Elizabeth Acevedo is a wonder with words, and that stands true with her first release in adult literature. These characters have such heart, honesty, and a rawness to them that I really admire with how well it came across on the page.

This story, in my opinion, is one to take your time with because it made the book hold such a honest and meaningful impact as I kept reading. It was as if I was going through the events of the story alongside them as an observer, and it made things seem much more vivid.

✨ Review ✨ Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo

Elizabeth Acevedo is a 5-star author for me -- I've loved every book I've read by her, and so I was delighted to see this book shifting out of the YA field. and it did NOT disappoint. She remains one of my favorite authors.

With that said, this is not an easy book to read. There are multiple POVs, interview excerpts, and shifts back into the past. There's a lot to keep track of here. This would be nearly impossible to read as an audiobook, and is one to read in a relatively short period of time.

The book focuses on four elderly sisters who've migrated from the Dominican Republic to NYC -- Flor, Matilde, Pastora, and Camila -- and their offspring, Flor's daughter Ona and Pastora's daughter Yadi. The women carry special gifts, and most, significantly, Flor can foresee deaths in her dreams.

Flor watches a documentary about living wakes and schedules one for herself, launching her family into a frenzy trying to determine if she foresaw her own death. The book is told through the framework of Ona, Flor's daughter, who's an anthropology professor and interviewing her family to learn of their past.

The book overlays language, familial connection, shared trauma, and so much more in a really beautiful family story. The structure is beautiful, and I loved the injection of the women's special powers as a touch of female power and magical realism. Again, it takes some commitment by the reader to work through this book, and I can see some becoming frustrated, but hang in there and enjoy the ride! The author's note also provided really lovely context for the book.

Thanks for rocking it, yet again, Elizabeth Acevedo!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: literary fiction, magical realism
Setting: NYC, Dominican Republic
Reminds me of: The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina
Pub Date: August 1, 2023

Read this if you like:
⭕️ multigenerational family dramas (mama drama for reallll)
⭕️ dominicana representation
⭕️ magical realism
⭕️ really smart cultural commentary

Thanks to Ecco and #netgalley for advanced copies of this book!

I was immediately sucked into the rhythm and story of this multi-generational family. One thing I particularly loved was the anthropological framing of everything. This book is such a treat, do not miss it.

I really enjoyed the writing and characters in this book but found myself struggling a bit to keep going with it -- it is very well written but dense, and there are a lot of time jumps.

As the second eldest sister in a family of five, Flor has always been able to predict other people's deaths. Much to the alarm of her family, she begins to plan a living wake for herself. The story follows the time leading up the wake, as well as the wake itself. We see the perspective of Flor's sisters, her niece and her daughter -- who is the one telling the story in part as an oral history. We also get a lot of background on each of the characters and what has happened in their lives.

I would recommend this book but it definitely takes focus -- and being able to read it for longer chunks of time helped get me immersed in the characters. I really enjoyed Yadi and Ona's stories, and found myself so angry and frustrated at parts. I loved the writing and grew to care about the characters and hope for the best for them, and I really liked the ending.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book!

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the e-book copy!

This book was one of my most anticipated reads of the year. I love Acevedo's writing and I find myself relating to her characters. This book is her adult debut and it was satisfying to see her writing in a different genre. In "Family Lore", we are reading about a family as they experience love, sisterhood, religion and race. On their distinct journeys, characters are faced with tough decisions and by the end those choices lead to personal revelations. This book was a great read and I'm looking forward to more from Elizabeth Acevedo. At the time of this review, the book is out to purchase and I highly recommend if the mentioned themes resonate with you.

Elizabeth Acevedo's adult debut is a magical tale inspired and rooted in Dominican-American culture and identity. Her protagonist, Flor, was born with the gift of predicting when someone will die. While not as openly provided with similar gifts, her sisters Matilde, Pastora and Camila all have their strengths. When Flor decides to have a living funeral, her sisters, daughter and niece are confounded and concerned about what she might be hiding from them. Through all this, her sisters, daughter and niece are struggling with their personal lives and struggles. It's a moving tale of celebrating life, the small and big accomplishments and the people surrounding you.

Elizabeth Acevedo is an automatic purchase for me. I've loved all of her YA titles and I've been patiently waiting to get my hands on Family Lore.

I will say, I struggled a little bit at the beginning to remember who was who so I was constantly going back to the beginning to check (which can be a bit of a pain on an e-reader). However, I still loved each character and the family dynamics. I do feel like this is the perfect book if you want something slow and magical to dive into. Acevedo truly has a way with words and I will continue to read whatever she puts out.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ecco for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion and review.

Loved the family dynamic in this engrossing saga by Elizabeth Acevedo. Absolutely wonderful read. 4.5 stars.

The author's prose was gorgeous. I even loved the liberal use of Spanish scattered amongst the dialog without translation. However, I had a really difficult time getting a grasp on the characters in this novel. The narrative alternates between several different characters, and I had trouble differentiating between them. I loved the first character introduced - an elderly woman who plans to hold her own wake - but I with the author had stuck with this character and told the whole story through her eyes.

I'm not sure what happened to me and my relationship to Family Lore. I love Acevedo's writing - that is not up for debate - but I struggled so hard with this title. I never felt clear distinctions between characters which made it really hard to feel attached to them. The storyline, the various storylines that is, were okay and I truly had some moments of real clarity where I loved a couple of pages but then the perspective would shift again and I was back where I started. This just wasn't for me - I was left bored which I never thought I would say about an Elizabeth Acevedo book...I've really wavered between two and three stars. Since I didn't really enjoy my reading experience I'm afraid I need to bump it down to 2.

Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for the ARC! I ended up DNF'ing this one at the halfway mark. I struggled with the nonlinear storytelling. In this season of life where I can only read in little bits, I had a hard time following the story. It almost feels like something you need to just read in a day and get fully immersed to better follow.

My first Acevedo...

Summary
Author Elizabeth Acevedo's new novel, Family Lore, centers four sisters — Matilde, Flor, Pastora, and Camila — and their daughters (Yadi and Ona). Flor Marte knows someone will die. She knows when and how, because it came to her in a dream. That's her gift – all the women in the Marte family have one.

Overall, I really enjoyed Family Lore. While there are a lot of narrators and timeline switching, the characters that are explored more really shine and only made me want more from the characters that had less development. There's sisterly humor and magical powers (can we all have alpha vaginas, please 😆), making for an entertaining and fun read. Aside from some of the characters falling a little flat, I would say the pacing was the main issue that I had -- some parts were so fun and fast paced while some sagged a bit.

Surprisingly this was my first by Acevedo so I'd definitely like to give her YA a try now! Do you have a favorite?

Thank you @net for the e-galley and thank you @libr for the advanced listening copy - Family Lore is out now!
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Unfortunately, I DNF at 31%. I've enjoyed the author's YA books, but this was not it for me. Too many characters that I did not feel a connection to. I will continue to give her future books a chance since I've enjoyed the four I've read of hers. Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Full disclosure, I ended up DNFing this book. It is likely going to going to seem small and petty, but I can't support authors (particularly authors who are not plus-sized) making fat jokes. It is 2023.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an advance reader's copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.

I loved Acevedo's previous work and had such hopes for this, but in a case of "it's not you, it's me", it didn't quite hit the same way for me.

Family Lore had everything I typically love in a book- multigenerational family dynamics, a bit of magic, and alternating POV. However even though on paper it looked perfect for me, it somehow missed the mark a bit.

While overall I would say I did enjoy this book, I think there were some things that could have made it better for me. It had a really slow pace, even with multiple POV and I found that there were too many POV- 6 total which made it sometimes hard to keep things straight. There is also a lot of Spanish in this book and many times it is not apparent to a non Spanish speaker what they are saying (often stories will have context clues to gather the meaning).

I did really enjoy the author’s writing and found a lot of the character’s stories engaging and entertaining. Overall, I would recommend this book!

3.5 rounded up

Thank you netgalley for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

I've loved Elizabeth Acevedo's young adult novels and was very excited to read her first foray into adult fiction. Like her other works, the writing in Family Lore is breathtakingly gorgeous. I had to read several lines more than once to allow them to fully sink in. The only thing I didn't love was that some of the sex scenes were a little too descriptive for my personal taste.

**Many thanks to NetGalley, Ecco, and Elizabeth Acevedo for an ARC of this book!**

Have you ever had a favorite restaurant, one where you ALWAYS order the same thing but it's just so reliably good that not branching out feels okay?

Until one day curiosity gets the better of you and you figure, "Sure, why not? The chefs here are incredible...how bad can lentils HONESTLY be?"

And then you remember that nothing is a sure thing. And maybe that particular dish just isn't for you. This dose of reality is what hit me about 30% of the way into Family Lore...and unfortunately never let up.

It isn't easy being part of a 'magical' family: Flor and her sisters, Matilde, Pastora, and Camila know so. Each of them has their own special gifts, ranging from the ability to predict the deaths of others to Human Lie Detector...and they've all found ways to appreciate and utilize their gifts. Since Flor is the sister with the aforementioned foresight into the deaths of those around her, her whole family is surprised when she brings them together to attend a living wake...and two of the sisters' daughters, Ona and Yadi, will be there too. What will this gathering mean for the future of the clan?

Pastora, the truth telling sister, misses an opportunity to hone in on the reason for the wake and focuses her ability on finding out secrets in the family...including the philandering ways of one of her other sister's husbands. Ona and Yadi are each dealing with struggles of their own and look to both their parents for inspiration and guidance, while hoping for intervention from their ancestors along the way. As the family navigates through their collective memories, both in New York and in the DR, will they learn the reason they all have come together AND battle their individual demons along the way? Or will the secrets stay buried in the deepest and quietest parts of their hearts?

Elizabeth Acevedo knows the power and the beauty of the written word: there's no doubt. My introduction to her was in YA poetry with The Poet X, a loud, visceral, knock-out punch of a book that grabbed me from the jump and didn't let go. I followed this with Clap As You Land, a slightly less impactful but still emotionally charged narrative, once again told in verse. There's something about her VOICE in these books that demands to be heard, and even though it can be incredibly difficult to tell a cohesive story through verse, it comes naturally to Acevedo. I felt like I knew her characters in these books inside and out, and got swept up in their emotions without missing a beat.

But in Family Lore...I had the opposite problem. This book said SO much...and also didn't seem to say enough.

After a long author's note (which in some ways I feel would have been more interesting at the end, although it was somewhat needed for context), the first thing you are greeted with is a list of character names and descriptions. For me, this is almost ALWAYS a bad sign. If you have to keep reminding me who everyone is or keep a list of their names for reference, most likely there are just too many players involved. What made things increasingly more complicated as the book went along is that the sisters (and even their daughters, to some extent) often sounded VERY similar in tone, so the best way to tell them apart was by their individual plot lines...but this STILL often devolved into "the one who's the dancer" or "the one trying to get pregnant" in my head rather than character names. With so many family members in play, NOBODY quite got their due.

The constantly moving timeline and jumping back and forth between stories of yesteryear and the problems of today only further exacerbated this problem. Though I agree it is difficult to tell a multi-generational family story without reflections from the past and differing perspectives from the family, it CAN be done, and to some extent, HAS been done by Acevedo in some of other books: just not this one. Making the transition from YA certainly allows for a deeper dive on a broad range of topics...but trying to cram so many ideas and stories into one book (even if it's a somewhat long book!) only works if they flow together in a way that feels easy enough to follow for it to not feel like hard work to keep up...and it was most certainly hard work most of the time in this book.

There is also a lot of Spanish interspersed throughout the narrative, and it isn't always discernible via context alone, so if you aren't familiar with the language and want to know what EVERYONE is saying at all times, be prepared to be looking words up along the way. Again, this all makes sense and works in the context of the story, but I was wishing I was a bit more fluent in Spanish than I am (read: not very fluent) so I wouldn't be tempted to keep stopping every time I came across an unfamiliar word or phrase. And as a side note, there is also a LOT of vagina talk...namely because one of the characters has a magical one. So if this is something you find a bit MUCH? This probably isn't the book for you. 😬

Family histories and 'lore' can be long and complicated, with additions and subtractions along the way, as stories are told and retold. While I applaud Acevedo's first foray into the world of adult novels in many respects...if she were a CHEF?

This felt more like an 'attempt at new flavors' than an always reliable signature dish.

3.5 stars

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
𝗙𝗔𝗠𝗜𝗟𝗬 𝗟𝗢𝗥𝗘
‌Thank you @eccobooks and @netgalley for an advanced copy. Officially out now!
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When Elizabeth says she wants to step out and deliver a grown folks book. She ATE!!! pretty sure I need all the grown folks book she can give! I devoured this book in under a day. There is sooooo much meat to this and I’m glad everyone will get a glimpse into the life of first and second generation latinx!
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FAMILY LORE explores the multi-generational challenges of womanhood. Some may say there were too many Marte women to keep track of BUT I think it’s an amazing representation of a “traditional” Latinx Familia. A lot of mothers, sisters, tias - holding it down!!
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Highly recommend and am anxious to see how many non Latinx readers pick it up and resonate with the sisterhood of these Dominicanas.

Elizabeth Acevedo writes beautifully. Her prose is lyrical and clever. This book is worth reading for that reason alone.

I had some difficulty connecting to her characters. I wish that there were only 2 or 3 sisters instead of 4 (plus the eldest brother who we barely meet). I think maybe the reader would be able to get to know them a little better that way. The familial dynamics were interesting and added a lot of dimension to the plot but I found myself struggling to distinguish between the sisters until the very end of the book. Some of that could be my fault as I do tend to have a hard time when there are more than two or three POV in a book. My brain doesn't like switching back and forth that frequently.

I love the dual setting and dual timeline. Acevedo describes mid-century Dominican Republic wonderfully and really brings it alive for the reader. The themes of matrilineal magic was interesting. I also liked how the plot unfurled through Ona gathering the stories of all of the women for her research on Dominican history.

Acevedo continues to be a must-read for me and, even though this was not my favorite of hers, it was absolutely worth reading.