We open not with thunder but with dust. Buritaca—an obscure village flanked by jungled mountains and the Caribbean Sea—becomes the unlikely cradle of a story that slips through fingers even as it tightens its grip on the mind. In Holy Parrot, Angel A doesn’t tell you what to believe. Instead, the author hands you a kaleidoscope and dares you to keep it still.
This review is not written from one perspective. It is written in fragments. Just as the novel is.
The Scientist
I came for telomeres.
That’s what I tell myself. A grant. A lab. A theory about longevity. But science doesn’t prepare you for myth wearing a teenager’s face. Or for a parrot named Gabriel who becomes, impossibly, the axis of everyone’s unspoken yearning.
There’s something else: the people here live long lives, yes—but not because they’re unburdened. They are aging with their stories intact. That’s the part we never measure.
The Girl
I didn’t ask for this.
I was in the middle of the road, holding my belly and hoping someone would see me before I disappeared. A scientist offered me a cigarette. I told him I was sixteen. That I was pregnant. That the baby wasn’t Pablo’s.
They all want to decide what my story is. But I already know it. I dream of waterfalls. I see stars that guide me to sacred waters. Gabriel speaks. Not like a parrot. Like something older. Like something waiting.
The Mythologist
I flew in from Louisiana because I’ve learned that when stories ripple out from tiny villages, they echo ancient chords. Virgins. Divine children. Talking animals. Sacred springs.
It’s not about literal belief. It’s about the pattern. Humanity repeats itself like a song we don’t know we’re singing. This isn’t the first “holy birth.” It won’t be the last. But this one has a bird, and that makes it sing differently.
The Villagers
We’ve seen storms come and go. We’ve buried fishermen and baptized children. We’ve heard stories of spirits and rivers that heal.
But Maria? That’s new.
A girl with golden-brown eyes and a secret in her belly. A parrot that blesses us, if only for a moment. Is it strange we want to believe? That we bring fruit, prayers, pesos?
Sometimes a village just needs a miracle, real or not.
The Outsider Who Stayed
I tried to leave her story at the threshold. To study the DNA, avoid the drama. But the jungle pulls you in. Not just the foliage—the emotions. The sweat. The singing. The slow unpeeling of disbelief.
Maria says she’s a virgin. The village says she’s a prophet. The bird says it’s a good day.
I don’t know what’s true anymore. Maybe that’s not the point.
The Book, Itself
I’m not asking you to choose sides.
Not between science and superstition. Not between innocence and invention.
I’m asking you to listen to what happens when strangers meet in humid places. When belief becomes currency. When a teenager says, “I’m pregnant,” and the world answers with silence, then applause, then questions too big for headlines.
I’m about what happens in those questions.
Turn the page.
Holy Parrot is not about resolution. It is a character study that morphs into a sociological inquiry, then shifts into magical realism before settling into something stranger: a collective hallucination, rooted in grief, wonder, and longing. Angel A gives each character space to breathe, to doubt, to worship, to manipulate. No one voice dominates, because no single truth is sufficient.
The writing is lucid, spare, and emotionally intelligent. Dialogues are not vehicles for exposition; they are small battles over language, over who gets to define the narrative. And what’s more—no one is mocked for believing. Not even the reader.
By the end, you may find yourself wondering whether the parrot was ever real. Or maybe you’ll wonder why you asked that in the first place. Either way, Holy Parrot will have done what so few novels manage: remind you that belief is not a binary. It’s a chorus. And every voice in it matters.
Words Across the Waters Book Award
The book is a Words Across the Waters Book Award winner, celebrated as one of the books that go beyond the surface and offer readers deep cultural insights and transformative experiences. Whether a work of fiction, memoir, or poetry collection, we seek stories that are not only well-crafted but also offer windows into the lives, traditions, and histories that shape our world. Our award-winning books challenge us to see through the eyes of others, face unfamiliar experiences, and reflect on the universal themes that bind us together.
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