly-figure Leon is one I hope to remember for a long time.

A lot of the plot revolves around Cole trying to see Isabel, Isabel somewhat denying her feelings because she doesn’t want to fall back in love with him, and Cole’s adventures as star of the reality webisode series just waiting for him to meltdown. I really bought the honesty of their relationship, although it did take me a little while to warm up to them.

When Sinner was first released I wasn’t entirely sure why. It wasn’t set in Minnesota, it didn’t star Sam or Grace, and quite honestly, it being about Cole didn’t really sell me. I bought it because I wanted to complete my set, but I’m really glad I’ve read it because Stiefvater’s writing is gorgeous, as usual, (and this convinced me to finally get into the Raven Boys series) and now I do understand that this unexpected fourth instalment gave us closure when it came to Cole and Isabel.

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