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.

Elizabeth Acevedo has written some of my favorite in-verse YA novels. Her stories are always so intricate and magical and this one falls in a similar category. Family Lore is an incredible multi-generational stories that follows several POVs. I only wish some of the characters were fleshed out a bit more but despite that - this was incedible and everyone should pick it up.

Family Lore reveals the past and present stories of the Marte women — their trials and triumphs, secrets, and magical gifts. This family comes to life as they gather together to celebrate the living wake of one sister.

I'm not sure how I feel about Family Lore. What I loved: the parts containing Elizabeth Acevedo's signature lyrical prose, stories about certain characters that I couldn't get enough of, and learning more about the Dominican-American experience. What I didn't enjoy: there was a lot of shared about some characters while others only made brief appearances, at times the story seems to meander, the relevance of some storylines wasn’t apparent to me, and the abrupt ending.

Overall, read Family Lore for the focus on family and how pivotal experiences from the past affect the present. I just didn’t enjoy it as much as I expected.

I received an early copy of this book.

There's a lot going on here...

Review: Let me premise by saying that I have loved every book that I've read of Elizabeth Acevedo's to-date. She has a wonderful talent for writing YA fiction that really brings a story to life. As a result I was excited to receive an arc copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Family Lore traces the story of the family of Flor Marte who decides, rather spontaneously, that she is going to have a living wake. While certainly a non-traditional occasion, Flor has a gift which allows her to predict when someone will die. So when she shares with her family her desires to host this living wake, they are definitely surprised. They wonder if perhaps she's seen her own death in a dream. Not understanding why Flor won't tell them if something has happened, they have been convinced to just go along with it.

Spanning over the course of three days prior to the wake we are given and in-depth look into the Martes family: Flor, her three sisters (Matilde, Pastora, and Camila) and the next generation of cousins; Ona and Yadi. In preparation of this huge event, each of them are forced to visit and revisit histories and reveal secrets that can change the very nature of the relationships they're engaged with.

I wanted to really, really love this book in the light in which I loved The Poet X, Clap When You Land, and With The Fire on High. There were just a few minor nuances that made it difficult for me to do so. I loved that there were multiple shifting narrators and perspectives and even a weaving of past and present. However there were at many times throughout the book that I found it hard to navigate who was narrating as it wasn't always clear. When you're shifting between upwards of ten characters, that can be a difficult task and take away from the a smoother experience.

I didn't love the writing style I really just felt like there were too many voices and perspectives, and I usually like a MPOV book. I did like that it felt like an Encanto for grownups, and I liked all the women and the history and insight into the past and how we change as women so I liked things about the book I just didn't enjoy reading it, it felt a little too much like an assignment.

I have loved Elizabeth Acevedo’s previous books, and while her voice and luxurious phrasing are here, this book is very different. It’s more adult, both in subject matter and in structure.
Family Lore is the story of four sisters, who were raised in the Dominican Republic and moved to America as adults and their daughters. It’s told with shifting POVs and with asides and transcripts (from a research project) thrown in.
I found myself completely drawn in, yet also a little fuzzy about who exactly I was reading about. But that never took away from my enjoyment. It feels like part of the point? The intersecting POVs and nonlinear timeline mirror what life with a close family is like. Everyone talks over each other and with their own perspective of the same events.
The older sisters were so much more interesting to me than the daughters, but maybe that’s because, as an over-40-year-old woman, I resonated more with them?
It’s more character-driven than I usually like, there’s barely a plot, but the gorgeous language and rich characters had me spellbound.
I’m giving it five stars not because it’s perfect but because these characters and their stories will be with me for a long time.

I wanted to love Family Lore, a story of a Dominican-American family who prepares for a gathering initiated by one of the women. Flor is 70 years old decides to host a living wake for herself. Her three sisters, her daughter and her niece are all concerned, as Flor has the gift to predict when someone will die. Each of the women have their own gifts too.

This is a family saga spanning multiple generations, including more than one secret, and I felt, a tad of magical realism. Normally I’m very drawn into family stories but there were so many characters in this book, it was challenging to keep track of who was who! Luckily there was a key, which was helpful to refer back to. I also could have done without the high volume of references to bodily functions in this story.

I enjoyed Clap When You Land, one of Acevedo’s YA books and while I hoped to enjoy Family Lore more than I did, I admire her trying something new

Thank you to netgalley for providing an e-galley for review. Family Lore tells the story of a family from the matrilineal view. The power of the feminine comes through the in Acevedo's writing. In the food, history and other gifts that are passed through the female line in this family. But there are secrets too, and they will come out in this big gathering for Flor, the one who can see death.

Having devoured Elizabeth Acevedo’s books “With the Fire on High” and “Poet C
X”, I was definitely looking forward to this book. It lived up to the hype in so many ways. It was different than expected as most adult books by young adult writers are but I found it powerful. Would recommend.