“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.” – Taken from Stiefvater’s website.
You may recall me saying I have a thing for Biblical themes (this includes Miracles/Saints). So I honestly didn’t even read the summary when I opted to read this book. I just saw “oh crooked saints. cool” and started reading. Plus I’m a little bit of a cover judger and the cover was awesome…
I had no idea what this book was about for the first 150 pages. Honestly. I was like “WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING” when the book was over I’m still not 100% sure I know what happened. I mean, I am. I followed it. But what the hell. I have read Stiefvater’s work in the past and really enjoyed it but I was struggling with this one. I wasn’t sure if it was meant to be fairytale in quality, metaphoric, or just some kind of AU where people had coyote heads or turned to moss…. Maybe I should have read the description.
Once I got past the… unusual quality of the story I was still not into it. I’m sorry Stiefvater. I just didn’t care that much about the Pilgrims or the Saints or anything that happened to them. I don’t know if it was because there were too many characters or not enough characters or too much plot or not enough plot. I honestly have no idea what I was missing from this book but something just wasn’t clicking for me. Maybe I was in the wrong headspace, maybe I was reading too many books and needed a break. I’m not sure. I feel like in an another time I would have enjoyed it but even though I got through the whole book it felt more out of obligation than any real desire to finish it. I’m so sorry.
Jah Will Provide 