Thanks to Ecco for the advance copy of this book!

I absolutely love Elizabeth Acevedo’s previous three books, but this one was a miss for me. There’s a lot of untranslated Spanish, a lot of POVs, and a lot of bodily fluids. While this didn’t work, I’ll still pick up her next book!

Thank you NetGalley and Ecco for an ARC of Family Lore in exchange for an honest review!

Elizabeth Acevedo writes poetically and the complex family dynamics in Family Lore hit close to home for me. Growing up in a predominantly matriarchal family, I see so myself and my own cousins and aunts in each of the characters. The struggles with cultural identity and the diasporic gap between generations are delicately but honestly captured through the various POVs. I highly recommend this to everyone but especially first gen kids.

Family Lore is out now!

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for the Advanced Copy of Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo. Definitely being added to my book club docket

Family saga with light magical realism that follows multiple generations of Dominican-American women in the week leading up to a mysterious family gathering. I struggled with the pacing and the narrative shifts felt disjointed, but this is undeniably a good book. Elizabeth Acevedo can write circles around the best.

This book is unbelievably beautiful. It’s the story of three generations of women, their relationships with their family, and their relationships with themselves. I went back and forth between the audiobook and e-book because I was so engrossed that I needed the book to follow me around. Acevedo’s writing is poetic and at times funny, and I loved being immersed in the Martes’ world. I highly recommend it to fans of historical fiction and novels centered on strong female characters. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the e-arc.

Elizabeth Acevedo can do no wrong.

It has been a delightful experience to witness Elizabeth's transformation into the icon she is today. I vividly remember reading her debut book and falling in love with her writing and characters. With each subsequent publication, she has established herself as one of my favorite authors. Her adult debut was incredible. These characters reminded me a lot of my own crazy Dominican family. This book is one that I will cherish for a very long time.

Is this the year of living funerals? Not sure how this concept seems to be trending but it’s an interesting narrative choice.

The large number of POVs (six!!) and non linear pattern make this a bit confusing to dive into and tease apart. We shift from the past to the present, from Santi Domingo to NYC and at moments in between, in the past and near past for each woman. Ultimately, this served to start to meld all the women together, yes in a way that combined to tell a multifaceted history and family narrative, but also in a way that made it feel like each of the characters didn’t get enough space to feel like their own unique person.

We zoom in and out of each of the woman’s lives, which made the intimacy feel like a rollercoaster and again, making it hard to feel like there’s time to settle in and connect with one singular character. I couldn’t find the space to sit in my feelings to the struggles of each character, to feel the words and feelings wash into to, because the next chapter feels like a reset, moving on to another sister or cousin with their own set of feelings and struggles that may happen entirely separately from the previous chapter.

Where Acevedo’s YA novels are so compelling for diving head first into that intimacy with one or two main characters, including a look at how all the family and secondary character actions impact the MC, here it became hard to feel that sense of grounding and focus. Each of the women has their own lives and struggles, their secrets and the ripples those create within the family, yet it’s hard to see where the ripples from others begin and where another character’s personal struggles begin and end. This may be purposeful by the author to demonstrate the intricate connection a family has on all its members, but it just didn’t quite work for me in terms of being invested. It’s less of a cause and effect, how one sister impacts the next, or how one event impacts each sister or cousin at the same time, but mostly how the family and history has impacted each of them and their own unique circumstances, so in this way I found the connective storytelling tissue hard to track.

This does however lovingly render so many struggles women undergo, it’s raw and vulnerable, and I applaud the author for giving voice to so many of these feelings and trauma.

I encourage others to pick this up as it might register better with you. I think the intent and hope of those story is wonderful, I just wish I felt a greater sense of connected storytelling.

How to explain the brilliance that was this book? I am in love with family sagas and with tracing back our families' experiences that ripple back to us. Acevedo takes her poetry genius and puts into amazing prose that you bite into and is delicious! The book drips with words and sentences that leave you breathless. This book begins with Flor watching a documentary and getting inspired to have a living wake. This sends the whole family of four sisters and daughters into a tizzy because Flor has a gift! She's able to predict when someone will die! Does this mean that Flor has seen her own death or is this just a celebration of her life as she's said? This living wake pulls the rug under her sisters, Pastora, Matilde, and Camila who must now confront their own past and current journeys. Matilde with a philandering husband who has shown his true colors since their wedding night, Pastora who had a difficult relationship with her mother (to say the least) and was punished for things beyond her control, and Camila, the baby of the family, who was spared the cruelty of her mother and lives an affluent life unknown to the other sisters but deals with feeling like an outsider to their circle. Each of the sisters and the next generation has gifts that are weaved into this story of a Dominican-American family who survives and thrives a myriad of experiences, all while showcasing a sisterly love that I hadn't read quite like this before. A MUST READ! We are so blessed to live in the time of Acevedo.

Thank you to netgalley for giving me me a chance to read this book.

Encanto with adult themes. And as someone that cries every time I watch the Disney Encanto, you can imagine how many tears were shed reading this!

This was my first Elizabeth Acevedo and I am not surprised to see that she is a poetic. The prose were gorgeous and made beautiful storytelling that much more incredible.

This book is beautifully written, as we have come to expect from Elizabeth Acevedo. However, this was not the book for me. There were a lot of characters and a lot of shifting points of view that made it very hard for me to keep up with who was who and what was happening. The ending was more satisfying than I expected, but I really only enjoyed the last 20% or so. This was just 3 stars for me.

Absolutely beautiful story about family, generations, and life. I loved Acevedo's YA books, and this adult novel shows how limiltless Acevedo can be!

Ona and her mother and aunts are amazingly strong women, each with their own trials and needs, but they are all there for each other when it counts. Acevedo shows how imperfect and beautiful family can be.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and publisher for the opportunity to read and review!

I read / listened to this book simultaneously, going back and forth between the two editions. The audio book really gives you the lilting flavor of the poetic prose, and much of it is read by the author. On the other hand, for some reason, the audio book does NOT read aloud the chapter headings that tell you which family member is narrating. This can be very confusing as it often takes some time before it becomes obvious whose story is being taken up.

The novel tells the stories of the women of a multigenerational Dominican-American family — each with a gift that is not wholly of this world. It begins with one of the sisters — Flor — demanding a wake for herself in three days. Since her gift is predicting the day of someone’s death, her family naturally expects the worst, though Flor won’t answer any questions. The prose is lyrical, moving between present and past and among the three sisters and the two cousins of the next generation.

The story is slow paced and completely sensual — it is a story of sensory experiences and personal feelings, not a story of plot or thought. That was interesting to me because I realized that I personally prefer more thought and a little less feeling and experience, but I can appreciate the flow. The stories center on women — all the men are described from the women’s perspective which is another interesting way of telling of a story.
I enjoyed the story but you do have to be in a patient mood, as the story unfolds slowly with a different sense of time than I’m used to. Read after the caffeine in your system is spent, else you will not be able to settle in to the language the way you should.

The beginning of Family Lore feels a little like meeting your partner's family for the first time—too many names too quickly, followed by family stories that bounce backwards and forwards through time and circle around shared experiences that you're not privy to yet. There are six women at the center of Family Lore: four sisters and the two daughters of the next generation. The novel shifts between their voices and memories, and while at first I was wishing for more stability in the narrative voice, by the end I couldn't decide whose chapters were my favorite. Family Lore is an apt title for this novel that feels more like mythology than family history; the more I read, the more I loved it.

Family Lore starts with a mystery. Flor, who possesses the magical ability to predict when people are about to die, has just invited her family to a living wake in her honor. The ensuing panic (is Flor dying? if so, when? if not, what's going on?) animates the rest of the novel and sparks a collective revisiting of the past, starting during the sisters' childhood in the Dominican Republic and ending in the present in New York City. Flor's gift is unique but her magic is not, and I really loved Acevedo's portrayal of a family magic where people's abilities reflect their individuality rather than a coherent system of magical rules (think Encanto rather than Shadow and Bone).

Fans of Acevedo's YA novels and poetry will likely enjoy Family Lore as well; her mastery of character complexity and frankness around sex have made the jump to her first adult novel and benefit from additional space to deepen and mature. I read the (brilliant) last chapter and immediately wanted to start over, this time a family insider rather than an interloper.

Thank you to Ecco and NetGalley for the ARC!

When I requested this novel, I thought it would be something I would find myself falling in love with but that was not the case. There were moments throughout the story that I felt would come to mean something to me but then there would be a turn I was not expecting and that feeling would change. This is a book I will try to read again at some point as I'm hoping it is just not meant for me right now.

3.5⭐️ After reading and loving Acevedo’s previous work, I went into this book with too many expectations. I saw where she was trying to take me with her story, but I just had a little bit of difficulty getting there.

That being said, I did have a good time with this book (will admit that some of the women’s feelings REALLY resonated with me), and will continue to read anything she writes.

I found certain aspects of Family Lore very interesting, and I loved the themes of sisterhood and female magic. Also, Acevedo’s writing style was beautiful as always. However, I didn’t connect with the characters as much as her other novels, and the plot was hard for me to get into, so it fell flat for me personally. I still enjoyed my time though, and would definitely recommend it to those that like lyrical writing.

My god, this book was excellent. I love Acevedo’s YA novels, but I think her adult foray is actually her best book yet! I usually listen to her novels on audio because I love her narration, but I just couldn’t wait for an ALC of this one. For those who love stories of families, stories of women, stories of people. Easily a top book of 2023 for me.

Acevedo’s writing is a feast for any reader. The way she writes and explains her characters emotions is so unique. I have loved all of her YA novels and this adult fiction was definitely different and something I had to get used to at first (especially with all the different characters to keep track of) but as it went on I made myself comfortable in the story and was so engaged by her prose. Highly recommend the audio!

Wow- this book was ENCANTO, but make it adult!!!! I'm shocked that I haven't seen more people talking about that, I loooove the movie Encanto so I instantly loved this one too.

There are MANY POVs and characters, which took a bit to get straight but didn't take away from my experience. This book involves the concept of a living wake which is so beyond interesting to me. It really got me thinking.

Overall, I do think something was missing here. I can't put my finger on what it was-perhaps the writing, the length, the MANY characters. I'm not sure. But I think this was a solid first foray into the adult genre from an author who has INCREDIBLE YA books. I am still an Acevedo stan!!

I absolutely adore Elizabeth Acevedo's YA titles. I've read them all and recommend them often. I had high hopes for FAMILY LORE but ultimately, it fell flat. I think it wa sa case of too many characters.