In Bicho Raro, a small town by the Mexican border, miracles are reality. Pilgrims come from all over the world to beg for a help getting rid of their inner darkness, and the Soria family gives a miracle.
Said miracle is usually a physical manifestation of the darkness. The second miracle occurs when the person asking for help learns too live with their darkness, or to banish it from their life.
The Soria family is however forbidden from interfering with the miracles. And so people like Marisita, who cannot change out of her wedding dress because dozens of butterflies are sitting on it and can't fly away due to the fact that it's always raining on them, or Jenni, who can only ever repeat the words that are spoken to her, live together in Bicho Raro, always hoping for more miracles.
Tropes present in this novel:
- Act of True Love: Daniel helps Marisita with her miracle, and is faced with his darkness. Interestingly, Marisita only actually gets over her darkness when she tells her story on the radio later on, not when Daniel helps her.
- Buccaneer Broadcaster: The three younger Sorias broadcast an unlicensed radio station.
- Conjoined Twins: Sort of. There's a pair of twins in Bicho Raro, and their miracle manifests as a huge snake that binds them to each other.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Daniel. His father was the saint of Bicho Raro when Daniel's mother was pregnant with him. Out of compassion for a child he accidentally interfered with a miracle, and ended up turning into wood. Daniel's mother told him she'd still always love him, which counted as interfering with the miracle as well, meaning she turned into wood too. Daniel's uncle then took an axe and chopped Daniel out of his mother's wooden belly, turning into wood as well. Baby Daniel was the only survivor. Also, most of the pilgrims, as they come to get rid of their darkness.
- Emotionless Girl: Beatriz Soria. She's actually called that in-universe.
- Former Teen Rebel: Daniel was apparently quite a difficult child before having a religious experience and deciding to become the saint of Bicho Raro.
- Held Gaze: Was apparently an important part of Daniel and Marisita's courtship.
- Hot-Blooded: Joaquin is a bit of a rebel.
- Like Brother and Sister: The young Sorias, Daniel, Beatriz and Joaquin. Especially Daniel and Beatriz are noted to be close.
- Magical Realism: The genre of the book.
- The Unreveal: The past of most of the pilgrims is not revealed.
