All the Crooked Saints

by Maggie Stiefvater

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780545930819
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	08/28/2018
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	121,572
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)
Lexile:	980L (what's this?)
Age Range:	12 - 18 Years

About the Author

Maggie Stiefvater is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the novels Shiver, Linger, Forever, and Sinner. Her novel The Scorpio Races was named a Michael L. Printz Honor Book by the American Library Association. The first book in The Raven Cycle, The Raven Boys, was a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year and the second book, The Dream Thieves, was an ALA Best Book for Young Adults. The third book, Blue Lily, Lily Blue, received five starred reviews. The final book, The Raven King, received four. Her latest book is All the Crooked Saints. She is also an artist and musician. She lives in Virginia with her husband and their two children. You can visit her online at maggiestiefvater.com.

Editorial Reviews

08/07/2017
In this lushly written tale set in 1962 Colorado, Stiefvater explores the complex and interconnected nature of desires, fears, and miracles via a Mexican-American family known for producing saints. Pilgrims come to the desert of Bicho Raro seeking cures to their woes, but the miracles they receive from the Soria saints are seldom what they expect. One winds up covered in moss, another only able to repeat what is said to her; these miracles are a “two-step process,” and it’s up to the pilgrims to unlock the meanings behind these transformations. When Daniel, the current saint, violates the Sorias’ greatest taboo, his family, including intellectual Beatriz and pirate radio deejay Joaquin, and the pilgrims of Bicho Raro must drive off the darkness that emerges. The language of legend and magical realism suffuse this sprawling and intimate novel; while the book’s tone is all its own and Stiefvater remains a summarily confident wordsmith, the setup, which sees a volatile family wrestling with unpredictable magic and forbidden romances, echoes her Raven Cycle books fairly closely. Dense, tricky, and thought-provoking. Ages 14–up. Agent: Laura Rennert, Andrea Brown Literary. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for The Raven King:

*"Expect this truly one-of-a-kind series to come to a thundering close." ? Kirkus Reviews, starred review

* "Readers will snap up the final installment the second it's available." ? Publishers Weekly, starred review

* "The prose is crisp and dazzling and the dialogue positively crackles." ? School Library Journal, starred review

From the Publisher

09/01/2017
Gr 8 Up—Pilgrims travel to Bicho Raro, Colorado, for a miracle from the Sorias, a Mexican American family of saints who can "cure" people of their darkness. When the pilgrims' darkness manifests, they have to overcome it on their own. If the Sorias interfere, their own inner darkness takes over. In 1962, Bicho Raro is overrun by pilgrims who haven't been able to complete the miracle, and the current saint, David, has fallen in love with one of the pilgrims. He helps her and his darkness manifests. His younger cousins, Beatriz and Joaquin, are afraid to interfere because of the curse. But two visitors, including a handsome teen who catches Beatriz's interest, might be the key to helping the Sorias. The desert setting, intricate family dynamics, and the power of love and music resonate in this lush but often overwrought tale. Subplots distract from the core story and character development is often weighed down by the convoluted language. The rules of the family curse are laid down just to be broken and remade for the convenience of the plot. The influence of Latin American storytelling is woven throughout, and the family's ranch's name can be translated in Mexican Spanish as "Strange or Rare Insect." But it also has a more explicit translation in other countries. Also, the family is saved by the machinations of the ingenious (and possibly neuro-atypical) Beatriz, but she's inspired to do so because of her white love interest. VERDICT This title will be popular with the author's fans, but for readers interested in well-crafted YA magical realism, turn to Laura Ruby and Anna-Marie McLemore instead.—Shelley M. Diaz, School Library Journal

School Library Journal

2017-08-02
The line between truth and legend is obscured in the high desert of the San Luis Valley, a world of tall tales and miracles that draws literary pilgrims.In 1962 the teenage Soria cousins of Bicho Raro, descended from Los Santos de Abejones of Oaxaca, Mexico, continue the family legacy of miracle working. However, pilgrims seeking a miracle here find their inner darknesses brought to life, tangible metaphors for their psychic pain. When the eldest cousin and acting Saint, Daniel, interferes with a miracle in progress, the darkness falls upon him as well, and he flees into the night. Barred by their fearful parents from seeking him directly, the remaining cousins decide to reach out in the only way they know how—through their pirate radio station. Coolly intellectual Beatriz and passionate Joaquin join forces with white-bread Pete Wyatt, a salt-of-the-earth transplant from Oklahoma, using the technical marvel of AM radio to perform a practical miracle and hopefully bring Daniel home. In the process, the family rediscovers that the best way to fight the darkness is with someone you love by your side. Stiefvater weaves a rich history for this mythical homestead. Though not an own-voices narrator, she well-captures the rural, mountain West and the Latinx culture that provides the foundation for the Sorias' twilight world. True history blends with traditional and fanciful folklore as fallen saints find salvation in the lyrical power of family, community, and rock-'n'-roll. (Fabulism. 14-adult)

Kirkus Reviews

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