Family Lore was one of my most anticipated reads of 2023 being that Elizabeth Acevedo's prior works and writings have been so powerful and beautiful to read. I struggled with the pacing of the first half of the novel and did sometimes feel that the multiple POV's added a touch too much confusion to the plot. The plot and story in the second half definitely felt engaging and kept me intrigued until the very end. I look forward to more adult fiction and/or poetry from Acevedo in the future.

If you like a multigenerational family saga, this is the book for you! The way the story explores family ties and the way women are forced to move in the world across different time periods and places was really interesting. I really enjoyed the audiobook.

I really wanted to love this one as I've enjoyed all of her YA books. This one just wasn't for me. I couldn't build a connection with the characters and it read a bit disjointed to me.

Ahh I really wanted to love this one, because I've loved her YA books, but this was just so boring. I did not connect to any of the characters, and the scenes which she chose to highlight didn't make sense and it felt so clunky. Her writing style is so pretty, and it's obvious she can write beautiful prose. I can see an audience for this book. It just wasn't me.

Family Lore is Acevedo’s first adult novel and it was just as beautiful and heartfelt as her young adult books. She will continue to be an autobuy author for me.

This one was a bit of a struggle to get through at times. I enjoyed the different characters and their POVs, but the magical realism was a bit too much for my tastes. I did enjoy learning more about Latin American culture and their myths and beliefs. I found it unique and well written, just maybe not for me.

I adore novels written by poets. I also really like magical realism. What I don’t like is when something feels too contrived or too forced and Family Lore contains lots of overt sexual elements with the only seeming purpose being shock value-or that Elizabeth Acevedo has previously only written Young Adult novels and had many adult scenes brewing in her head for a little too long and they all came bursting out in one novel versus being spread across a few.

Overall just not as strong of an adult debut as I hoped for. I don’t regret reading it, but was left wanting something more.

I am a big Elizabeth Acevedo fan...and will continue to be...but this just didn't captivate me the way her other books have. I really didn't connect to the characters like I've done in the past.

I absolutely love Elizabeth Acevedo’s novels in verse and was so intrigued by Family Lore when it came out. I love a multigenerational story about women. While I ultimately prefer her other books, I think this will be a bit with many readers. Her writing is evocative and rich, allowing you to really sink into the stories of the women in this family.

I struggled to get into this book. It’s quite a departure from the other books of her I’ve read. There were so many characters and POV that it was hard to keep track of it all. Complicated family stories are not my favorite. The magical realism part was interesting but not enough to really grip me.

I think some will love the book for the same reasons I could not connect with it.

I liked the writing, liked the characters but I didn't love the story. It's very character driven-not a lot of plot, though there are a lot of flashbacks to this family of sisters growing up in the Dominican Republic before moving to NYC as adults. The ending was very abrupt. I will still read this author, but this wasn't my favorite of hers.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing an advance copy of this title in exchange for honest feedback.

Elizabeth is such a great author and she continues to provide the stories we need in this world. I really joyed this one. Beautifully written and keeps you interested.

Elizabeth Acevedo will forever be an author whose books I will ALWAYS read. More than a lot of books I read, when I finish hers all I can think is that she’s a truly talented storyteller. She can take her readers on a journey with every page she writes, even when she is describing mundane duties.

With that being said, Family Lore was definitely not my personal favorite of hers. I usually go into books blind, but especially if you’re an Acevedo fan I think it’s smart to ~not~ do that here just to adjust (not lower!! just alter) your expectations. Family Lore is very different from her other books.

Family Lore is an adult book (definitely not YA) that describes adult themes. It’s very character driven but not necessarily central to one protagonist - the entire family is included. It reminds me a lot of The Inheritance of Orquidea Divina for this reason.

This is a sort of slice of life story - and I personally tend to struggle with those, especially without a central character. While I can see why so many others love this, it failed to hold my attention due to the number of characters, the nonlinear timeline, lack of plot, etc. These are not criticisms, just personal stylistic preferences that aren’t my favorite when paired all together. I like them individually, but all in one book feels chaotic for my taste.

Overall this was beautifully written (obvi - it’s Elizabeth Acevedo!!), with complex and interesting female characters, but I just struggled to feel as invested in it as I would’ve hoped.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I've given every single YA Elizabeth Acevedo 5 stars, but Family Lore unfortunately didn't do it for me.

Flor is the main character and can predict her own death. This is well known by her family as every female in the family has special gifts that border on magical realism-eque categorization. Flor decides to have a living wake for herself, causing her family to reflect on their life as well as speculate as to whether Flor is dying soon. That premise sounded intriguing and like something I would adore. However, where this book lost me was some of what felt like unnecessary graphic sex and experiences that jolted me out of the story. The tone of this felt off and I just couldn't connect with the story due to these moments.

I did receive the ARC of this as an audiobook and the narration is fantastic! If you do choose to experience this, highly recommend the audio.

What a wonderful novel! I love Elizabeth Acevedo's writing, and the characters really drew me in. I was sad when it was over, which is always a sign of a good book.

I adored FAMILY LORE, Elizabeth Acevedo’s first adult novel. Those who are familiar with her YA work will recognize the gorgeous writing and magical realism elements, but the rest of this story felt fresh. I would say this had a 3.5 average rating in book club - some struggled with the structure (especially on audio!) and the depiction of magic, but if you enjoy magical realism like Isabel Allende, I think you’ll like this.

I listened to this as an audiobook and I enjoyed having it keep me company.

This is a book firmly in the magical realism tradition. Each sister in the Marte family has a gift, whether they realize it or not. Flor can see when someone will die. Pastora can tell if someone is lying. Matilde dances like magic, although she thinks she has no magic at all. The children of these women also have magic.

There are a lot of viewpoints in the book: Flor, Pastora, Matilde, Yadi(Pastora's daughter), Ona (Flor's daughter and the character who gets a first person POV). The book jumps back and forth in time. Very little time passes in the present-day storyline, in which Flor decides that she wants to have a living wake after seeing something about that idea in a documentary that her daughter got her to watch. Family members wonder why Flor has decided to do this and then the wake happens. Much of the book is looking into the past of the characters. We see the three sisters at different parts of their lives growing up in the DR and then moving to NYC as adults for various reasons. We see their relationships with each other and with men. Men are a very secondary part of this story and aren't nearly as interesting as the women, which is sort of too bad. We also see what it was like for Ona and Yadi growing up in NYC and what their relationship to the Dominican Republic and their grandmother was like. I frankly thought that the grandmother character (mother to the three sisters) made pretty much no good decisions throughout the entire book, never protected or stood up for her daughters, and was all about the "proper" thing to do instead of the right thing to do. Which is weird, because although we never learn much about it, the grandmother followed her heart instead of propriety and followed the sisters' father into the cane forests, leaving her well-to-do family behind for life with a farmer. Perhaps she had regrets? But we never know what she thinks.

The story feels very circular. We spiral back and forth in time, learning consequences of an action before seeing the action itself, seeing the end of a relationship before the beginning. I did like learning about the characters but I got tired of seeing Yadi put her entire life on hold when her first love has a tragedy happen to him (it didn't seem like Yadi got much characterization except for "she loves this guy"), I got tired of Mathilde not knowing her worth. I was waiting for a twist at the end that didn't end up happening. I guess the way the book was structured, there were no real surprises because most of the story had happened in the past. So the lives of the characters were rich and interesting but the plot was all backstory. This is a common fashion in literature these days and I have to say I'm over it. I'll give this author a try again though.

Unfortunately this book didn’t work for me and was a DNF but I am sure other readers will feel differently! Thank you for the ARC!

I’ve really struggled with this review. I spent the first half of this book incredibly frustrated. There were so many characters, too much jumping around in time, it felt like total chaos and I was unable to connect with the story. Then, something changed. I don’t know if I just became comfortable with the style or if I began to differentiate the characters better but I began enjoying their individual stories. There were plenty of poignant passages but each sister’s story felt very separate. And I definitely could have done without the graphic sex. I was drawn to the book because of it’s beautiful cover and the premise - one of four sisters can predict death and decides to hold a living wake for herself. I don’t usually like magical realism and yet that wasn’t the problem for me with this book.
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I think if you like reading about Latin American culture and appreciate Spanish phrases sprinkled throughout, this book could work for you. I think I would have DNFd this one if it weren’t for the four sisters and the Spanish phrases used by my mom and her four sisters, all of whom have passed away. I’m glad I pushed on because the second half was definitely better than the first. I’m still torn on my final thoughts on this one.