ALL THE CROOKED SAINTS - Maggie Stiefvater


The reading (and reviewing) of a book is so often a result of the reader's environment.  I've discussed this with a friend of mine - how so many different factors might influence how much I enjoy (or don't enjoy) a particular book. I mention this because the first time I tried to read this book I was really not enjoying it. And this was after not enjoying two previous books by Ms Stiefvater. So I put this away and only recently came back to it.  What a difference time and distance can make. I still didn't love it, but I didn't hate it.

The Soria family of Colorado are forever linked to the saints due to a history of being able to create miracles. But the manifestations of the miracles are not usually what is hoped for, and when some travelers/pilgrims come seeking the Soria's, looking for a miracle, they're informed they will have to work through their own darkness before any miracles can be performed.

Daniel Soria, the current miracle-maker, goes on the run to avoid having the darkness overwhelm and consume him. In the bleak Colorado wilderness Daniel avoids most of civilization other than his cousins Beatriz (the girl with no feelings) and Joaquin, who spends his nights running a renegade radio station under the name Diablo Diablo.

What I liked about the book is Stiefvater's writing.  Her prose is incredibly poetic and it lulls the reader into a rhythm that is slightly hypnotic. It was easy to flow from page to page, chapter to chapter.

I liked the magic/miracles within this world.  A Goodreads 'friend' writes: "Magical realism is about the little bit of surreality in a common set of lives" and Stiefvater absolutely aces this.

And finally, I liked the central characters. Their uniqueness and their journey, poetically told, was entrancing.

What I didn't like was that the poetically told story was very one-tone. I never felt a rise of excitement or the energy of frustration or danger. My above-mentioned friend referred to this as "viewed so impassively as to be very mundane."

There are a lot of characters in the book but only our three central figures are unique enough to be 'real people.' The rest are scenery in the wasteland.

And finally, the story. What is this, where is this going?  Yeah, I don't know. Is this 300 pages of searching for a miracle? Or 300 pages of avoiding a miracle?  You decide (if you want).

Looking for a good book? All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Siefvater is beautifully told, but 'beautiful' isn't a plot or a story, and it's only an adjective to describe a person, it doesn't define characters. There's just too much missing here to make this recommendation-worthy even though I enjoyed the read at the time.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

2-1/2 stars

* * * * * *

All the Crooked Saints

author: Maggie Siefvater

publisher: Scholastic Press

ISBN: 9780545930802

hardcover, 313 pages

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