All the Crooked Saints

By: Maggie Stiefvater

Narrated by: Thom Rivera

Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

From best-selling author Maggie Stiefvater, a gripping tale of darkness, miracles, and family.

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.

©2017 Maggie Stiefvater (P)2017 Scholastic, Inc.

Not For Me.

This is more of a 2.5 for me. I suspect most people are going to either love it or hate it, with little middle ground.

I wanted to love this, but I really struggled. It could have been me, as I listened on audio and perhaps was a poor listener. However, I rewound and rewound and rewound and rewound. This would just not keep my attention, and about 70% of the time, I had no clue who anyone was or what was happening.

Typically, I love Stiefvater. I think I could read Scorpio Races and the Raven Cycle a thousand times and never tire of them. They are so unique, and I tend to love her unusual approaches and unexpected worlds.

Unfortunately, it took me almost 15 chapters to really get into the story at all. I had to just force myself forward (through the pangs of despair and haze of denial), and it wasn’t until that point that I really started remember who anyone was. There’s also not any real plot that I’m aware of up until about 3/5 of the way into the story, and it’s a pretty weak plot at that. Or perhaps the plot is there but I was so overwhelmed by the style that I couldn’t even recognize or follow it.

The writing is extremely stylized, which typically I find interesting. Unfortunately, it’s stylized telling, instead of stylized showing. So be prepared to be told, told, told, told, told, told, told, and told again who everyone is. You’ll be told what they think. You’ll be told what they want. You’ll be told what they fear. You’ll be told who they are, in the prettiest and most unique sorts of ways. You’ll be told what their struggles are, but you’ll rarely be shown any of this, particularly in the first half off the book, which means it may not stick very well. None of it really stuck for me.

Every scene in the beginning feels basically like a new list of facts about yet another character, and I wasn’t interested in memorizing any of it. Some of the sentences sound beautiful in the moment, but they lack impact, since I now can’t match any of those sentences to any characters. And since I don’t want to memorize a list of beautiful sounding facts about way too many different characters that don’t really seem to be helping the story along, it’s hard to make connections and keep any of the details straight.

Yep. This was a major struggle, when I just wanted to be captivated.

The reason this still gets 3 stars overall is because the last half of the book is significantly better and more interesting than the first half. There were some really fascinating characters, once I could finally figure out who people were and why they mattered. But at the same time, I’m still pretty confused by the world and world building. It could be a delightful, imaginative world, but instead, it’s more of a tedious and confusing world. I think depth was sacrificed to pretty sounding and stylized sentences in this case.

HOWEVER, I typically love Stiefvater, and there’s something here that was interesting to me, at least in terms of the concept and a few of the characters. In case this is just me being inattentive, or failing to get what is great about this, I may go back and listen to this again on a better day and see if that changes my perspective. If it does, I’ll be sure to update my ratings.

Now, I’m going to go hug my pillow and wallow, because I absolutely hate it when I can’t love a book.

So glad I listened!

I understand the reviews that were less than thrilled with this book; fortunately, I feel differently. This is a storyteller’s story, full of nuance, gorgeous writing, creative turns of phrase that made me laugh or took my breath away. It is expertly crafted, as usual for Stiefvater, and perfectly narrated. I admit that I turned this on in the middle of the night a few times when I had insomnia, because I knew that his soothing voice and the quiet story would lull me into peaceful sleep. It is an absolute departure from the Raven Cycle, and is not really YA fiction in a traditional sense (I’m 54), but there are similarities to her other works in the magic realism, the complete mastery of setting and character, and her confident ability with language and observation. Highly recommend to the right listener.

Wonderful stand alone novel from Stiefvater

I am a little sad to say that I don't think this is a series, because I became very fond of the town of Bicho Raro, CO., and its inhabitants.

At the start of this Audible, I wasn't sure if I would like the book or the narrator. It started a little slow, and I wasn't sure about the narrator for some reason - probably just the start of the book - but within a couple chapters I was hooked. Both the story, and the reader, really draw you in.

You can read the synopsis yourself, and I don't want to give out spoilers, but the story is very character-driven - with quite a few players to keep track of - and also a bit sad. However, keep in mind that it is a "sad" with a whole novel's worth of redemptions and resolutions. By the end you are really rooting for all the characters to solve their mysteries and triumph, in whatever small way possible. The end ties up most loose strings and leaves you satisfied - or at least it satisfied me plenty - all without any sappiness.

The narrator? He is awesome. He does every character in a unique and recognizable way. He does an array of amazingly believable accents - male and female alike. He is one-man ensemble cast production. He is probably rivals my all-time favorite narrator: Luke Daniels (Iron Druid Chronicles are ah-mazing!). I will look up his name after this review and see what else he reads - yes, he is that good!

So, should you listen to this book? Do you like a slow burn? Do you like deep characters that grow and learn? Do you like magical realism? Do you think you would like a tale of the Colo-Mex town of Bicho Raro, and its very odd inhabitants and "tourists"? Do you like the Raven Boys? If you answer yes to most of these questions then - use your credit or buy this book already!

AUDIBLE 20 REVIEW SWEEPSTAKES ENTRY

Breathtaking and absolutely fantastic!

I loved the narrator's accent and story-telling ability. Very well done!

Stiefvater creates and develops characters so masterfully; they are all so different while all feeling fleshed out. The inclusion of the "one thing a character wants and a thing they fear" was so strong and really brought a huge amount of development for that character with such a simple tactic.

The miraculous Sorias were so insanely interesting to read about; I wanted to slip in this world and stay there forever. The casual magic of the story outside of the Sorias really helped build a higher level of believability in the simplicity of the Soria miracles.
Learning how the Soria family functions was so interesting and felt very authentic.

I loved how Daniel, the Saint of Bicho Raro, really thought about what it meant to be holy and the general richness of his character. The simple miracle of the painting was so interesting!
His devote love for the pilgrims and the miracles he gives them juxtaposed with his young age and love for his family, specifically his cousins, was so authentic feeling.

I loved how Joaquin was so different from his cousins and his family yet still such an integral part of the story and so compassionate to his family. The descriptions of his hair and clothes were so vivid. I really loved seeing how Diablo Diablo and Joaquin combined- it felt very real to see him mouthing the way someone had said "love" to practice and use on the radio, as well as reminding the reader that he is still just a teenager.

I loved Beatriz. Absolutely and completely. Seeing a character being told she was "a girl with no feelings" and watching her realize that she has very strong feelings, just more privately, was very meaningful to me as I went through the same thing. It's so lovely to see so many different types of characters, and I loved how logical and loving Beatriz was.

Tony and Pete's friendship was so great to watch. I loved how both of their characters evolved and specifically how their friendship was meaningful, which is one of my favorite tropes ever to see in novels.

Overall just absolutely incredible and my only complaint is that I immediately want to read more.

Disappointing

I had high expectations for All The Crooked Saints (I pre-ordered a signed copy for my library) but this one was not for me. I have loved all of Maggie Stiefvater's other books but I just did not care about any of the characters in this book or really the story either. There was a lot of telling and not as much dialogue and maybe that is why I could not connect to the characters.

Strange and compelling

This novel is truly bizarre, but don't give up on listening to it! The truths embedded in the magical realism are worth it. Beautifully written and beautifully read, this novel has much to say to each of us. Don't be afraid of miracles, because "miracles" are a lot like happiness".

Not my favorite

Maggie is one of my favorite authors, and I wanted to love this one, too, but it was difficult to follow and stay engaged. I was curious about other reviews and found agreement in "beautiful writing, no story" and "too wandering". I love Hispanic folklore, so wanted more from this. Maybe it was the distracting narration that was the disconnect. He was too comical like a Spanish novella overlay.

Fantastic narrator

I tried reading this as an ebook first, and just couldn’t get started. I kept starting the first chapter over and then getting bored. But switching to audiobook made a huge difference! That was an awesome performance!

Comforting portrayal of self- healing

Such a beautiful intimate representation of healing and generational trauma. Amazingly real characters. Read!

quirky

what a bizarre and heart warming story. I very much enjoyed it! it was quirky and fun.

A beautiful engaging listen

I thought I should check this out after reading and rereading The Raven Cycle series, and I am honestly very pleased. It has a different feel to it than TRC but Steifvater manages to create and present the magic in this world in a gentle and completely natural way.

I really enjoyed the way each character was introduced: 'Here was a thing X wanted; Here was a thing X feared'. It's one of the quirks of writing that felt stylised and very familiar. The characters themselves were all well written and interesting, each with their own inner lives that complimented and clashed with the in-world events in turn.

The stories presented within the story of previous Sorias or earlier parts of their lives also felt like delightful diversions from the main story, and each had its place in shaping the plot. Likewise, the way the story and the character relationships were developed and built up over time was well handled and happened almost without me noticing. One of the main characters, Pete, could have been too much of a good person so as to be annoying, but again the way he was shown interacting with the world was very thoughtful and salt-of-the-earthy.

Overall this book was a very enjoyable and gentle kind of listen, so for any TRC fans out there, expect something different but something good.

love this book

It's slow paced and doesn't really have a super exciting climax. But it's very well written, and it's so whimsical. It also have a touch of the surreal and it's just a really nice book.

Amazing book, read perfectly

I loved this book and the narration really brought it to life with warmth and humour