DNF @ 32%

This was one of my most anticipated books of 2023 and I’m so sad to share that I had to DNF. To me, the biggest issue was the writing style. It’s fine to have a book of character vignettes with little plot, but you have to really like the writing. I really hated the writing style. I found it wildly over complicated and really difficult to read. I tried this on audio in addition to physical and couldn’t get into it on either. Even her narration feels so different than her YA books - I usually love her narration! Then to top it off, there are some details in this book I can’t stand, most especially one of the characters’ magic vagina. 🙈 Thank you for the opportunity to read early, but I need to be done.

Elizabeth Acevedo is one of my instant buy authors. The sheer art in every Elizabeth Acevedo book, the emotions, the feelings, the family. There is so much as WOC that I felt and Elizabeth Acevedo has a talent for healing parts of yourself that you didn't know needed healing.

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced
Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0

What can I say?
I sobbed
I laughed
I sobbed again
beautifully written I expected nothing less but was still afraid before I opened it and then was happy when all my fears were put to rest and buried deep under ground by page 3. A beautiful cast of characters that suck you in early on and then hold your hand through the heartbreak. Honestly there's not much to say but go read it.

DNF around 60%. I usually love this author's writing but something about this story wasn't clicking with me.

Portrait of a family, told through the stories of the women in the family, specifically 4 sisters and 2 of their daughters. I enjoyed all of the characters. They've been through hardships, both past and present, but have such a strong family bond. The magical realism element was not over the top, and added to the story.

"Flor has a gift: she can predict, to the day, when someone will die. So when she decides she wants a living wake--a party to bring her family and community together to celebrate the long life she's led--her sisters are surprised. Has Flor forseen her own death, or someone else's? Does she have other motives? She refuses to tell her sisters, Matilde, Pastora, and Camila.

But Flor isn't the only person with secrets. Matilde has tried for decades to cover the extent of her husband's infidelity, but she must now confront the true state of her marriage. Pastora is typically the most reserved sister, but Flor's wake motivates this driven woman to solve her sibling's problems. Camila is the youngest sibling, and often the forgotten one, but she's decided she no longer wants to be taken for granted.

And the next generation, cousins Ona and Yadi, face tumult of their own: Yadi is reuniting with her first love, who was imprisoned when they were both still kids; Ona is married for years and attempting to conceive. Ona must decide whether it's worth it to keep trying--to have a child, and the anthropology research that's begun to feel lackluster."

Thanks to NetGalley and Ecco for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed herein are my own.

What a unique book! I loved the female dynamics in this family and the character Flora. What would you do if someone you knew could predict when you would die? Would that change your relationship with them? Would you be hanging on their every word, anxious to know (or not know), when your own expiration date would be? What if that person just so happened to be your sister? Such an interesting story!

Acevedo’s writing is lyrical and beautiful. The words come to life and you feel them in your gut.
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Flor has the gift of knowing the exact day of someone’s death. Or maybe it’s a curse? She has a premonition about her own ending, and plans a living wake for herself. The story follows the journey of Flor and her sisters, past and present, in Santo Domingo and New York.
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This is Acevedo’s first adult novel. I felt a bit lost by how the story jumped around across characters and across different timelines. It was a lot to keep straight. However, Acevedo’s writing is still stunning and captivating. The story is still big, heartfelt, and so very human. And Acevedo is still one of my favorite authors.
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Thank you to @eccobooks for this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This one hurts because I really like Elizabeth Acevedo. If this wasn't an ARC, I would have DNFd. The prose was wayyy too flowery for me and the number of flashbacks got to be tiresome. It just wasn't for me

Family Lore is a multi-generational family drama that follows four Dominican sisters and two of their daughters. All but one of the Marte sisters have a special gift. Matilde is the eldest Marte sister and is known for her genuine kindness but has never shown any affinities. Flor is the second oldest and a seer. Her don is that she is able to see death coming and has always felt closer to the dead than the living. After her daughter Ona, a professor of cultural anthropology, shares a documentary about living wakes, Flor has a dream. She determines that she will invite the entire family to her own living wake - nothing morbid, just a celebration of life.

Pastora is the third Marte sister and she is known to be a reader of people’s truths. Camila is the youngest—and forgotten—Marte sister who demonstrates a gift for herbalism. Ona is Flor’s daughter, and she possesses a magical alpha vagina. (You’ll have to read it to find out!) And finally, Yadi, Pastora’s daughter, is a chef with an inherited taste for limes.

Most Acevedo fans know her for her YA spoken word novels. Family Lore is her first very personal venture into adult fiction. You won’t want to miss the author’s letter. If you love a story about sisters or a messy family with complicated mother daughter relationships with a touch of magical realism, this one may be for you.

Q: If you could have a special gift, what would you want it to be?


Please note - TW: infertility, infidelity, pornography, attempted sexual assault, and explicit sexual content


Many thanks to the author @Acevedowrites, @EccoBooks and @NetGalley for the gift of this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Watch for it! Pub Day - 01 Aug 2023

2.5 stars

I love this author. I've taught her poems and every one of her YA novels in several of my college-level courses. Having taught YA for nearly two decades, I'm pretty well read in the area, and Acevedo holds fast among my all-time favorites. I remain a diehard fan, but this book - to my shock and chagrin - did not work for me at all.

There are many characters here, and the plot and pacing reflect this in a negative way. I expected the characters to come together in a kind of tapestry, featuring the titular family lore. Instead, the more I learned, the more disconnected I felt from them and the more disconnected they seemed from each other and from a unified tale.

I've read this book 2.5 times and am still working through that most recent effort. I also have the audio version on hold through my local library. Clearly, I'm not ready to give up, but I'm starting to feel like I may have to accept the inevitable.

Often, I'll note in my reviews that fans of a particular author will find what they're looking/hoping for, but I'm going to amend that enthusiasm here. Incoming fans of this author *may* find what they're looking for, and I'll be super jealous of them. I was dying for that experience and just didn't have it.

A story of womanhood, sisterhood, motherhood, and daughterhood.

Intergenerational stories between women are my favorite type of novels. And this one captured all of the reasons why. It is a character driven plot which means you get to go deeper with every character, and understand how their stories have made them who they are. The timeline jumps, but not in a way where it loses you. And, my favorite is you are able to explore themes around womanhood through different voices, ages, and experiences. The writing is beautiful.

For me, this story was about finding each other in the gaps of our own experiences and truths; the ways we are intertwined and our stories are woven together. The Marte sisters - Flor, Matilde, Pastora, and Camila - and the Marte cousins Ona and Yadi each hold secrets.

Flor, who is able to see when some will die, has decided to throw herself a living wake. She will not confess why, beyond wanting to celebrate her life. Her daughter, Ona, a student of history, has been interviewing the women in her family to capture their stories, their history, and their lineage. The novel jumps between the women, life in NYC and Santo Domingo, their present, and their memories to reveal their hidden truths and the truths about each other they believe they know.

Each woman gives you a different perspective of love, relationships, mothering, and sexuality. Ona has an alpha vagina that for the first time she does not feel in full control of. Yadi is confronting a past love and the healing it has taken to survive it the first time. The older women have marriages that for one makes her the center of talk, for another has given her safety, and for all is connected to shamed or violent experiences with men and their sexuality.

This is not a neat story. It's like the magic the women hold: centered in the truth of our stories, rooted in desires, and chaotic as when powerful forces hit you.

Family Lore, the first novel for adults by Elizabeth Acevedo, is a multigenerational saga that follows the resilient, gifted women in a Dominican-American family. We get to know four sisters: Matilde, Flor, Pastora and Camila, each blessed and cursed with different gifts. Flor, the second oldest sister and “the seer (mainly of deaths)” decides to summon the family and all distant relatives for “a living wake” where family members can pay their respect. Her sisters and nieces are troubled: what does Flor know? Has she felt someone’s death approaching? And if so, who is dying?

The story is told over a few days before the wake, with chapters alternating between each sister and two of their daughters, Yadi and Ona, and with flashbacks to the sisters’ childhood and youth. While the present timeline is filled with dramatic events, it’s easy to get distracted as you jump around in time and between four siblings and two nieces. I thought the story dragged in the middle, but as the characters became more fleshed out, I was more invested in everyone’s fate. I flew through the last 30% of the book.

Acevedo’s writing feels warm and sensual, especially when capturing how these women support, clash and forgive each other, celebrating their own bodies, minds, femininity, strengths, gifts and abilities. The ending with its high and low notes is satisfying (albeit somewhat predictable) without feeling sentimental or melodramatic.
Family Lore is an ambitious novel, but I think I would have preferred more in depth focus on fewer family members. Six main characters is a lot! However, I was impressed with the vivid characterization, the beautiful textures of Dominican culture, especially food and music, and Acevedo’s lyrical, radiant writing.

Rating: 3.5-4 stars

Many thanks to NetGalley and Ecco Books for allowing me to read an advance copy.

I am finally calling it. I am very sad to say that this book will be a DNF for me at 41%. I tried it five different times across several months and I just could never get into the story. It's not just that there are a lot of characters, it's also that their voice isn't different enough to keep the story interesting. It's also that I couldn't get myself to care about any of the characters and that's tough for a character-driven story. I love and adore Acevedo and I will still read anything she writes no matter what. I am sure I will be in the minority on this one so if you've loved Acevedo and her work as much as I have I still recommend you give this a try because it's full of her beautiful, poetic writing.

with gratitude to netgalley and Ecco for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Flor Marte can predict the exact day when a person will die, so when she arranges a “living wake” for herself, her family assumes the worst. Over three days Flor, her three sisters, and two younger cousins will all delve into the stories of their family. As the timeline goes from the rich past of this complex family to the present, different recollections of the events are revealed from each person’s perspective.

Some of the great things about this book are that it’s a multigenerational tale, it’s rich in Latin American history, explores the bonds of female familial relationships , and has an element of magic. Also, just to be completely honest, Elizabeth Acevedo has an undeniable way with prose! That said, I sadly didn’t get drawn into this book as much as I have her others. I found it to be a very slow build, and while I felt a degree of emotional connection in some areas, I just didn’t feel fully engaged with this book.

Family Lore will be released 8/1/23.

*I received a copy of Family Lore from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

I think of Elizabeth Acevedo as one of the most impressive Young Adult authors, so it is an absolute delight to see her bat her first adult novel out of the park. As I was reminded while listening to the podcast First Edition, Acevedo started her career as a poet –earning the titles of National Slam Champion early in her career and Young People’s Poet Laureate in 2022 – and her background in poetry translates to her vivid prose.

Family Lore is an intergenerational family saga about four Dominican-American sisters and their daughters who have built lives for themselves in New York. Like so many classic Latin American authors, Acevedo has infused her novel with magical realism, giving each woman in the Marte family a unique mystic power. Flor, the eldest of the Marte women, has always been able to predict the day a person will die, so when Flor decides to throw a “living wake” for herself, she sends her family into a tailspin.

Through slices of the Marte women’s past and present lives, Acevedo highlights varying experiences of womanhood, touching on joys and challenges that include desire, friendship, love, infertility, infidelity, career and most of all family. Impressively, Acevedo managed to juggle six different narrators and life experiences without letting any of them drop (though you might find yourself wishing you could spend more time with your favorite character). The way the Marte women show up for each other in Family Lore is incredibly moving, given that their relationships are characterized by real and relatable complications.

I also would like to note that I think Acevedo does a marvelous job of integrating Spanish into her novel – no italics or quotation marks needed.

Ultimately, I love a character-driven narrative about strong women, I love a good novel written by a poet, and I love magical realism, so reading Family Lore was an absolute delight for me. Thank you to Ecco and NetGalley for the Advanced Readers Copy. Family Lore is out August 1st!

Thank you Ecco and Net Galley for providing me with a novel that seems to be on every “most anticipated” list and that was just long-listed for The Center for Fiction 2023 First Novel Prize. This is the first adult novel from Y/A superstar Elizabeth Acevedo who has has won a number of coveted prizes, including a National Book Award, and it does not disappoint. It follows the quartet of post-menopausal, Marte sisters (aging, waning sexuality, and missed opportunities are themes in the book) and two of their daughters (men play a minor role, serving as nothing more than disappointments or fodder for the female gaze) over a span of a few days as Flor, the second eldest girl who can sense loss of life, plans her living wake. Flor had not anticipated that that the lead-up to the wake would become so intense. “The conversations with her siblings and daughter felt fraught with questions of life and death.”

Flor’s daughter, Ona, whose “Marte Family Talent” is a “pussy [that] was a full-sensory supernatural experience for folks” is, despite three degrees and a teaching position at City College, certain that her mother has predicted her own demise. Matilde, at 71 the eldest and sweetest of the sisters, who had suffered multiple miscarriages and an unfaithful lounge singer husband, was also concerned because Flor had an “uncanny knowing” - she’d never been wrong about someone dying. Matilde assuages her concerns by lusting after the 40-ish baseball player with a “hella Dominican ass” who sends her flirtatious texts. Pastora, the stoutest of the sisters who delighted in events that “encouraged seconds and thirds,” lacks a supernatural talent. She suffered an abusive childhood having been informally adopted by a mentally disabled aunt, but she was the only sister who married a good man (Manuelito, however, is conveniently absent from the female-centric book having to return to the DR to tend to his dying mother). Pastora’s daughter, Yadi, owns a vegan cafeteria, and has learned that Ant, her boyfriend when she was a teen, has returned to the block a decade and a half after being incarcerated. Yadi was too distracted by Ant’s return to worry about Tia Flor. “She’d always been a bit strange, a bit lost.” Rounding out the quartet is the youngest sister, Camila, who had been born after her sisters and the eldest sibling, Samuel, had moved away, and enjoys the best apartment of all of the sisters and the only one who paid property taxes.

Although set over a few weeks prior to Flor’s living wake, the novel is told through memories that bridge the past and the present and locations from the Dominican countryside to Santo Domingo to New York City. The Matilde women are unforgettable characters, and Acevedo, a poet, deftly uses lush imagery, colorful descriptions and believable dialogue to create an indelible portrait of the journey of these sisters and cousins, aunts and nieces. This novel will undoubtedly resonate with first generation Americans with Latinx roots, but Acevedo’s universal themes of aging, grieving, tending to family, and honoring traditions, will resonate with all readers.

4.5 I’m extremely surprised reading the reviews that others had a hard time getting into this one. I knew from the first few pages that I would love this. We follow Flor, the eldest sister in the family who has decided she wants to have a living wake to celebrate her life, and her sisters, daughter, and niece. All of the women in this family are touched with a little bit of magic in their own way. For example, Flor has dreams of deaths that will occur. Obviously her family goes into panic mode when she announces her living wake.

The prose is seriously beautiful, and the characters all unique and distinct. I especially enjoyed some of the flashback scenes to the sisters’ time in DR as children and young women. Acevedo has proven that she cannot only write exceptional YA fiction, but adult as well.

This reminds me a bit structurally of Urrea’s The House of Broken Angels, which was a favorite of mine last year. I love the multi-POV family saga that leads up to a big event. This was beautifully done and definitely pulled on my heart strings.

I received an eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Elizabeth Acevedo’s debut adult audience book, Family Lore, takes a look at a close knit family’s colorful characters in free verse. There are many characters to get to know and some untranslated Spanish peppered throughout, so at times I lost the flow of the story.

I prefer her young adult books to this, but I enjoyed reading this, too.

I read Elizabeth Acevedo’s YA novel-in-verse The Poet X in book club a few years back and absolutely loved it. I loved the book even more after I got the chance to watch an author talk that Acevedo did where she read an excerpt from the book out loud (with her being a poet, this was a wonderful treat that definitely enhanced my experience of the book). Given this admiration for Acevedo’s previous work, I was of course excited when I heard she would have a new book out this summer and that it would be her first novel for adults.

Family Lore is a story about a Dominican-American family told from the rotating perspectives of the Marte sisters — Matilde, Flor, Pastora, Camila — and their daughters Ona and Yadi. Written in a non-linear format, the story is centered around the living wake that second eldest sister Flor decides to throw for herself to celebrate the long life that she has lived. While this request may not be particularly unusual, it sets off anxiety and panic within this family because of the special “gift” that Flor possesses: the ability to “see death” — that is, to predict (in some cases, to the exact day) when someone will die (the premonition comes in a dream to her). Whether Flor saw her own death or someone else’s, she refuses to say, which has the family speculating as to the motivation behind the wake. Flor’s sister Pastora also has a “gift” of her own — the ability to “see truth” whereby she can tell just from the way someone talks and the tone of their voice whether they are lying or not. So the family looks to Pastora to hopefully talk to Flor and get some answers— but instead, Pastora chooses to confront oldest sister Matilde about her unfaithful husband Rafa, whose philandering ways Matilde has tolerated for decades. Meanwhile, their next generation, Yadi and Ona, have their own struggles and issues that they are secretly dealing with. In the three days leading up to the wake, some things happen that lead the various characters to reminisce and reflect about their pasts, with a few “secrets” that undoubtedly spill forth in the process. This is the part where the story jumps back and forth not just between time periods (past and present, though without specific timeframe), but also between settings, with scenes taking place in the Dominican Republic as well as in the United States (specifically in New York).

This was an interesting story that I found to be beautifully written with prose that was both poetic and lyrical. With that said however, the format, unfortunately, didn’t quite work for me. First, there were way too many characters, all with their own unique backstories that were told in alternating chapters non-chronologically, which made things hard to follow. As I was reading, I was having a hard time keeping everyone’s story straight, which was frustrating (though it helped that Acevedo included a character table at the front of the book, which I had to refer back to more often than not). The other aspect that I felt didn’t really work were the snippets of commentary from Ona that were inserted throughout the story. Ona’s character, an anthropologist, interviewed various members of her family for a research project she was working on, and excerpts from those interviews were woven into the story — which I didn’t mind, except that I felt those most of those snippets and segments didn’t contribute much to advancing the plot, and given the non-linear nature of the story, it just made things more confusing (for me at least). Thirdly, the story felt too scattered, with multiple threads that seemed to go in different directions, and while the threads did come together at the end, once I got there, I still felt like I didn’t really know what was going on (and it also didn’t help that the ending itself felt too abrupt and ambiguous, which made an already complicated structure even more confusing).

Overall, I felt that this story had potential, it’s just that it was executed in a way that was more complex than it needed to be. I did find several of the sisters’ backstories interesting, especially in seeing how some of the things that happened in their lives shaped who they eventually became — but it felt like too much to explore all at the same time. Perhaps a better approach would’ve been to focus only on one or two main characters’ arcs rather than try to cover everyone’s story all at once. As a whole though, I did appreciate what Acevedo was trying to do and indeed, there was much that I did enjoy about the book, but unfortunately, the tedious and frustrating reading experience won out in the end.

Though Acevedo’s first foray into adult fiction didn’t quite land for me, I continue to be an admirer of her YA works, with The Poet X remaining an unforgettable favorite. I also continue to look forward to any future works she might come out with, be it YA or adult — though hopefully the next adult one will be a better experience.

Received ARC from Ecco via NetGalley.

I am such a huge fan of Elizabeth Acevedo and I was so excited to get to read this ARC! She has this magical way of writing characters as fully three-dimensional and presenting them with all their complications without any judgment. Family Lore was no exception and I fell in love with this family. It was a beautiful reflection on the blood ties that bind, sisterhood, and womanhood as a whole.