Wednesday, December 5, 2018

Review:: All the Crooked Saints

Title: All the Crooked Saints  
AuthorMaggie Stiefvater
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Release Date: October 10th, 2017


From bestselling author Maggie Stiefvater, a gripping tale of darkness, miracles, and family. Saints. Miracles. Family. Romance. Death. Redemption.


Here is a thing everyone wants: A miracle.

Here is a thing everyone fears:
What it takes to get one.


Any visitor to Bicho Raro, Colorado is likely to find a landscape of dark saints, forbidden love, scientific dreams, miracle-mad owls, estranged affections, one or two orphans, and a sky full of watchful desert stars.

At the heart of this place you will find the Soria family, who all have the ability to perform unusual miracles. And at the heart of this family are three cousins longing to change its future: Beatriz, the girl without feelings, who wants only to be free to examine her thoughts; Daniel, the Saint of Bicho Raro, who performs miracles for everyone but himself; and Joaquin, who spends his nights running a renegade radio station under the name Diablo Diablo.

They are all looking for a miracle. But the miracles of Bicho Raro are never quite what you expect.


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My thoughts....

I love the cover! I the colors, the flower, it feels so somber. I can feel the sadness in the cover art (cue dark lights, and dramatic finger snaps...) Think beret girl, from An Extremely Goofy Movie...


 Welp, now that we are all invested...I kinda, sorta did not like this book (shrug)..Yeah, I tried but it wasn't my cup of tea. But I will mention that I do like Mrs. Stiefvater's books, except for Scorpion Races... But let's focus on positives...Like the quotes, and imagery. Let us talk about the "idea", so this is an interpretation of magical realism but about the Latinx community...Yes, yes I know, it's weird there is no way around that. I mean, Maggie does give us her usual trope...think Blue from Raven Boys but not also the protagonist showed no emotion, at all.. Their names are even similar Beatriz and Blue! I personally couldn't with the characters, and they're one of the most important part of a story.. With that being said let's jump into this review! 



We follow Beatriz Soria, and her family as they perform modern day miracles for everyday people. The Soria family, is a family of saints, who perform miracles but not everyone has the power to provide miracles. The family is able to complete a these miracles with a two step process. The first being able to drag darkness/bad things out of pilgrims, and then the second portion is where the client must deal with the shame of having their darkness brought to light. Basically how do I deal with my darkness, now that I see the problem? Lots of self-awareness issues! Most pilgrims never leave the Soria's lands because they cannot understand how to accept the darkness, to find their happiness again..It's very sad, another condition is the Soria family cannot help/interfere the pilgrims or the darkness will manifest within that person too! The family basically goes about their everyday lives while their pilgrims suffer from, gigantism, perpetual sadness, and things of this nature. Another rule is the Soria family must never fall in love with one of the pilgrims, they cannot live in Bicho Raro. This is part of the family legend, about three family members dying after interfering with a pilgrim's miracle. The only problem is that there are so many pilgrims, because they cannot complete the second step of the miracle. So Beatriz, and Joaquin one of many cousins, they run an illegal radio show, and tell the pilgrims how they can move forward, without using their names..Yes, yes, somehow this works and helps the pilgrims, move on. Then the unthinkable happens two of the Soria's family members fall in love with two pilgrims or one pilgrim and a worker?.. My rating 3/5

Quotes, I like quotes...

"Do you have darkness inside of you?.."

"I was looking for a miracle but I got a story instead, and sometimes those are the same things."

"We all have darkness inside of us. It is just a question of how much of us is light as well."

"You can hear a miracle along way after dark, even if you are dying."

"She was so mean that she even killed her own name, and now people just pointed at her.."

 "This was the way of our work: We cannot help but color it with the paint of our feelings, both good and bad."



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