A family saga that follows 4 sisters and their families from their early days in the Dominican Republic to their lives in New York City. My thoughts on this book are probably somewhat skewed because I did not realize it was written for adults before I read it so I had to change my mindset a bit once I realized that. And then I kept comparing it to Angie Cruz's books which I absolutely loved. The writing was beautiful but I love Acevedo's young adult books and this just wasn't as satisfying for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy. Elizabeth Acevedo is an automatic must-read for me. I have read and adored everything she has written, so I was thrilled to read her first non-YA novel. I loved the structure of the book with all of the women’s stories told and then Ona’s research notes kind of woven through. Acevedo did a gorgeous job of capturing these characters and making the reader feel like they are in the family as well. I do think the book was maybe a touch long as it felt a bit slow in places. I tend to feel this way about most character-driven novels though, so that certainly isn’t a knock on the book. Acevedo remains a must read!

I usually love books with multiple perspectives and families and generational trauma, but this was a disappointment. The perspectives were hard to keep track of because they're all too similar. Also, it kind of lost me at the part about the magical vagina.

25% in and this book is DNF for me. I am so disappointed because I loved Clap When You Land. There are so many characters and so far, they are all unlikable and I don’t see a story developing. And honestly, in my opinion, crudeness does not make a book better, just an unenjoyable read.
Thanks to NetGalley and Ecco Publishing for the ARC and I will not be posting this review to retail sites.

This book tried to scrap together a bunch of individual storylines (some more interesting than others) and it ended up being pretty incohesive. At the beginning, I felt that I was already forgetting who everyone was and how they were related. By the end, there wasn’t a single story line that I enjoyed from start to finish.
I do think the exploration of gang affiliation, young love, and dissolving relationships is well-presented, intriguing, and thought-provoking.
All I’m saying is, if someone told me their nostril hairs were tuned to my scent all night, I’m running in the other direction.

DNF at 25%. 2.5 stars rounded up. I adore her YA writing but this read felt like a slog. SOOO many characters and so much conversation yet nothing really...happened? I was really bummed because I fully expected to love this one. The writing was good and the plot was intriguing but I was very much let down by this one.

2.5

there were so many POVs and things going on that i found myself not enjoying this. i skimmed a bunch of this, because it couldn’t maintain my interest. i’m not particularly a fan of multiple POVs, let alone six of them. i also felt like so many things were going on that made me not able to focus. elizabeth acevedo is like an auto-read author for me, so i was really excited to receive this ARC. i’m definitely eager to read any books she puts out in the future, because i tend to heavily enjoy. unfortunately, this one was different from the rest for me.

thank you to ecco and netgalley for providing me with an arc of this book <3

I usually adore Acevado’s books and read them quickly. I’m so sad to say that I struggled so bad with this story. I had a hard time keeping everyone straight. The structure of the novel just didn’t work for me. I even tried the audio and still couldn’t follow enough to get into the story. I’m so sad, but I’ll still be reading her next book.

Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo was one of my highly anticipated reads so I was very excited to receive an ARC for this one but I was quite frankly a little disappointed.

The whole concept of Flor being able to tell when death comes & her creating her own living wake seemed like the coolest concept to me but I was completely overwhelmed with the writing style.

I don't know if it was the multiple POV's or the way that the story was written but it was unbelievably hard for me to get into.

Unfortunately this was something that fell very flat for me.

Set in NYC and the Dominican Republic, Acevedo's newest novel brings us deep into a family of mothers and daughters, sisters and wives. Flor is one of 4 siblings: the oldest is Mathilde, then Pastor, Flor, and the baby, Camila. Growing up the sisters each had their own gifts but Flor's ability to predict death was the most notorious. Now in her 70's, Flor has had another dream, this time it's of her on impeding departure. Flor wants to have a living wake, a party, before she leaves, to celebrate with her family and friends, instead of a traditional wake after her death filled with grief. The entire begins at 6 weeks before the wake, but the majority of it takes place in the days leading up to the wake. Here we are introduced to the coming of age stories of the characters and the general dynamics within the family.

This is a slow burn character-driven family saga type of novel. There are a lot of characters to keep track of. I found myself referring to the family relationships at the beginning of the novel many times until I figured out who was who and who was related to who. The story just didn't grip me as much as Acevedo's previous YA novels.

Thank you to Ecco and Netgalley for an early digital review copy of this novel. It is available on 8/1/23.

Family Lore
Elizabeth Acevedo
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2023
Ecco
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
Acevedo definitely has a way with words.
However, this was not a pleasant reading experience for me, I know this book will impact many upon its release, unfortunately it wasn’t me.
3 stars

Acevedo's adult debut is full of depth and harmony, sussing out the hurts and highs of a long standing family with magical powers as they must deal with their concerns and issues.

Strong points (in my opinion):
* interesting well developed main characters
* lovely descriptions of the Dominican Republic
* unusual plot
* magic abilities that were fun and appropriate to the story
* based on author’s real life family

Difficult parts (in my opinion):
* a good share of Spanish phrases/dialogue that was hard to decipher the meaning from context
* a lot of characters from multiple generations that were a challenge to keep straight along with their jobs and partners and personal history
* multiple POV that moved back and forth in time and were interspersed through the novel

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishers for the ARC to read and review.

This book was not for me.

First and foremost - with so much content related to various miscarriages and conception issues a content warning should have been a must. I would never had picked it up if I had realized.

Also, even with translating on the e reader, there were language barriers on phrases. I can’t imagine if I had tried to follow it on audio or with a hard copy.

Outside of that, the story itself was hard to follow. There were so many characters to keep track of, especially with how quickly it switched between the characters in the different generations.

I'm not fully sure what to make of this book that took me on a whirlwind journey. It took me a bit of time to understand and adapt to the format through which this story is told. I wasn't sure which women were which at first because their were similarities to each of their stories. Though I soon realized how different they were. At times I questioned what I was reading. At times I vehemently agreed. I saw pieces of my own mother and aunties in the tias in this story. We're following women who are dealing with straying husbands, fertility issues, desires and sexuality.

I think anyone expecting this to be like Acevedo's YA books is in for a rude awakening because it is so ambitious and different from from anything you've read by her before. At first it's presented as the story of two generations of women coming together to celebrate the living wake of one of their own. But it follows a non linear timeline that isn't the easiest to keep track of as we read about these women in their rawest form. Overall it's an engaging tale that ends on just the right note.

Family Lore is vastly different from Acevedo’s previous novels but it’s still full of her beautiful writing. I loved this book and will 100% pick it up again — I’ve already pre-ordered my hardcover.

It did take me a moment to understand the format of the story, specifically Ona’s first person interjections. I wonder if this would be more clear in the print version (vs this early ebook copy).

Thank you for adding the family tree at the start! A story like this really benefits from the resource.

I've enjoyed Acevedo's YA writing in the past, so I was extremely intrigued by this book. Sadly, I had a hard time getting invested in this book. There were too many main characters and storyline, making it disjointed and very difficult to follow.

This book is about the bond between 4 sisters: Matilde, Flor, Pastora, and Camila and two of their daughters. We learn that although the sisters now live in New York, they came from a humble upbringing in DR. The story is told with flashbacks of each of the sister's upbringing and their interpretation of what was happening during their young ages. We see how the bond between Flor and Pastora leads Flor to rescue her sister from somebody who was supposed to be caring for her. Later these 2 sisters will be inseparable as they move to a larger city and then New York, not together but seeming to follow each other.
Each member of this family has also been blessed with a gift of some sort... Everybody except for Matilde. Flor knows when people near her will die because she has vivid dreams about it. Pastora can sense when people are telling the truth/lying about something. Camila can create home remedies, with herbs and such to treat almost any illness.
The sisters are hyper-focused on Flor throughout the book because she has had a dream that she refuses to share with anybody - leading everybody to speculate that she's dreamed about when she will die. Flor decides that the best way she can deal with her dream is by holding a wake for herself, where everybody whom is special to her can attend. Matilde also has a secret she is trying to keep from the sisters. Her husband of many years is cheating (again). While the sisters are trying to figure out exactly what is happening with Flor, they are also trying to be supportive to Matilde and try to get her to see herself as being deserving of a better husband. The time that was supposed to be a gathering of family to celebrate and spend time together, is threatened when Matilde shares that her marriage is not a place her sisters belong.
This book was great because it showed the struggles that can happen within a family, when they each just want what is best for each other.

I really wanted to enjoy this story as a fan of Acevodo’s previous YA works. This story didn’t work for me because of the fragmented writing structure. The plot abruptly jumped from many POVs and past and present and it wasn’t fluid.

I love generational family sagas and frequently say that I feel like I'm looking to recreate the experience of reading 100 Years of Solitude for the first time. This book is as close as I've gotten to experiencing that feeling!