Title and Author: All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater

Plot Overview: The Soria family are known as Saints: not in the Catholic sense, but because they have the ability to perform unsettling miracles to vanquish the darkness inside people. It is to see them that pilgrims flock to the desert town of Bicho Raro. But the three cousins of the latest generation of Sorias want more than to see other people’s darkness exposed: Joaquim runs a underground radio station out of the family box truck; Daniel, with spider-eye tattoos on his hands, obeys family tradition as a Saint in all ways but one; and Beatriz is known as the girl without feelings, wanting to analyze her curious family and wondering if the Saints are doing something wrong.

Critique: This book is an amazing blend of deep, dark, and humorous. The humor is dry and sarcastic; the description of Soria miracles is magical but feels gritty and real; and even the side characters are able to have lives of their own. If you like character-driven magical realism, this book is for you.

If you love Maggie Stiefvater because of her Raven Cycle series (tetralogy) or stand-alone The Scorpio Races, you’ll find it matches the tone of this book. It’s very different from the modern Wolves of Mercy Falls series, though, so if you prefer that one you might not prefer this one? I also personally loved the tone of the humor in All the Crooked Saints, but if you don’t like your humor in the form of sarcastic one-liners and description, it might come across as disrupting the rhythm of the book for you.

Cover Critique: The owl and black roses on the cover are both important to the book. Owls are said to be attracted to miracles and to people with darkness inside them (needing a miracle), so Bicho Raro is full of them. And Beatriz’s Soria father Francisco barricades himself in his greenhouse breeding black roses, escaping his family and their darkness. The blue and orange also match the descriptions of the Colorado desert. I thought it really worked with the overall tone of the book.

Star Rating: 5/5

Title and Author: All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater

Plot Overview: All the Crooked Saints is the newest standalone novel by Maggie Stiefvater. It is about a small town in Colorado and the saints that live their. Two miracles take place in this town. The first is performed by the saint: they manifest a pilgrims darkness. There is a girl who refuses to face the sadness she ran away from so she is followed around by a raincloud until she can perform the second miracle. The second miracle is performed by the pilgrims themselves. They must come to terms with and beat their darkness. The book, unlike much of Maggie Stiefvater's recent work, is hopeful and pleasant. It’s a really useful book to read right now especially since we are all worried about finals.

Critique: I loved this book because it was such a welcome departure from normal. Even the short depictions of the Colorado desert make me want to hop in a car and drive 20 hours to experience the vast plains and tumultuous skies.

Star Rating: 4.5/5 (because this isn't my favorite Maggie Stiefvater novel)