Family Lore is by one of my favorite award winning authors E. Acevedo, who also wrote "Clap When You Land" and "The Poet X". This representation of a Dominican-American family shows strong female voices, and powerful themes mixed with magical realism and contemporary fantasy. I look forward to more contemporary Dominican-American family stories, to promote this under-represented culture in literature. Acevedo will receive more critical and popular successes with Family Lore, Highly giving it five of five stars.

I wanted to love this book because I love the author, but it was a slog for me. I couldn’t keep the characters straight, which made it hard to fall in love with them or root them through their challenges. I also might be a prude, but the highly graphic sexual descriptions were cringeworthy.

I’m sure others who like a complicated family drama will love so I’m rating this three stars. Thank you for letting me see an early copy! I will read more from this author because she always tries new genres and storytelling techniques.

The story focuses on four unique and quirky sisters, Flor, Matilde, Pastora, and Camila. Flor has the unique ability to predict when a person will die since she was five years old. Now, instead of predicting her own death, she decides to have a "living wake" that she can attend. This raises the question of what would happen if she predicted her own death and wanted to say goodbye to her loved ones in her own peculiar way.
I really really loved this. I loved the different perspectives, I loved the relationships, I loved the way the story was told. I loved the non-linear and magical realism aspect of this book. I think it is so different from Acevedo's young adult works, and it truly demonstrates how talented she is. This will, without a doubt, be one of my favorite books of 2023.

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I have loved all of Elizabeth Acevados’ books for young adults, so I was excited to read her first book for adults. Family Lore begins with one family member, who senses people’s deaths before they occur and decides to throw herself a wake while alive.

#netgalleyarc I love Elizabeth Acevedo’s works, I’ll read anything she writes. This is definitely a bit different than her other books, but also still her same great style. There are a lot of different points of views and characters that tell this story but it really made the story. Such a great read!

Thanks so much to Netgalley, Elizabeth Acevedo, and Ecco for allowing me to honestly review this book in exchange for an ARC!

Family Lore is sprawlingly, interconnectedly vibrant. The characters’ relationships with one another draw them together as a family, but it isn’t that simple-- we get to see how they interweave with each other in every way possible, examining the full scale of their lives to dive into the complexity between them. The many vignettes of the characters’ childhoods and adolescents always felt fresh, like we as the audience were being offered new insight into why the present-day characters act as they do. The heavy topics addressed were done so with authenticity and grace; the magical realism, while at times a bit contrived, mostly added tension exactly where it needed to go to emphasize the heavier elements of the plot.

I found Flor to be the most compelling character, which makes sense-- she’s the animating issue for the plot. I liked her amount of provenance over the story. Her impending doom never felt overbearing, rather like an inevitable conclusion, and served as the perfect vector to contextualize all the vignettes; in the face of the upcoming death of a loved one, of course everyone would be inclined to reminisce. Every time Flor showed up in a section of the story that wasn’t hers, she served as both a familiar waystation and also a reminder of the tension building as the book went on. Ona’s project of recording all the stories feels like the natural progression of that idea, and I think it was executed really well. I also particularly enjoyed Yadi’s sections and Matilde’s sections. Pastora’s were great, too. I didn’t completely connect with Ona’s sections, but I felt that they held the narrative together in a reasonable manner.

I did struggle with a few parts of the book. I didn’t enjoy the graphic sexual content; I also felt that at times, the pacing dragged, but since this book is so character-driven, that kind of comes with the territory. Some of the dialogue, especially in the interviews, felt stilted, but that might’ve been a direct commentary on the fact that the interviews were translated-- the authenticity of the original language wouldn’t necessarily hold up in English, or with Ona translating? In that same vein, the density of content kind of dragged the pace down a bit, not always in a way that felt like richness; just a little more condensing could’ve made the pacing run a bit more smoothly, I think. Also, certain parts of the plot sprawl felt a little bit indistinct. Specifically, some of the struggles with lovers started to feel a tiny bit repetitive, but maybe that’s intentional, to see how differently the members of the main cast respond in those situations?

Ultimately, I enjoyed Family Lore, despite those minor issues. It was poignant in the way that celebrations of life are, wistfully bittersweet. The writing was evocative and gave authentic voice to the struggles and heavy subject matter with which the book deals; the characters were multifaceted and genuine, and the plot’s calls for magical realism accented them with just the right amount of detail. I liked it.

I so enjoyed this book! Elizabeth Acevedo's Family Lore is a dynamic family portrait — detailing the meaning of sisterhood and the ways women show up for each other, the intricacies of family chosen and assigned, and straddling of two worlds. It is such a rich story, packed with history, memory and feeling. She nimbly shifts between Spanish and English and provides vivid scenes from both the Dominican Republic and the U.S. I particularly love the way she engages with the women's "otherwordly inclinations," ending with a resounding statement in the abstract: "all of us are magic wrapped in skin. And taut with over-wrought wonder, for the fleeting time we are beings, we would have to make her up: the woman we require to survive this world."

There are so many fantastic components to this book that make it great. First and foremost the exploration of multigenerational and multi-cultured narrative is done beautifully. It illustrates the complexity of family and immigration in a way I think a lot of people can understand and identify with, especially the female readers. Despite these things though, I had a bit of a tough time getting really into it and staying engaged. I would get sucked into a character and then the POV would change and I would struggle until that character came around again. I wish there had been more momentum in the story to keep me interested. I will recommend this to my audience though and will definitely give it another go once it hits the shelves.
Thank you!

I want to Thank NetGalley and Ecco for giving me the opportunity to read this incredible book early in exchange for my honest opinion.
This story is of a Dominican-American family told through the eyes of the women of the family, some of them have unique abilities. The story is told from the perspective of 4 sisters and 2 of their daughters. The story was a bit hard to follow at times but overall I would definitely recommend this and I am glad I got the chance to read this.

DNF -- it was way too slow for me to get through. Acevedo is a great writer, but her style is just not for me.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC.

Overall enjoyed the multigen story of mothers and daughters. I wish there was a family tree at the beginning of the book because it was hard to follow at times who was which character. This book was also sexy and the mystery of Flora and her living wake was great… but then it fell flat for me at the end. While I appreciate the closure and self discovery of the characters, the day of the wake wasn’t that eventful. It was also confusing with the excerpts because the reveal of the main character recording her family history took a while to come out.

I was so excited to see that Elizabeth Acevedo was releasing a new book. I heard great things about her writing and was looking forward to this ARC. However, I could not connect with this book. There were too many points of view and it was hard to keep track of which character was speaking. The writing was beautiful at times, but the plot did seem to meander and drag on and on. This book was just not my cup of tea.

It’s only March, but I have a feeling this book will be one of my top books of 2023. It’s rare that I encounter a book where I love the characters and the writing so much that I want to savor it instead of race through it, but this is how I felt about Family Lore.

The story follows Matilde, Flor, Pastora and Camilla, four sisters from rural Dominican Republic who now live in New York, and two of their daughters, Yadi and Ona, as they prepare for an unusual event - a living wake for Flor. I loved every minute that I spent with these women, who are strong and flawed and inspiring and whose love for each other defines everything that happens in these pages. The sisters and cousins each have a special, slightly supernatural gift, and it’s powerful to see how each woman learns how to wield her gift.

The book is structured as a compilation of interviews from the four sisters and two cousins collected by Ona, Flor’s daughter and an anthropologist by training. I am truly in awe of the way that Acevedo crafted this narrative, weaving in between present day and the past in the DR, with little pieces of commentary by Ona popping up throughout the interviews, while never making me feel lost as a reader. Each of the women has a distinct voice and personality that comes through in the sections narrated by her, which adds richness to the story.

Family Lore unspools themes of feminism, identity and history, migration, sexuality, death and grief, what we owe to our family and what we owe to ourselves. Though I found the novel to be ultimately uplifting, it also deals with some heavy things including infertility and pregnancy loss, physical and sexual abuse, incarceration and trauma, and grief and death. Acevedo handles all these themes with utmost care and i felt that everything she included had a reason for being in the story.

I have a feeling I’ll be thinking about this book and these characters for a long time.

Amazing book about family and generational trauma, and how it affects others in the family. I really related to Matilde, having been in a family where it was well known an uncle cheated but it was kept under wraps to avoid embarrassment. The characters are easy to understand and I couldn’t stop reading

I love all of Elizabeth Acevado’s books. This book is the first one I have read that isn't written in prose. Its represents each family member’s point of view. Knowing how their lives were from past to present. The book also refers to a family member planning a wake before death. In my point of view, the book is okay. Read via NetGalley.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an advance copy for review.

I have read all of Elizabeth Acevedo's previous books and loved them all, but this one did not hold my attention as much as I would have liked. I tried to finish it but I just couldn't. There were too many POVs and the story jumped back and forth in time which became very confusing.

What I did like was the multi generational aspect and learning about each family members magical gift.

From the Publisher:
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.

Spanning the three days prior to the wake, Family Lore traces the lives of each of the Marte women, weaving together past and present, Santo Domingo and New York City. Told with Elizabeth Acevedo’s inimitable and incandescent voice, this is an indelible portrait of sisters and cousins, aunts and nieces—one family’s journey through their history, helping them better navigate all that is to come

My thoughts:
All told, the title of Acevedo's adult novel is perfect. Reminiscent of Zora Neale Hurston's anthropological studies of magical practices and how those practices show up everyday life, Acevedo delivers a lyrical exploration of life and loss through the lines of one family. At times the tempo of the book was more andante and could have used a bit more allegro, but it always had a [heart]beat. I recommend without hesitation.

This book is a masterpiece. I always look forward to reading novels by this author, and I was so excited to get this one as an ARC. The women in this story are beautifully woven together and the theme of generational trauma being passed down or hidden from others I deeply related to. I saw the women of my own large Mexican family. I felt connected to the words. I cannot recommend this enough.

I absolutely love Elizabeth Acevedo so when i found out that she wrote an adult novel, I just knew I would love it!! Acevedo's work has always been so poetic and just dreamy.

Pros: I have loved Elizabeth Acevedo’s YA novels, so I was very interested to read her first novel for adults. Although I did not like Family Lore as much as The Poet X, Clap When You Land, and With the Fire on High, I still thought it was a very well-written book. It is a family story of sisters, mothers, daughters, and cousins, and there is depth to all their relationships and personal histories.

One of my favorite parts of the reading experience of the author’s previous novels was listening to the audiobooks, which are read by the author. I think I would like this book even more in an audiobook format rather than ebook, which is how I read it.

Cons: None really. I didn’t like this book as much as I did the author’s YA books, but the author is so talented that my “not favorite” of hers is still better than most fiction I read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ecco for the opportunity to read this book.