Thank you Ecco Books for my Netgalley copy of FAMILY LORE by Elizabeth Acevedo, out now!

This is my second time reading Acevedo’s work, but this is her first adult fiction novel! I loved it. It follows one Dominican-American family told through the many different voices of its women as they await a wake for one of the aunties that is still alive. This auntie, Flor, has a magical gift in which she can predict when someone will die. So the question is, has Flor envisioned her own death or one of her sister’s?

The entire story has you wondering what’s going to happen. We get perspectives from Flor’s sisters - Matilde, Pastora and Camila, along with the next generation of women - cousins Ona and Yadi. In the beginning, I did find myself struggling to keep everyone straight. Some of the voices tended to blend together, but I finally found my footing around halfway through.

This novel weaves together the struggle between love and loneliness with infidelity and humiliation. It covers reuniting with one’s first and true love after years of imprisonment. It longingly grapples with the inability to conceive and losing one’s purpose.

If you pick this book up, stick with it as Acevedo time travels with you from New York City to Santo Domingo, entwining past and present. It’s a beautiful collection of what it means to be a woman. I loved the ending and had a few tears in the end. At my sister’s wedding recently, she played our family’s favorite song we used to karaoke to growing up “We Are Family” and all the sisters in my family danced together. There’s a scene at the end that compares in its own cultural way and it was incredibly meaningful to me. I loved this book and can’t wait to see what Acevedo comes up with next.

I loved the premise of this book. Almost like Encanto for adults. Each of the 4 sisters has a gift and Flor’s is predicting the date of someone’s death. When she decided to throw her own living wake the family is baffled as to what their sister may know. Ultimately this book had too many character jumps for me which made it confusing as a reader, but I enjoyed the story.

DNF @20%

I'm really not connecting with this book. As a Dominican-Canadian who loved Elizabeth Acevedo's YA novels, I thought I NEEDED this book. But it definitely is a big change from for YA voice and I honestly wasn't here for it. It sounded like it was trying to be something it wasn't. It sounded too much like other intergenerational Latin-American stories that I've read, and I didn't want that. I wanted Elizabeth Acevedo.

Besides that, the cast of characters all blend together. There is a character list at the beginning of the book, but if the book doesn't do a good job at characterization, then I'm not going to know which character is which. I'm sorry, but I'm not flipping to the front of the book to remember which character is currently speaking, that's the author's job! The frequent shifts in time periods and the weird interview format and sometimes parentheses were also just plain confusing.

I love Acevedo's stories and the musicality of her writing and couldn't wait to see how that would translate to her first adult work, about the women in a Dominican-American family. Each woman in the family has a special gift, one of these gifts especially was quite surprising!

3.25 -3.5 stars
This is a book I wanted to love because of love for the author and a genuine recognition of writing that I love... this is a many stars for writing but 3 stars for plot situation. I wanted to love the characters and story more than I did. There is a richness to the storytelling in places but something felt off for me as a reader with pacing/tempo, some feelings of repetition or of the story/characters not moving the plot forward effectively.
This is still a fine read, I liked it but this is one I wanted to love.

Unfortunately this book was not for me. The writing is gorgeous and the concept is unique, but I had a hard time following the various characters. This story isn’t supposed to be grand, but I didn’t get the emotional punch I was expecting either.

Thank you NetGalley for the early copy.

The highly anticipated first adult novel for this amazing author is nothing short of captivating.
The women in the Marte family have special and very unique gifts. Flor's gift is that she can predict death. When she tells her
sisters, daughter and niece that she wants to have a living wake, they of course become concerned that someone is going to die. Yet Flor won't tell them anything about her recent dream. During the three days leading up to the "wake" we learn about their lives switching back and forth from them growing up in The Dominican Republic to now in the US. We see how their different experiences forged their bond as sisters, mothers and daughters, cousins and nieces.
Acevedo's writing is poetic and metaphorical.
She's like lil Wayne spitting bars! The relationship between the sisters reminds me of my grandma and her sisters. The protectiveness and secret bonds between certain sisters relayed their love for one another. The narration by Ona, Flor's daughter, was raw and witty. I loved it. I also loved how she interlude each memory. Ona's gift was also my favorite!
This is beautifully told story about women hood, love, culture, and family.

Thank you @netgalley for this arc and a chance to read and review.

Family Lore is a multigenerational family saga told from the POVs of its women (each of whom has a unique “gift”) as they prepare for a living wake for one of their own. I really enjoyed this character-driven debut adult novel for a few reasons but I also had my issues with it.

Let’s get the issues out of the way. First, I had a hard time connecting with the characters for the first third of the book. There were a lot of characters and their relationships to each other to keep track of which slowed my reading bc I kept having to refer back to the list of characters at the beginning (i appreciated having that for reference tho). The past and present POVs within each chapter felt disjointed and it was sometimes confusing keeping up with where/when we were. I also wish we’d had a smaller cast only because I would have loved more depth into each of their journeys. Each of their powers and their stories were so unique!

In terms of what I loved, there was a lot. I loved the poetic, seamless writing that I’ve come to expect from Acevedo. She’s so good at sneaking in lines that have such meaning. The Dominican-American culture was so fun to witness and the past POVs gave a lot of important insights into why certain characters were how they were. The relationships between the women in the family were very relatable and easy to get invested in—some of their comments about each other definitely had me chuckling. I loved the unique choice to add magical realism and how each of the women’s gifts told you something about them as people.

Overall, I can’t say I enjoyed this as much as Acevedo’s YA novels but I would still recommend it!

3.5 stars Not my favorite by this author. Some parts were good and kept my interest, especially the last half. However, it was hard at times to keep characters straight and though a character list was given, reading it on kindle was hard to access it. I also had to look up the translation for multiple Spanish words. I will continue to read this author, but “with the fire on high” and “the poet x” are my favorites. I received an advanced readers copy from netgalley (thanks!) but this review is unbiased .

Oh man I enjoyed this book! Family Lore is about a Dominican family whose story is told in alternating perspectives of the women in the family. This can be a tricky thing to do because sometimes it’s hard to differentiate between characters, but that is NOT a problem with this book. The telling of this story is backed by one of the aunts having her family plan her wake, because she wants to be alive for a party about her death; and the thing is—she can predict when someone will die. So she knows her own death date, but her family is not privy to that knowledge. They’re all just planning a funeral for someone knowing she will die but not when. Each woman has her own back story and struggles, so there’s pretty much someone for everyone to relate to. I was hooked, the writing is fantastic, and I look forward to reading more of Acevedo’s books. I can definitely see this one as a book club read!

Elizabeth Acevedo's first novel for adults after several award-winning YA books was eagerly anticipated by her adult readers. Family Lore was my first experience with Acevedo's colorful, energetic storytelling and prose. It's the story of four sisters and two of their daughters that is set in motion when Flor, who has a gift for premonitions of someone's impending death, announces that she wants to have a wake for herself while she's still alive. Naturally this turns her family upside down. Acevedo gives each of the main characters their own narrative, which allows for insight into their lives but also creates some confusion. Between the shifting perspectives and the frequent movement back and forth in time, it's hard to keep track of what's going on, with whom, and when. (You might want to take some notes to keep everything straight.)

The characters are quirky and believable, and the language is what you'd expect from a poet-turned-novelist (sensual and a pleasure to read aloud -- I'm guessing the audiobook might be a great way to enjoy this book). Family Lore is an absorbing examination of a Dominican-American family that, despite the overly complicated, occasionally confusing structure, bodes well for future adult-oriented novels from Acevedo.

Family Lore focuses on four sisters, Flor, Matilde, Pastora, and Camila. Flor has the ability to predict when a person will die but soon decides to throw herself a living wake which changes the lives of the sisters and their families forever.
The story is told through multiple points of view and timelines. I usually love everything Elizabeth Acevedo but the characters were hard to keep straight and the story felt disjointed at times.

A complicated family history, magical “gifts” that might be more a curse, explorations of womanhood in its many forms. Here, we have mothers and daughters, sisters and cousins, aunts, nieces, wives, partners, childhood sweethearts, assault victims, academics, healers, nurturers.

Simply, this is the story of aging Dominican woman receiving the premonition of her own death, and deciding to invite all her friends and family to a living wake to celebrate her life. But this story defies simplicity, sometimes to its detriment. It has perspective chapters of the four sisters and two daughters, all but one of whom have some kind of magical ability. Each has dreams, and regrets, and things they cannot say. At its heart is Flor, whose dream of death sets her sisters daughter and niece into a tizzy, and her daughter Ona, an academic who turns her investigative eye on her own family’s lore. The story is told alternatingly in chronological glimpses of the women’s preparation for the living wake, especially as they struggle to come to grips with the potential loss of their sister as well as their own struggles and disappointments, and flashbacks to their childhood in Dominica, their dominating mother, and life-altering moments along the way.

[b:Family Lore|62949033] is extremely ambitious, experimenting with form and tone and even language – there’s quite a lot of Spanish peppered throughout, often without hints of the translation. Unless you’re fluent, I recommend keeping a translation app handy or you will miss meaning. I found it to be slow, sometimes too slow, especially in the beginning, and I’m not convinced the form totally works. I got the sense Acevedo was aiming for the dreamlike quality of the writing of the great Latinx magical realism authors to whom she is paying homage, and unfortunately, sometimes it was more blurred than transcendent. Still, there’s so much to appreciate about the stories told by these women. I am impressed, if not entirely enraptured.

[b:Family Lore|62949033] by [a:Elizabeth Acevedo|1525364]
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
💃 Matilda, the sister without magic and with the terrible husband, was probably the most compelling character
🐜 I wanted more from the story of Yadi and Ant. She doesn’t know what she wants, but neither did the narrative
📹 Ditto Ona’s research into her family
🌱 Youngest sister Camila, too, felt like it didn’t have room to breathe. Maybe we just needed one fewer sister to keep track of, for the story to feel less crowded?

<i>Thanks to NetGalley and Ecco for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.</i>

Elizabeth Acevedo, National Book Award-winning author of The Poet X, has blessed us with her first novel for adults. As she experiments with form and perspective, Acevedo tells the story of one Dominican-American family gathering for the “living wake” of one of their own. This is magical, sumptuous storytelling.

** 2.5 / 5 **

Unfortunately, this book was not for me. It had some moments I really enjoyed but overall it was ill structured. The characters were not all flushed out & some things were never really discussed, but were brought up. I did think a family with abilities & the premise of a living wake were both interesting. It dragged out for too long & made the book feel long when it actually isn't. There was a lot of Spanish for me to keep Google translating so be prepared for that if you don't know Spanish.

** I did receive an uncorrected e-ARC courtesy of NetGalley. If any of this is fixed in the finished version of the book I will come back & edit. *

Family Lore is Acevedo's first adult novel. It's a collection of stories inspired by the author's mother and sisters, although she takes some liberties with the story. In this story we meet four sisters and we learn of each of their gifts and how they relate to and engage with their own family. This story is told over time and through multiple perspectives. We are able to delve into the lives of these women over the years and across the US and Dominican Republic. I enjoyed the anthropological slant to this story.

Acevedo's writing is beautiful and weaves together Spanish and English seamlessly. She is able to create a narrative of this family in an interesting way. However, Acevedo writes with a lot of detail which makes the book read a bit slowly for me.

I'm particularly interested in Latin American identities and cultures and found this to be an interesting take.

If you're new here then it's important that you know that Elizabeth Acevedo is my favorite author. Period. No one writes prose as lyrically and beautiful and heartfelt as her. So when I found out she was writing her first Adult Fiction novel I was beyond excited and couldn't wait to get my hands on it.

Family Lore was magical. It was much slower paced than her YA novels but I appreciated that because each passage was meaningful and contemplative. It tells the story of the Marte women as they gather for a living wake of their sister, Flor. Each sister possesses magical gifts and secrets. I enjoyed learning about the sisters, both in the past and present, and the powerful but often dramatic relationship between them.

The Dominican-American representation was the topping on the cake. Acevedo really immerses the reader into the culture. This is something I have loved about all her books.

If you want a book that digs deep into the souls of multiple strong Latinx women with voices that will linger with you long after you finish, make sure you add Family Lore to your shelf!

Thank you so much for letting me read this in advance. I loved Elizabeth Acevedo's YA books written in prose, but I just could not get into this. This makes me sad.

This is Acevedo's first foray into the world of writing books for adults, and let that only excite you. With the warmth and feeling that she has approached writing books for young-adults, she brings to life the generational story of the Marte women. Acevedo trademarks pervade this story; ferocity with hints of melancholy. Perfect for the Isabel Allende shaped hole in your heart.

I've read everything by Elizabeth Acevedo, and when I read that this book was coming out, I was ecstatic. Acevedo seamlessly transitions from writing YA novels to writing her first novel for adults without missing a beat. Written in the engrossing language and storytelling that could only be that of Acevedo, I was sucked immediately into the book. The telling of the Marte women and each of their stories was magical. I loved the unique storytelling format, which really helped tell not only the overall story but was a great gateway to get to know each of the Marte women. I highly recommend this book!

Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this ARC!