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.

I was really curious about Acevedo’s first foray into adult fiction. I think this story had potential, but it just didn’t really land for me. I struggled with the points of view, I feel like they weren’t distinct enough from each other to have as many as there were. The magical realism elements didn’t land well consistently, and I had a hard time with the non-linear structure of the story line. It felt like there were threads that were never fully connected with the rest of the plot. I think this is a novel that’s meant to be read slowly and savored, not one that really has a strong driving force, but I just didn’t love it as much as I had hoped.

Family Lore
Genre: Magical Realism
Rating: 3.5 stars

The publisher and NetGalley provided me with a digital advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Elizabeth Acevedo will ALWAYS be an auto-read author for me. I listened to her three previous books on audio and absolutely adored them (I’ll listen to her read just about anything at this point), but I’d definitely recommend reading this one, rather than listening to the audiobook. Multiple points of view, characters, and timelines make this best to follow in print - I had to flip back and forth a few times to remind myself whose POV I was reading. Yadi & Ant’s section kept me most interested, and broke my heart at times. Flor’s perspective and gift was another favorite - I can’t imagine being burdened with that type of responsibility, and I was curious to see how her wake played out.

What stopped me from loving this one, was that I had a hard time keeping track of all of the female characters and their gifts. Oftentimes, their voices and personalities just didn’t always feel distinct enough, which may very well be a “me” problem. That being said, Acevedo is queen of beautiful prose and unraveling a story piece by piece. Side note of this story, is that I often found myself humming the Encanto soundtrack while reading because the concept felt so similar. Can’t wait to see what’s next from this talented author.

I thought this book was beautifully written. I feel that it should come with a TW for those on the more sensitive side of sexual experiences, but that would truly be my only recommendation. Beautiful book. Highly recommend

Special thanks to Eco and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

I really enjoyed reading this book of six different women from the past and present of the Dominican=American Matte family. It is really a book to put on your TBR list. I think most if not all people will really like it.

Highly recommended!

A sweeping family story of the Marte family, mainly focusing on the sisters & female cousins; taking the reader from the Dominican Republic to NYC. Somewhat magical realism/Encanto adjacent, as almost all family members have a special power. The author had around 6 characters POV & they had distinct enough voices.

I really liked the idea of this book, but it just fell flat for me. It was written in multiple perspective, past and present, and I was often lost. It was not always clear who was speaking and if we were in past or present. I think there may have too many characters and too many stories. I wanted more from each story and therefore did not find myself invested in any of them. They never tied together in a way that made them something I cared about. 
Telling the story of many Dominican-American women who are preparing for the wake (a living wake). It follows their journeys over time, in NYC and Santa Domingo. The struggles and secrets that sisters, cousins, aunts and nieces are dealing with and hiding from one another.  
Thank you Netgalley for my advanced reader copy.

This is a great introduction to the adult sphere for Elizabeth. Having only written YA before, I was nervous about this one but I should have trusted Elizabeth because she always knocks it out of the park!

There is a lot to unpack in this story. If you love a good family saga and you don't mind several POVs and having to stop to look up words and phrases (the author throws quite a bit of random Spanish in her storytelling in a way I do when speaking French to my dad. While I get it, I found it difficult to follow and felt completely pulled out of the story when I had to look so many things up (my kindle was definitely not up to the translation task). The author, however, is definitely talented, and her writing is lyrical and beautiful. I love how each of these women was strong and/or stronger than they gave themselves credit for. 3.5 stars

I am going to start off this review with a disclaimer... this book is very well written, extraordinary, beautiful prose and character development, this will likely be a favorite for Elizabeth Acevedo fans. It just wasn't for me. I loved, loved Clap When You Land ... so I was over the moon excited when I was approved for an advanced copy of Family Lore, Acevedo's adult debut novel. I never felt settled in when reading, and it dragged on and on for me. and if I am completely honest towards the end, I started skimming paragraphs just to get to the end of the book. The Marte women will be gathering for a wake that was requested by Flor for well, herself. The story then unfolds leading up to this wake with multiple point of views, timeline jumps and interjections of thoughts/interview sections. It all felt disjointed to me and there wasn't a smooth flow to the story. I did like the end of the novel and felt like things were tied together and there was a sense of completion/continuation to the characters' stories. Just getting there was a bit rough.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for offering an advanced complementary digital copy for me to review. All opinions are my own.

Let me start by saying I love everything Elizabeth Acevedo has written so far. This story I struggled with perhaps because I read in the kindle. I found the book confusing as it bounced between sisters and time periods. Perhaps in the book format there is a better distinction (font) to help the reader. I will look when it is published and perhaps reread.

I've read all of Acevedo's prior works and enjoyed them immensely. However, I thought Family Lore fell flat. It's perfectly "fine" and that it, it's just "fine.." I don't regret reading it but I don't think I'll find myself recommending it. I think she may have stretched herself too thin with focusing on so many characters and trying to weave ALL of their stories into a perfect braid. Nevertheless, it is her first adult novel I give her grace so, I'm still excited to read future work from her.

I loved this authors YA books so I was so excited to read this one. Unfortunately, I struggled to get through this.
There were so many characters and I didn’t feel like they were given distinct voices or personalities. I found myself constantly confused with who was who and how everyone was connected and which backstory went with each narrator. This confusion was increased when mid chapter the story would shift to the past with our warning. It made it different to keep the timelines and events straight. With all of this confusion over the characters and the timeline I felt I was unconnected from the story.
The plot was also very slow moving with not really anything happening. I felt there was nothing gained in the plot even after the story was finished.
Overall this was a big letdown for me on so many different levels.