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.
My Thoughts:
I've been a Stiefvater fan for a long time. I had a difficult time engaging with the story and the characters. Part of this is the audiobook's fault. It was boring and in my opinion, pretty terrible. There was no 'life' to the narrative performance.
The book's strengths remain Stiefvater's writing ability. Her attention to detail and narrative building are superb. I understand that the book has taken some criticism as she delves into writing from the POV of people of color for the first time. I did not note instances that would take offense but I would leave that as a judgement for others. What is positive is seeing more characters of diversity in YA literature at all.
I was less enthused with the story itself. I found it a bit too cerebral to peak the interest of a wide scope of teen readers. While I always appreciate Stiefvater's ability to push young readers beyond the predictable and stereotypical books so commonly publish, this was might be too outside the box. I couldn't connect and just did not care about finishing the story at all.
Final rating: 3 out of 5 stars (it was almost a DNF for me and my personal rating was a harsh 1 star)
No comments:
Post a Comment