Review: All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater

Review: All the Crooked Saints by Maggie StiefvaterAll the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater
Published by Scholastic Inc. in October 2017
Format: ebook
Source: Library
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three-stars

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.

Maggie Stiefvater’s All the Crooked Saints was very unique. It’s about the miracles the Soria family perform, the pilgrims that come for miracles, and a boy that has come to work for the Soria family in exchange for a box truck.

To start off, All the Crooked Saints has the very typical Maggie Stiefvater writing style, which I probably mentioned in my review of the Raven Cycle series. It’s definitely not for everyone. Her writing style is beautiful and poetic. With the Raven Cycle series, I think her writing style perfectly matched the story. It was slower paced, but you had four books to connect with the characters and really delve into their story. All the Crooked Saints, however, I believe it didn’t work as well. The writing was a bit distracting and didn’t quite let the characters shine.

I really did love the characters and this magical world of miracles they created. At first, I was a bit confused. The magic of the miracles was odd and took a while to comprehend. As the story progressed, I got very invested in all of the characters stories. All the Crooked Saints focused primarily on the Soria cousins, Beatriz, Daniel, and Joaquin, but truly everyone had a story to tell including the pilgrims facing their demons.

I wouldn’t say All the Crooked Saints is for everyone. If you haven’t tried Maggie Stiefvater’s writing style or if you already know you love her style, I’d definitely recommend All the Crooked Saints. If you love magical realism, check out All the Crooked Saints. If that’s not your thing though, perhaps you may want to try something else from Maggie Stiefvater. I did love her Raven Cycle series after all, and I believe it’s one of her more popular series.

Have you read All the Crooked Saints? What are your thoughts on Maggie Stiefvater’s writing style? Feel free to share your thoughts with me!

three-stars