Review: All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater

All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater

Published: October 10th, 2017
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Pages: 320 (hardcover)
Series: N/A
Source: Bought
My Rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

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.

 

 Um yeah, this was not what I was expecting. It actually took me over 2 years to finish this book. I don't entire blame the book, but it definitely didn't help that this book was slow. And not like slow leading up to something worth the wait. As a huge fan of Maggie Stiefvater, this really kills me to say it, but this book was just difficult to get through.

Because the book was so slow the characters felt pretty fleshed out, but at the same time I couldn't seem to keep all of them straight. Honestly, I could probably only name a couple of characters and I just finished this book. There were just so many characters to fit into such a short stand alone book. It felt like there were too many backstories and side stories going on, but the main story really took awhile to get going. That being said, I did enjoy the backstories that really showed why the characters acted the way they did and why they had been searching for a miracle. 

I also really enjoyed the whole concept of the miracles being performed by the saints. It was definitely a unique story. I just wish it didn't feel so slow and difficult to get into. The descriptions of the desert and the people were one of the things I actually loved about the book, but it wasn't enough to salvage the rest of the book.

The romance in the book was definitely not something I really felt invested in. It wasn't insta love, but it wasn't slow burn either. The characters didn't immediately fall in love, but I also didn't really see why the characters had fallen in love. It was a bit forgettable. 

I don't even have much more to say because the story wasn't something that stuck with me. I've loved every other Maggie Stiefvater book that I've read and was so excited when this one came out, but it just didn't live up to her other books. I'm hoping the next one she writes is a bit more fast paced.