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Family Lore: A Novel
From bestselling, National Book Award-winning author Elizabeth Acevedo comes her first novel for adults, the story of one Dominican-American family told through the voices of its women as they await a gathering that will forever change their lives.
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.
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.
371 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2023
About the author
Elizabeth Acevedo
22 books17.4k followersELIZABETH ACEVEDO is a New York Times bestselling author of The Poet X, With the Fire on High, and Clap When You Land. Her critically-acclaimed debut novel, The Poet X, won the 2018 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. She is also the recipient of the Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Fiction, the CILIP Carnegie Medal, and the Boston Globe-Hornbook Award. Additionally, she was honored with the 2019 Pure Belpré Author Award for celebrating, affirming, and portraying Latinx culture and experience.
Her books include, Beastgirl & Other Origin Myths (YesYes 2016), The Poet X (HarperCollins, 2018), & With The Fire On High (HarperCollins, 2019), and Clap When You Land (HarperCollins, 2020).
She holds a BA in Performing Arts from The George Washington University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Maryland. Acevedo has been a fellow of Cave Canem, Cantomundo, and a participant in the Callaloo Writer’s Workshops. She is a National Poetry Slam Champion, and resides in Washington, DC with her love.
Her books include, Beastgirl & Other Origin Myths (YesYes 2016), The Poet X (HarperCollins, 2018), & With The Fire On High (HarperCollins, 2019), and Clap When You Land (HarperCollins, 2020).
She holds a BA in Performing Arts from The George Washington University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Maryland. Acevedo has been a fellow of Cave Canem, Cantomundo, and a participant in the Callaloo Writer’s Workshops. She is a National Poetry Slam Champion, and resides in Washington, DC with her love.
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August 1, 2023This family saga weaves together the past and present of the Marte family. Told from the perspectives of six women of the family, each of whom have a unique gift, you'll be transported through the history of the family and all their trials and triumphs. A must-read.
October 23, 2023
I'm a big fan of Laura Esquivel, Isabel Allende, and the master Gabriel Garcia Marquez, whose vivid, abstract, and powerful stories are filled with pure magical realism. Latin American culture, history, and geography serve as inspiration for these brilliant authors, fueling their creation of inspirational, poetic, and colorful works.
As soon as I read the storyline of this book, which reminded me of Marquez's 100 Years of Solitude, a powerful family saga about unique and powerful women's stories, I was so invested in exploring this Dominican-American family saga.
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.
The story moves back and forth in time, exploring the entire family saga, including hilarious and heartfelt stories of the gifted Marte women. Each sister's perspective on the events and the other people, including their mother, is different, and their opinions are reflected by their unique characteristics. It was enjoyable to stay in their heads and learn more about their backstories.
Overall, Latin American culture, customs, traditions, myths, and unique perspectives always pique my interest. This book was truly enjoyable and entertaining, and is one of Elizabeth Acevedo's greatest works.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Ecco for sharing this brilliant digital review copy with me in exchange for my honest thoughts.
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As soon as I read the storyline of this book, which reminded me of Marquez's 100 Years of Solitude, a powerful family saga about unique and powerful women's stories, I was so invested in exploring this Dominican-American family saga.
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.
The story moves back and forth in time, exploring the entire family saga, including hilarious and heartfelt stories of the gifted Marte women. Each sister's perspective on the events and the other people, including their mother, is different, and their opinions are reflected by their unique characteristics. It was enjoyable to stay in their heads and learn more about their backstories.
Overall, Latin American culture, customs, traditions, myths, and unique perspectives always pique my interest. This book was truly enjoyable and entertaining, and is one of Elizabeth Acevedo's greatest works.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Ecco for sharing this brilliant digital review copy with me in exchange for my honest thoughts.
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July 18, 2020I'll read every book Elizabeth puts in the table!
Dear Elizabeth:
Dear Elizabeth:
August 22, 2023
**Many thanks to NetGalley, Ecco, and Elizabeth Acevedo for an ARC of this book! Now available as of 8.1!**
Have you ever had a favorite restaurant, one where you ALWAYS order the same thing but it's just so reliably good that not branching out feels okay?
Until one day curiosity gets the better of you and you figure, "Sure, why not? The chefs here are incredible...how bad can lentils HONESTLY be?"
And then you remember that nothing is a sure thing. And maybe that particular dish just isn't for you. This dose of reality is what hit me about 30% of the way into Family Lore...and unfortunately never let up.
It isn't easy being part of a 'magical' family: Flor and her sisters, Matilde, Pastora, and Camila know so. Each of them has their own special gifts, ranging from the ability to predict the deaths of others to Human Lie Detector...and they've all found ways to appreciate and utilize their gifts. Since Flor is the sister with the aforementioned foresight into the deaths of those around her, her whole family is surprised when she brings them together to attend a living wake...and two of the sisters' daughters, Ona and Yadi, will be there too. What will this gathering mean for the future of the clan?
Pastora, the truth telling sister, misses an opportunity to hone in on the reason for the wake and focuses her ability on finding out secrets in the family...including the philandering ways of one of her other sister's husbands. Ona and Yadi are each dealing with struggles of their own and look to both their parents for inspiration and guidance, while hoping for intervention from their ancestors along the way. As the family navigates through their collective memories, both in New York and in the DR, will they learn the reason they all have come together AND battle their individual demons along the way? Or will the secrets stay buried in the deepest and quietest parts of their hearts?
Elizabeth Acevedo knows the power and the beauty of the written word: there's no doubt. My introduction to her was in YA poetry with The Poet X, a loud, visceral, knock-out punch of a book that grabbed me from the jump and didn't let go. I followed this with Clap As You Land, a slightly less impactful but still emotionally charged narrative, once again told in verse. There's something about her VOICE in these books that demands to be heard, and even though it can be incredibly difficult to tell a cohesive story through verse, it comes naturally to Acevedo. I felt like I knew her characters in these books inside and out, and got swept up in their emotions without missing a beat.
But in Family Lore...I had the opposite problem. This book said SO much...and also didn't seem to say enough.
After a long author's note (which in some ways I feel would have been more interesting at the end, although it was somewhat needed for context), the first thing you are greeted with is a list of character names and descriptions. For me, this is almost ALWAYS a bad sign. If you have to keep reminding me who everyone is or keep a list of their names for reference, most likely there are just too many players involved. What made things increasingly more complicated as the book went along is that the sisters (and even their daughters, to some extent) often sounded VERY similar in tone, so the best way to tell them apart was by their individual plot lines...but this STILL often devolved into "the one who's the dancer" or "the one trying to get pregnant" in my head rather than character names. With so many family members in play, NOBODY quite got their due.
The constantly moving timeline and jumping back and forth between stories of yesteryear and the problems of today only further exacerbated this problem. Though I agree it is difficult to tell a multi-generational family story without reflections from the past and differing perspectives from the family, it CAN be done, and to some extent, HAS been done by Acevedo in some of other books: just not this one. Making the transition from YA certainly allows for a deeper dive on a broad range of topics...but trying to cram so many ideas and stories into one book (even if it's a somewhat long book!) only works if they flow together in a way that feels easy enough to follow for it to not feel like hard work to keep up...and it was most certainly hard work most of the time in this book.
There is also a lot of Spanish interspersed throughout the narrative, and it isn't always discernible via context alone, so if you aren't familiar with the language and want to know what EVERYONE is saying at all times, be prepared to be looking words up along the way. Again, this all makes sense and works in the context of the story, but I was wishing I was a bit more fluent in Spanish than I am (read: not very fluent) so I wouldn't be tempted to keep stopping every time I came across an unfamiliar word or phrase. And as a side note, there is also a LOT of vagina talk...namely because one of the characters has a magical one. So if this is something you find a bit MUCH? This probably isn't the book for you. 😬
Family histories and 'lore' can be long and complicated, with additions and subtractions along the way, as stories are told and retold. While I applaud Acevedo's first foray into the world of adult novels in many respects...if she were a CHEF?
This felt more like an 'attempt at new flavors' than an always reliable signature dish.
3.5 stars
Have you ever had a favorite restaurant, one where you ALWAYS order the same thing but it's just so reliably good that not branching out feels okay?
Until one day curiosity gets the better of you and you figure, "Sure, why not? The chefs here are incredible...how bad can lentils HONESTLY be?"
And then you remember that nothing is a sure thing. And maybe that particular dish just isn't for you. This dose of reality is what hit me about 30% of the way into Family Lore...and unfortunately never let up.
It isn't easy being part of a 'magical' family: Flor and her sisters, Matilde, Pastora, and Camila know so. Each of them has their own special gifts, ranging from the ability to predict the deaths of others to Human Lie Detector...and they've all found ways to appreciate and utilize their gifts. Since Flor is the sister with the aforementioned foresight into the deaths of those around her, her whole family is surprised when she brings them together to attend a living wake...and two of the sisters' daughters, Ona and Yadi, will be there too. What will this gathering mean for the future of the clan?
Pastora, the truth telling sister, misses an opportunity to hone in on the reason for the wake and focuses her ability on finding out secrets in the family...including the philandering ways of one of her other sister's husbands. Ona and Yadi are each dealing with struggles of their own and look to both their parents for inspiration and guidance, while hoping for intervention from their ancestors along the way. As the family navigates through their collective memories, both in New York and in the DR, will they learn the reason they all have come together AND battle their individual demons along the way? Or will the secrets stay buried in the deepest and quietest parts of their hearts?
Elizabeth Acevedo knows the power and the beauty of the written word: there's no doubt. My introduction to her was in YA poetry with The Poet X, a loud, visceral, knock-out punch of a book that grabbed me from the jump and didn't let go. I followed this with Clap As You Land, a slightly less impactful but still emotionally charged narrative, once again told in verse. There's something about her VOICE in these books that demands to be heard, and even though it can be incredibly difficult to tell a cohesive story through verse, it comes naturally to Acevedo. I felt like I knew her characters in these books inside and out, and got swept up in their emotions without missing a beat.
But in Family Lore...I had the opposite problem. This book said SO much...and also didn't seem to say enough.
After a long author's note (which in some ways I feel would have been more interesting at the end, although it was somewhat needed for context), the first thing you are greeted with is a list of character names and descriptions. For me, this is almost ALWAYS a bad sign. If you have to keep reminding me who everyone is or keep a list of their names for reference, most likely there are just too many players involved. What made things increasingly more complicated as the book went along is that the sisters (and even their daughters, to some extent) often sounded VERY similar in tone, so the best way to tell them apart was by their individual plot lines...but this STILL often devolved into "the one who's the dancer" or "the one trying to get pregnant" in my head rather than character names. With so many family members in play, NOBODY quite got their due.
The constantly moving timeline and jumping back and forth between stories of yesteryear and the problems of today only further exacerbated this problem. Though I agree it is difficult to tell a multi-generational family story without reflections from the past and differing perspectives from the family, it CAN be done, and to some extent, HAS been done by Acevedo in some of other books: just not this one. Making the transition from YA certainly allows for a deeper dive on a broad range of topics...but trying to cram so many ideas and stories into one book (even if it's a somewhat long book!) only works if they flow together in a way that feels easy enough to follow for it to not feel like hard work to keep up...and it was most certainly hard work most of the time in this book.
There is also a lot of Spanish interspersed throughout the narrative, and it isn't always discernible via context alone, so if you aren't familiar with the language and want to know what EVERYONE is saying at all times, be prepared to be looking words up along the way. Again, this all makes sense and works in the context of the story, but I was wishing I was a bit more fluent in Spanish than I am (read: not very fluent) so I wouldn't be tempted to keep stopping every time I came across an unfamiliar word or phrase. And as a side note, there is also a LOT of vagina talk...namely because one of the characters has a magical one. So if this is something you find a bit MUCH? This probably isn't the book for you. 😬
Family histories and 'lore' can be long and complicated, with additions and subtractions along the way, as stories are told and retold. While I applaud Acevedo's first foray into the world of adult novels in many respects...if she were a CHEF?
This felt more like an 'attempt at new flavors' than an always reliable signature dish.
3.5 stars
April 30, 2024
2023 Latiné Month
I just had a self-published white man follow me on Instagram, comment on my Hispanic/Latinx/Latiné Heritage Month post that people in Spain don't like the word Latinx/Latino. He's not from Spain. He just lives there. Even if he were from there, Spanish people don't have the right to dictate what occurs in Latin America. If you care, the trash took itself out when he realized I wasn't engaging.
To me, this book has similar vibes to The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina, a divisive book according to the reviews. I preferred Orquídea's more flowery prose, but that's not to say I didn't enjoy this. Family is always the centerpiece to any Latiné/immigrant story, and that definitely happens here.
While this story starts and ends with Flor, who can predict when someone will die, it is the entire cast of characters that end of stealing the show. However, because there are so many sisters and cousins, sometimes the stories begin to overlap. Maybe that was just an issue because I listened to the audiobook. I often take better care with names and stories when I read print/ebooks.
There are a lot of things I can relate to growing up in a Vietnamese American household. Some things look different. But there are always things to learn when reading about different cultures, which is the important takeaway from my themed reads. I'll be on the lookout for more of Elizabeth's books.
🎧 Libby
I just had a self-published white man follow me on Instagram, comment on my Hispanic/Latinx/Latiné Heritage Month post that people in Spain don't like the word Latinx/Latino. He's not from Spain. He just lives there. Even if he were from there, Spanish people don't have the right to dictate what occurs in Latin America. If you care, the trash took itself out when he realized I wasn't engaging.
To me, this book has similar vibes to The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina, a divisive book according to the reviews. I preferred Orquídea's more flowery prose, but that's not to say I didn't enjoy this. Family is always the centerpiece to any Latiné/immigrant story, and that definitely happens here.
While this story starts and ends with Flor, who can predict when someone will die, it is the entire cast of characters that end of stealing the show. However, because there are so many sisters and cousins, sometimes the stories begin to overlap. Maybe that was just an issue because I listened to the audiobook. I often take better care with names and stories when I read print/ebooks.
There are a lot of things I can relate to growing up in a Vietnamese American household. Some things look different. But there are always things to learn when reading about different cultures, which is the important takeaway from my themed reads. I'll be on the lookout for more of Elizabeth's books.
🎧 Libby
July 7, 2024
This book left me flabbergasted. I don't know what to make of it. I laughed, I cried, I had myself a fabulous time... but now I am also so confused, so shocked, my heart is heavy, my heart is full. I'm just as baffled as I was when I finished Steinbeck's East of Eden and that's saying something. Of course I'm giving this book 5 stars because it's Acevedo, and because I enjoyed every second of this mess. But let me tell you, this book is messy. It's far from perfect. Its structure is a bit awkward, its language is in parts crude, in parts very poetic ("Flor was not a grasping child; in fact, she largely let things fall through her fingers: dishes, ribbons, aspirations to be anyone's favorite."), it keeps jumping between different POVs. It's A LOT. You can tell that this is Acevedo's first book targeted at an adult audience. Sometimes it felt like she forces the crude language and sex scenes down your throat to truly make a point that this is no young adult novel – and I get why, but I also get why others don't.
And even though Acevedo's heritage lies in the Dominican Republic, Family Lore is giving South American family saga. It's giving Allende. It's giving Gabo. It's giving magical realism. It's giving self-drawn family tree to keep up with the dozens of names and all the messiness. It's giving different magical abilities that most members of this family possess, and that you, as the reader, somehow need to keep track of. The abilities range from being able to foresee death (neat, but terrifying) and having an alpha vagina. Umm yes, let's skip that one for now. ;)
In her young adult fiction, Acevedo explores the lives of teenage girls coming of age in a Dominican-American community. Now, in Family Lore, she expands these themes into an exuberant, polyphonic story of one family's reckoning with their past. Family Lore definitely stands in the tradition of her former works, especially Clap When You Land and Beastgirl & Other Origin Myths, but just takes up more space, is more complicated & messy, more explicit, more detailed. It's giving less happy ending, and more bleak (but also fun and loving!) reality.
What I enjoyed most about this book is how well the different POVs worked for me. Within two chapters, Acevedo made me care for each one of these six women. I expected to really take to Ona and Yadi, the younger generation, but was surprised by how much I actually cared for the older generation, especially Matilde. You will not understand how hard I was rooting for her to finally love herself and leave her disrespectful, no-good husband who literally cheated on her on her wedding night to "teach her a lesson".
Of Matilde, her sisters say: "She is cherished everywhere but at home, and it is there she keeps returning." And Acevedo does a mighty fine job at dissecting this toxic relationship. Rafa is suffocating his wife, her spirit and her talents. But she won't leave him. She cannot muster up the courage and the strength. And so she notices that "Life to him was only a great big joke he loved telling and was too self-centred to realize no one joined him in the laughter." but she's still "A panting bitch welcoming her owner home." It's the cycle of abuse, the constant gaslighting. My favorite quote - that described Mati's situation perfectly - goes as follows: "And she folded her pride and tucked it into a serviette she used to dry his tears." Wowza. One "simple" sentence but it sums up their relationship so perfectly, and it's just heartbreaking.
It is only when it comes out that Rafa got another woman pregnant and her sisters confront Mati about it, that she slowly starts to change, starts to claim her own worth. Mati is the only one of her sisters who was born "without a gift". I found it beautiful how she even claimed that gift for herself: "I cobbled together my own gift. Claimed magic where I’d be told none could exist. That is what dancing is for me. And it is as powerful as any second sight or inclination toward healing."
It was wonderful to see her become her true self when dancing with Kelvyn. The whole dancing scene at the wake left me trembling. I was internally yelling YAAAAS the whole time. The woman who was never anyone's favorite ("I would not say my mother shunned me, but if her love was the twin of fear, she stopped being afraid of my future.") finally showed them all how it's done. From her dancing with Kelvyn, to her grasping her sisters' hands and dancing with them all. It was beyond beautiful and actually moved me to tears. I never thought that Acevedo would actually go there and give Mati enough strength to leave Rafa behind but she did and I was damn proud of her!
"My family comes from magic," Ona says, but she is an anthropologist, and narrates her family history with a professional eye, adding background notes in parentheses; occasional paragraphs are indented or given line breaks like poems, while the dialogue is peppered with Spanish phrases, echoing the ways in which the women think and feel in two distinct idioms. Acevedo's background in spoken-word poetry shines through in the energy and lyricism of her prose: "Flor sat up most of the night worrying the thought, the way a tongue will keep sliding against an inflamed canker sore, trying to soothe something unsootheable." But the novel's greatest triumph is in the warmth of her portrayal of these women, their strength and stubbornness, and the inseparability of love and grief.
Another relationship that I really loved was the one between Yadi and Ant. Them being childhood sweethearts, him unrightfully being sent to prison for 20 years, him coming back, and them being incredibly awkward with each other because she never visited. My heart was so soft for them. I loved their banter (“I’m a guest now? Why don’t you just pass me an apron?” “So you could do what? I’m not scrambling eggs here, homie. This is real cooking.”), I loved the sexual tension, I loved everything about them. I love where we left things with them, and I love that they're still possible in the future.
I also really cared for Camila, the "forgotten sister. The baby, who had spent more time in the big city in the Dominican Republic and then the majority of her adulthood in New York, who’d experienced luxuries her siblings only saw on TV. It’d made her an outcast: the fact that she’d received the softest version of their mother." Even though she had it "easiest", she's also the only one who didn't really grow up with a community, she can't rely on her sisters the way they can rely on each other. That's a tough lot in its own right. The scene that moved me the most with her is her interview with Ona, in which she reveals that she still has the horrid-looking doll that her mother sewed for her, that that doll symbolises true love for her: “Do you still have her?” “Of course, that doll will be buried in my arms. It’s already written in my will.”
The Marte women will stay with me for a long time. Acevedo truly managed to make them come alife. Their struggles, desires, and hopes for the future all felt so real, so urgent. I want Mati to become a dancing instructor, I want Yadi to find herself back in DR and then get back together with Ant (the way I need these two to work out – you will never understand!), I want Ona to raise her baby. I want the best for every one of them. It's what they deserve. <3
And even though Acevedo's heritage lies in the Dominican Republic, Family Lore is giving South American family saga. It's giving Allende. It's giving Gabo. It's giving magical realism. It's giving self-drawn family tree to keep up with the dozens of names and all the messiness. It's giving different magical abilities that most members of this family possess, and that you, as the reader, somehow need to keep track of. The abilities range from being able to foresee death (neat, but terrifying) and having an alpha vagina. Umm yes, let's skip that one for now. ;)
In her young adult fiction, Acevedo explores the lives of teenage girls coming of age in a Dominican-American community. Now, in Family Lore, she expands these themes into an exuberant, polyphonic story of one family's reckoning with their past. Family Lore definitely stands in the tradition of her former works, especially Clap When You Land and Beastgirl & Other Origin Myths, but just takes up more space, is more complicated & messy, more explicit, more detailed. It's giving less happy ending, and more bleak (but also fun and loving!) reality.
We see you, you were here and when you go ... we'll remember.Flor Marte – the second eldest of four Dominican sisters now living in New York – has always had "an ear for the gossip of death": whenever she dreams of her teeth shattering, a death follows soon after. So when, at 70, Flor announces plans to host her own "living wake", her three sisters, her daughter Ona (who narrates the book), and her niece Yadi fear that she must have foreseen the worst. The book spans the three days of preparation for the wake, during which Ona's narrative moves chapter by chapter between the six women as they each grapple with their unresolved questions: bad husbands, infertility, desire, and the dual lives and conflicting loyalties of first- and second-generation immigrants.
What I enjoyed most about this book is how well the different POVs worked for me. Within two chapters, Acevedo made me care for each one of these six women. I expected to really take to Ona and Yadi, the younger generation, but was surprised by how much I actually cared for the older generation, especially Matilde. You will not understand how hard I was rooting for her to finally love herself and leave her disrespectful, no-good husband who literally cheated on her on her wedding night to "teach her a lesson".
Of Matilde, her sisters say: "She is cherished everywhere but at home, and it is there she keeps returning." And Acevedo does a mighty fine job at dissecting this toxic relationship. Rafa is suffocating his wife, her spirit and her talents. But she won't leave him. She cannot muster up the courage and the strength. And so she notices that "Life to him was only a great big joke he loved telling and was too self-centred to realize no one joined him in the laughter." but she's still "A panting bitch welcoming her owner home." It's the cycle of abuse, the constant gaslighting. My favorite quote - that described Mati's situation perfectly - goes as follows: "And she folded her pride and tucked it into a serviette she used to dry his tears." Wowza. One "simple" sentence but it sums up their relationship so perfectly, and it's just heartbreaking.
It is only when it comes out that Rafa got another woman pregnant and her sisters confront Mati about it, that she slowly starts to change, starts to claim her own worth. Mati is the only one of her sisters who was born "without a gift". I found it beautiful how she even claimed that gift for herself: "I cobbled together my own gift. Claimed magic where I’d be told none could exist. That is what dancing is for me. And it is as powerful as any second sight or inclination toward healing."
It was wonderful to see her become her true self when dancing with Kelvyn. The whole dancing scene at the wake left me trembling. I was internally yelling YAAAAS the whole time. The woman who was never anyone's favorite ("I would not say my mother shunned me, but if her love was the twin of fear, she stopped being afraid of my future.") finally showed them all how it's done. From her dancing with Kelvyn, to her grasping her sisters' hands and dancing with them all. It was beyond beautiful and actually moved me to tears. I never thought that Acevedo would actually go there and give Mati enough strength to leave Rafa behind but she did and I was damn proud of her!
"My family comes from magic," Ona says, but she is an anthropologist, and narrates her family history with a professional eye, adding background notes in parentheses; occasional paragraphs are indented or given line breaks like poems, while the dialogue is peppered with Spanish phrases, echoing the ways in which the women think and feel in two distinct idioms. Acevedo's background in spoken-word poetry shines through in the energy and lyricism of her prose: "Flor sat up most of the night worrying the thought, the way a tongue will keep sliding against an inflamed canker sore, trying to soothe something unsootheable." But the novel's greatest triumph is in the warmth of her portrayal of these women, their strength and stubbornness, and the inseparability of love and grief.
Another relationship that I really loved was the one between Yadi and Ant. Them being childhood sweethearts, him unrightfully being sent to prison for 20 years, him coming back, and them being incredibly awkward with each other because she never visited. My heart was so soft for them. I loved their banter (“I’m a guest now? Why don’t you just pass me an apron?” “So you could do what? I’m not scrambling eggs here, homie. This is real cooking.”), I loved the sexual tension, I loved everything about them. I love where we left things with them, and I love that they're still possible in the future.
I also really cared for Camila, the "forgotten sister. The baby, who had spent more time in the big city in the Dominican Republic and then the majority of her adulthood in New York, who’d experienced luxuries her siblings only saw on TV. It’d made her an outcast: the fact that she’d received the softest version of their mother." Even though she had it "easiest", she's also the only one who didn't really grow up with a community, she can't rely on her sisters the way they can rely on each other. That's a tough lot in its own right. The scene that moved me the most with her is her interview with Ona, in which she reveals that she still has the horrid-looking doll that her mother sewed for her, that that doll symbolises true love for her: “Do you still have her?” “Of course, that doll will be buried in my arms. It’s already written in my will.”
Her mother’s hand was steady. Steady with the thread. Steady when she’d raised it to strike. Pastora wondered if ever in her life her mother’s hand had known a tremble.You can really tell that Acevedo became a mother during the writing process of this book. Not only is this book filled with mothers and basically a 300-page dissection of mother-daughter relationships, it is also filled with love and nurturing. For me, the quote of the book is the following: "I have known death since before I was born, but I had not truly known life until I gave it to you." I am not a mother myself, but this quote really moved me. You can tell that Acevedo was speaking to her own son through that line. It is beyond beautiful. Family Lore is full of mothers who sacrifice, mothers who fight for and with their children, mothers who feel misunderstood and caged, mothers who want to break free.
The Marte women will stay with me for a long time. Acevedo truly managed to make them come alife. Their struggles, desires, and hopes for the future all felt so real, so urgent. I want Mati to become a dancing instructor, I want Yadi to find herself back in DR and then get back together with Ant (the way I need these two to work out – you will never understand!), I want Ona to raise her baby. I want the best for every one of them. It's what they deserve. <3
August 6, 2023
I wanted to love Family Lore, the story of a Dominican-American family who prepares for a gathering initiated by one of the women. Flor is 70 years old decides to host a living wake for herself. Her three sisters, her daughter and her niece are all concerned, as Flor has the gift to predict when someone will die. Each of the women have their own gifts too.
This is a family saga spanning multiple generations, including more than one secret and just a tad of magical realism. Normally I’m very drawn into family stories but there were so many characters in this book, it was challenging to keep track of who was who! Luckily there was a key, which was helpful to refer back to. I also could have done without the high volume of references to bodily functions in this story.
I enjoyed Clap When You Land, one of Acevedo’s YA books and while I hoped to enjoy Family Lore more than I did, I admire her trying something new.
This is a family saga spanning multiple generations, including more than one secret and just a tad of magical realism. Normally I’m very drawn into family stories but there were so many characters in this book, it was challenging to keep track of who was who! Luckily there was a key, which was helpful to refer back to. I also could have done without the high volume of references to bodily functions in this story.
I enjoyed Clap When You Land, one of Acevedo’s YA books and while I hoped to enjoy Family Lore more than I did, I admire her trying something new.
November 15, 2023
this book having low Goodreads score and getting mid reviews is my 10th 11th 12th and 13th reason
July 15, 2023
The patrons voted for me to pick this up, and part of me wishes that I hadn't.
There's no denying that Acevedo has a way with words. The way they cobbled together these sentences was nothing short of a masterclass, the way that the book felt alive based solely on the way that the narrative was conveyed was some of the best parts of this particular reading experience....
Sadly, I just didn't vibe with the actual narrative being communicated via the pretty prose. While I think the extensive history given about the women of this family and their gifts™, that was also what kept me from fully engaging. Some of the women in this family truly felt like they were given the shit end of the stick, and while I get that has to happen to someone it didn't make me enjoy the reading experience any more. If anything the narrative felt circuitous, always spinning its wheels and pulling out new tricks to distract the reader that no forward momentum was being made. While I have liked a slow, slice of life novel in my time, this sadly was not one of them. I do think that there is an audience for this, I just don't know who comprises such an audience. I do expect this book to really impact some readers when it releases and I wish I could have been one of them, ultimately I think that this book will be memorable for the reasons that I don't think the book wants to be.
There's no denying that Acevedo has a way with words. The way they cobbled together these sentences was nothing short of a masterclass, the way that the book felt alive based solely on the way that the narrative was conveyed was some of the best parts of this particular reading experience....
Sadly, I just didn't vibe with the actual narrative being communicated via the pretty prose. While I think the extensive history given about the women of this family and their gifts™, that was also what kept me from fully engaging. Some of the women in this family truly felt like they were given the shit end of the stick, and while I get that has to happen to someone it didn't make me enjoy the reading experience any more. If anything the narrative felt circuitous, always spinning its wheels and pulling out new tricks to distract the reader that no forward momentum was being made. While I have liked a slow, slice of life novel in my time, this sadly was not one of them. I do think that there is an audience for this, I just don't know who comprises such an audience. I do expect this book to really impact some readers when it releases and I wish I could have been one of them, ultimately I think that this book will be memorable for the reasons that I don't think the book wants to be.
August 2, 2023
This was a book I didn't know I wanted until it ended up on my radar. A multigenerational story, infused with magic, rich in culture, with the build-up leading to that of a living wake, and, to boot, it's Acevedo writing adult? You couldn't sign me up fast enough.
And when I started, I honestly thought it would be a favourite. But alas it was not meant to be.
Unfortunately, despite the name of the character sitting at the top for each chapter to prelude the POV switch, I found it hard to keep track of some of these personalities. Mostly because only two really stood out. And most, though they had their differences of course, were just too much the same. Adding confusion, too, was the shift in timelines, the jumping around of flashbacks, the occasional interview transcript.. it made it hard to stay grounded in a story that, more and more, wasn't gripping me as hard as I expected it to.
This likely isn't meant to be a story that does big things. I think it's supposed to be slow, to explore, and I appreciate that. But unfortunately I do think it was meant to be emotional or impactful but once the wake was over, well.. it was over. Things happen quickly and abruptly after that and then we're done. But even beyond that, some of the time we spent with the characters, sometimes it didn't feel worth it. Or I wondered why it was there. Or I just didn't like them.
The good in here was good. But unfortunately, for me, it was rather overwhelmed by the rest. I think this maybe took on more than it should've and the momentum, the pacing, any kind of build-up beyond the wake itself, just didn't really exist. Or maybe it wasn't there to begin with and I wanted something from this that it never was. Maybe both. But either way, here we are.
If you're a fan of Acevedo, I'm sure you're going to pick this up regardless of any naysaying early reviews. And I wouldn't try to convince you not to. But if you're expecting the same kind of magic we had from her YA novels, I would maaaaybe caution you to lower your expectations just a smidge. But I do hope fans of said novels also enjoy this. I'm just not one of them.
2.5 stars
** I received an ARC from the publisher (thank you!) in exchange for an honest review. **
---
This review can also be found at A Take From Two Cities.
And when I started, I honestly thought it would be a favourite. But alas it was not meant to be.
Unfortunately, despite the name of the character sitting at the top for each chapter to prelude the POV switch, I found it hard to keep track of some of these personalities. Mostly because only two really stood out. And most, though they had their differences of course, were just too much the same. Adding confusion, too, was the shift in timelines, the jumping around of flashbacks, the occasional interview transcript.. it made it hard to stay grounded in a story that, more and more, wasn't gripping me as hard as I expected it to.
This likely isn't meant to be a story that does big things. I think it's supposed to be slow, to explore, and I appreciate that. But unfortunately I do think it was meant to be emotional or impactful but once the wake was over, well.. it was over. Things happen quickly and abruptly after that and then we're done. But even beyond that, some of the time we spent with the characters, sometimes it didn't feel worth it. Or I wondered why it was there. Or I just didn't like them.
The good in here was good. But unfortunately, for me, it was rather overwhelmed by the rest. I think this maybe took on more than it should've and the momentum, the pacing, any kind of build-up beyond the wake itself, just didn't really exist. Or maybe it wasn't there to begin with and I wanted something from this that it never was. Maybe both. But either way, here we are.
If you're a fan of Acevedo, I'm sure you're going to pick this up regardless of any naysaying early reviews. And I wouldn't try to convince you not to. But if you're expecting the same kind of magic we had from her YA novels, I would maaaaybe caution you to lower your expectations just a smidge. But I do hope fans of said novels also enjoy this. I'm just not one of them.
2.5 stars
** I received an ARC from the publisher (thank you!) in exchange for an honest review. **
---
This review can also be found at A Take From Two Cities.
March 22, 2023
Family Lore follows the story of a Dominican-American family in the lead-up to a living wake organized by Flor, one of the women in the family. Flor has a magical ability which allows her to see people's deaths. The story is told from the perspective of the women of the family and you learn about their lives (and magical gifts) in the days before the wake, as well as during the event itself.
Unfortunately, this book wasn't for me, despite the fact that I was banking on the family story to keep me interested (I love books dealing with complicated family dynamics and families in general). However, I am grateful I read it because it has confirmed to me what elements I don’t like in novels, all of which were present in Family Lore, namely:
- too many alternating POVs
- magical realism elements that are poorly integrated into the story (except for Flor)
- experimental writing / non-linear structure that hinders the understanding of the text
We have 6 POVs in Family Lore, most of which did not interest me, and because of the short length of the book I didn't feel like I got enough time with them to become immersed into the story and characters. Flor and Matilde were the strongest POVs for me. The skips from POV to POV were also confusing to me as a reader, despite the list of characters provided at the beginning of the book.
The non-linear structure also contributed to the confusion. The story was fragmented, with interruptions of the main narrative via flashbacks, interviews, portions written in brackets, alternating the third and first person. If you like this style of writing, you might enjoy this book. Personally, I didn't vibe with it, and the fragmented structure didn't contribute to the story in any way. I have read stories where this was better executed ("Human Acts" and "The Buddha in the Attic" come to mind as excellent examples of experimenting with form and narration, without sacrificing coherence).
I wish I had liked this book more. I was very intrigued when I heard about it on TikTok, but alas. Still, I am grateful NetGalley gave me an ebook copy to read and review. If you love multiple POVs, magical realism and non-linear stories, I'd say give it a shot.
Unfortunately, this book wasn't for me, despite the fact that I was banking on the family story to keep me interested (I love books dealing with complicated family dynamics and families in general). However, I am grateful I read it because it has confirmed to me what elements I don’t like in novels, all of which were present in Family Lore, namely:
- too many alternating POVs
- magical realism elements that are poorly integrated into the story (except for Flor)
- experimental writing / non-linear structure that hinders the understanding of the text
We have 6 POVs in Family Lore, most of which did not interest me, and because of the short length of the book I didn't feel like I got enough time with them to become immersed into the story and characters. Flor and Matilde were the strongest POVs for me. The skips from POV to POV were also confusing to me as a reader, despite the list of characters provided at the beginning of the book.
The non-linear structure also contributed to the confusion. The story was fragmented, with interruptions of the main narrative via flashbacks, interviews, portions written in brackets, alternating the third and first person. If you like this style of writing, you might enjoy this book. Personally, I didn't vibe with it, and the fragmented structure didn't contribute to the story in any way. I have read stories where this was better executed ("Human Acts" and "The Buddha in the Attic" come to mind as excellent examples of experimenting with form and narration, without sacrificing coherence).
I wish I had liked this book more. I was very intrigued when I heard about it on TikTok, but alas. Still, I am grateful NetGalley gave me an ebook copy to read and review. If you love multiple POVs, magical realism and non-linear stories, I'd say give it a shot.
July 20, 2023
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.
Full review
https://womenofcolorreadtoo.blogspot....
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.
Full review
https://womenofcolorreadtoo.blogspot....
October 18, 2023
Fantastic, rich with Latine culture, and gorgeously written as we follow along a line of Latinas navigating through their own personal journeys and the overarching story of their family in a vulnerable way that demanded my attention and made me feel seen.
While this isn’t my favorite read of Acevedo’s, her foray into adult literature was fantastic and done so beautifully.
While this isn’t my favorite read of Acevedo’s, her foray into adult literature was fantastic and done so beautifully.
Shelved as 'dnf'
April 20, 2023I read about 25% of this book and at the moment I’m just not super invested in it. I might try to read it again this summer before the book comes out in August. To be clear, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with this book, I just wasn’t connecting with it at this time.
August 12, 2023
I love Elizabeth Acevedo but there’s only so many times I can hear someone brag to everyone about their magical vagina described in excruciating detail. DNF
![Profile Image for laurel [the suspected bibliophile].](https://cdn.statically.io/img/i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/users/1645808644i/7494844._UX200_CR0,6,200,200_.jpg)
November 7, 2023
Okay, so I think I can see why this has such a low rating.
Acevedo is renowned for her breathtaking YA novels (all amazing, check them all out), and like many YA novelists writing adult lit for the first time, it seems like she swings too far into the adult direction.
But while it's a huge tone change, this book is also a MASSIVE flex.
The scope. The framing. The words. The different interplays of the 6 POVs and Ona's interjections. The way each voice is so distinct and filled with want and passion for life. Each of their gifts. How they all carry trauma and process the world and their relationships with their mother while trying to figure out what the hell Flor is up to planning a living wake. How these flawed and human women make mistakes, take decisions, and live, live, live.
It is SO GOOD.
Acevedo is renowned for her breathtaking YA novels (all amazing, check them all out), and like many YA novelists writing adult lit for the first time, it seems like she swings too far into the adult direction.
But while it's a huge tone change, this book is also a MASSIVE flex.
The scope. The framing. The words. The different interplays of the 6 POVs and Ona's interjections. The way each voice is so distinct and filled with want and passion for life. Each of their gifts. How they all carry trauma and process the world and their relationships with their mother while trying to figure out what the hell Flor is up to planning a living wake. How these flawed and human women make mistakes, take decisions, and live, live, live.
It is SO GOOD.
July 2, 2023
I couldn't read anything but I could read this, which is saying a lot. Even though it took me several weeks to actually get through it. So thank you to this book for actually speaking to me when not much else could.
I wished it had come together a little more? By the end I felt like we were just getting started. Some of the chapters were so affecting, but the movement of it left me feeling a bit thrown around. I wanted a whole book for each of these sisters. An annoying complaint but there it is.
I usually read Acevedo on audio, and generally I say that's the best way to read her. This time I read in print, but was a little glad for it as some of the jumping around through time within chapters could be disorienting and was easier for me with at least some formatting to see when it was happening more clearly.
I wished it had come together a little more? By the end I felt like we were just getting started. Some of the chapters were so affecting, but the movement of it left me feeling a bit thrown around. I wanted a whole book for each of these sisters. An annoying complaint but there it is.
I usually read Acevedo on audio, and generally I say that's the best way to read her. This time I read in print, but was a little glad for it as some of the jumping around through time within chapters could be disorienting and was easier for me with at least some formatting to see when it was happening more clearly.
June 29, 2024
acevedo's first foray into adult fiction is this ambitious multigenerational family drama. i think she does an excellent job fleshing out a family of complicated and magical dominican american women and their messy relationships with one another.
nearly every character is on some sort of precipice. flor, seer of deaths, is hosting a wake for herself and won't say why. shy dancer matilde, who has spent decades with an unfaithful husband, is finally being forced to confront the fact that she deserves better. pastora, seer of truths, is on the outskirts of matilde's drama (actually, what is pastora's central conflict? hmm). camila, often referred to as the forgotten youngest sister, has the least amount of time on the page.
then there is the younger generation. ona, perhaps the main character, is an anthropologist and researcher who is building an oral history of the family (see: many interview transcripts peppered throughout the book). ona is also trying to conceive, despite her strained relationship with her partner. ona's cousin, yadi, is a well-fed vegan chef whose childhood sweetheart has just returned after years of incarceration. yadi's conflict is my favorite. she's sitting on the edge of her past, realizing how many of her old wounds are unhealed, and still shouldering much responsibility from her family. yadi's painful interactions with ant are all too real.
in this type of story with so many main characters, it's normal for some to be more fleshed out than others. but i didn't feel like i got to know pastora or camila very well. everyone has their own private conflicts, but we don't see them all in even measures.
the magical realism is really lovely, and it's complemented by the lyrical prose. ona and her pussy power are particularly amazing.
many people seem to be saying that this book is hard to follow, and they're not wrong. the multiple POVs are lovely, but the narrative also jumps back and forth in time, which can be tricky. but the deep backstory also adds a nice extra layer of complexity.
also, super grateful for the family tree at the beginning of the book! very helpful to be able to reference.
the story revolves around the central event of flor's wake. there's a lot of buildup, and it's over so quickly. but i suppose life is like that.
after reading each of acevedo's prior published works - all YA novels in verse - this was an interesting change of pace. i do think her writing really shines in verse, and in prose it's less spectacular. but it's still nice to see her stretch her wings and do something new, and overall it was an enjoyable read.
nearly every character is on some sort of precipice. flor, seer of deaths, is hosting a wake for herself and won't say why. shy dancer matilde, who has spent decades with an unfaithful husband, is finally being forced to confront the fact that she deserves better. pastora, seer of truths, is on the outskirts of matilde's drama (actually, what is pastora's central conflict? hmm). camila, often referred to as the forgotten youngest sister, has the least amount of time on the page.
then there is the younger generation. ona, perhaps the main character, is an anthropologist and researcher who is building an oral history of the family (see: many interview transcripts peppered throughout the book). ona is also trying to conceive, despite her strained relationship with her partner. ona's cousin, yadi, is a well-fed vegan chef whose childhood sweetheart has just returned after years of incarceration. yadi's conflict is my favorite. she's sitting on the edge of her past, realizing how many of her old wounds are unhealed, and still shouldering much responsibility from her family. yadi's painful interactions with ant are all too real.
in this type of story with so many main characters, it's normal for some to be more fleshed out than others. but i didn't feel like i got to know pastora or camila very well. everyone has their own private conflicts, but we don't see them all in even measures.
the magical realism is really lovely, and it's complemented by the lyrical prose. ona and her pussy power are particularly amazing.
many people seem to be saying that this book is hard to follow, and they're not wrong. the multiple POVs are lovely, but the narrative also jumps back and forth in time, which can be tricky. but the deep backstory also adds a nice extra layer of complexity.
also, super grateful for the family tree at the beginning of the book! very helpful to be able to reference.
the story revolves around the central event of flor's wake. there's a lot of buildup, and it's over so quickly. but i suppose life is like that.
after reading each of acevedo's prior published works - all YA novels in verse - this was an interesting change of pace. i do think her writing really shines in verse, and in prose it's less spectacular. but it's still nice to see her stretch her wings and do something new, and overall it was an enjoyable read.
January 26, 2023
I really wanted to love this, but it just didn't grip me. I struggled to keep the characters separate and it made it harder for me to lose myself in their stories.
Maybe I'll try it again when it hits the shelves.
Maybe I'll try it again when it hits the shelves.
November 26, 2023
I'm abandoning the book, after reading 105 pages. I seldom rate a book that I haven't finished, but feel strongly enough to lend my voice to those readers who have given it 2 stars.
This is a story about sisters and their adult children who hail from the Dominican Republic and who live in the U.S. Many have special gifts such as Flor, who can tell when people will die. When the story opens, she decides to plan a wake for herself - not because she's dying, but because she wants the fanfare and adulation. Does this not sound crazy? I thought so, but decided to go with the flow of the book.
What made me stop reading? Flor's daughter Ona has a "magical alpha vagina." Her story-line became too weird for me.
This is a story about sisters and their adult children who hail from the Dominican Republic and who live in the U.S. Many have special gifts such as Flor, who can tell when people will die. When the story opens, she decides to plan a wake for herself - not because she's dying, but because she wants the fanfare and adulation. Does this not sound crazy? I thought so, but decided to go with the flow of the book.
What made me stop reading? Flor's daughter Ona has a "magical alpha vagina." Her story-line became too weird for me.
March 13, 2024
2.5 stars
Oye… I wish I would have liked this book. I’ve read and loved most of Elizabeth Acevedo’s other works (‘With the Fire on High’ is one of my favorites!) and I was so sad that this didn’t work for me. Unfortunately I think part of it is that even though it’s clear that Acevedo is a poet and a talented writer, the story itself didn’t work. I do, however, think the biggest obstacle was the audio. The narration was fantastic, but it was challenging for me to go back and forth from past to present and jump from pov to pov without any clear indication of who we were talking about or what was going on. It took me out of the story. I would personally recommend only listening to the audio if you had the ebook or physical copy to follow along with or if you were doing a re-read.
Oye… I wish I would have liked this book. I’ve read and loved most of Elizabeth Acevedo’s other works (‘With the Fire on High’ is one of my favorites!) and I was so sad that this didn’t work for me. Unfortunately I think part of it is that even though it’s clear that Acevedo is a poet and a talented writer, the story itself didn’t work. I do, however, think the biggest obstacle was the audio. The narration was fantastic, but it was challenging for me to go back and forth from past to present and jump from pov to pov without any clear indication of who we were talking about or what was going on. It took me out of the story. I would personally recommend only listening to the audio if you had the ebook or physical copy to follow along with or if you were doing a re-read.
Audio book source: Libby
Story Rating: 2.5 stars
Narrators: Sixta Morel, Danyeli Rodriguez del Orbe, Elizabeth Acevedo
Narration Rating: 4.5 stars
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Length: 9h 50m
July 30, 2023
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.
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.
August 24, 2023
Flor Marte has an uncanny ability: to foresee people’s deaths in her dreams. Then, one day, she decides to have a “living wake” for herself. Those around her suspect she has finally foreseen her OWN end. As the story unwinds, we see that Flor’s sisters each have a magical ability that they’ve used throughout their lives.
You know, this book kept popping up for me on GR and Amazon and just about everywhere. But I should’ve known it wasn’t for me, and I can give three reasons. One, Acevedo is a poet: the only other book of hers I read, Clap When You Land, was written entirely in verse (though it really read like prose, like a YA title). And one look at my “Read” shelf will show you not one book of poetry. I don’t know: since childhood, I never got poetry. Too oblique for me.
Reason two, magical realism. Clearly Acevedo’s going for a Gabriel Garcia-Marquez or Isabel Allende thing, giving a large family all kinds of magical abilities and odd occurrences. Those authors usually make it happen in a way I can understand. Others, not so much. Again, not a genre I often do.
Finally, the stream of consciousness. Usually it’s coupled with a non-linear timeline. Yeah, no. Jumping all over the place, flashbacks within flashbacks, things happening now, then going to the past, and then maybe five years later….I just don’t have the brain capacity or the patientce to link it all together. And when I look up the Cliff Notes (only AFTER, of course) and figure it all out, I realize I’m a moron. So, I don’t bother to figure it out. Ugh.
Put it this way: it’s like asking me to review cake. I JUST DON’T LIKE CAKE, OK? Go ahead, bash me, I’m ready for it. So, in order for me to be positive, it would have to be SO good, that I’d give up my cake bias. And, well, with this offering…I still don’t like cake.
Lovely writing, yes. Things are well-described. Acevedo could very well have told this one in verse, and given her talent, I might have liked it better; I wonder if she entertained that idea.
Interesting characters, too. Cool backstories. But too jumbled, too mixed up, too hard to keep straight. Also: there really IS a plot, centered around the wake. But it moves glacially, spaced around dozens of flashbacks.
A few other items:
• She doesn’t bother to translate the Spanish. For me it was for the most part OK, but that might have helped the non-Spanish speaker.
• Trigger warning: lots of sex, lots of…bodily description. I mean, “alpha vagina.” Say no more.
• I wonder why the need to add so many characters. Really, in order to get the full flavor (not angel’s food or whatever), this needed another 200 pages. Can you believe I just said that?
But again: it’s a thing I normally wouldn’t read. Eh, everyone else was doin’ it. And time reading a book is never wasted. Even if sometimes I don’t know what the heck is going on, and that’s on me most of the time.
Enjoy!
You know, this book kept popping up for me on GR and Amazon and just about everywhere. But I should’ve known it wasn’t for me, and I can give three reasons. One, Acevedo is a poet: the only other book of hers I read, Clap When You Land, was written entirely in verse (though it really read like prose, like a YA title). And one look at my “Read” shelf will show you not one book of poetry. I don’t know: since childhood, I never got poetry. Too oblique for me.
Reason two, magical realism. Clearly Acevedo’s going for a Gabriel Garcia-Marquez or Isabel Allende thing, giving a large family all kinds of magical abilities and odd occurrences. Those authors usually make it happen in a way I can understand. Others, not so much. Again, not a genre I often do.
Finally, the stream of consciousness. Usually it’s coupled with a non-linear timeline. Yeah, no. Jumping all over the place, flashbacks within flashbacks, things happening now, then going to the past, and then maybe five years later….I just don’t have the brain capacity or the patientce to link it all together. And when I look up the Cliff Notes (only AFTER, of course) and figure it all out, I realize I’m a moron. So, I don’t bother to figure it out. Ugh.
Put it this way: it’s like asking me to review cake. I JUST DON’T LIKE CAKE, OK? Go ahead, bash me, I’m ready for it. So, in order for me to be positive, it would have to be SO good, that I’d give up my cake bias. And, well, with this offering…I still don’t like cake.
Lovely writing, yes. Things are well-described. Acevedo could very well have told this one in verse, and given her talent, I might have liked it better; I wonder if she entertained that idea.
Interesting characters, too. Cool backstories. But too jumbled, too mixed up, too hard to keep straight. Also: there really IS a plot, centered around the wake. But it moves glacially, spaced around dozens of flashbacks.
A few other items:
• She doesn’t bother to translate the Spanish. For me it was for the most part OK, but that might have helped the non-Spanish speaker.
• Trigger warning: lots of sex, lots of…bodily description. I mean, “alpha vagina.” Say no more.
• I wonder why the need to add so many characters. Really, in order to get the full flavor (not angel’s food or whatever), this needed another 200 pages. Can you believe I just said that?
But again: it’s a thing I normally wouldn’t read. Eh, everyone else was doin’ it. And time reading a book is never wasted. Even if sometimes I don’t know what the heck is going on, and that’s on me most of the time.
Enjoy!
August 15, 2023
(4.5)
Acevedo is a unique talent- a poet, a wordsmith, a mythmaker and weaver of stories and emotional narratives, peeling back layers to reveal the truth no matter her subject. Clap When You Land was a novel in verse for young people, dipping into the intense world of parental grief and familial obligation, subjects she returns to in Family Lore.
The hook is undeniable- a family is imbued with subtle magical gifts, there's a slight tinge of magical realism unquestioned by the narrative and the characters in it. A woman who has visions of the deaths of others suddenly dreams about herself and hosts a Living Wake.
Acevedo is incredibly talented, and it's clear every word choice is deliberate. The sentences were unique and powerful, and the poetry dripped from literally every sentence. I was in awe of the way she constructed realistic family relationships, including the shifting alliances and chains that bind people to situations they should be free from.
I will be recommending this to every fan of family novels, everyone who loves immigrant stories and stories about the first gen experience in America, New Yorkers and Dominicans especially. Acevedo created a novel I'll be thinking about for the rest of my life- a tome about people who speak, think, move, and live like me, and giving us the space to exist in the canon forever.
Acevedo is a unique talent- a poet, a wordsmith, a mythmaker and weaver of stories and emotional narratives, peeling back layers to reveal the truth no matter her subject. Clap When You Land was a novel in verse for young people, dipping into the intense world of parental grief and familial obligation, subjects she returns to in Family Lore.
The hook is undeniable- a family is imbued with subtle magical gifts, there's a slight tinge of magical realism unquestioned by the narrative and the characters in it. A woman who has visions of the deaths of others suddenly dreams about herself and hosts a Living Wake.
Acevedo is incredibly talented, and it's clear every word choice is deliberate. The sentences were unique and powerful, and the poetry dripped from literally every sentence. I was in awe of the way she constructed realistic family relationships, including the shifting alliances and chains that bind people to situations they should be free from.
I will be recommending this to every fan of family novels, everyone who loves immigrant stories and stories about the first gen experience in America, New Yorkers and Dominicans especially. Acevedo created a novel I'll be thinking about for the rest of my life- a tome about people who speak, think, move, and live like me, and giving us the space to exist in the canon forever.
October 18, 2023
This book wasn't bad but it was also clearly not for me. I've read 3 other books by this author and loved all of them, this one was just okay for me.
There are multiple POVs and it was hard for me to keep track of what happened to whom, when and of what actually did matter. The writing is beautiful and compelling however I can't help but feel like it was lacking an actual plot. The whole thing about the woman wanting a baby bored me half to death (it will probably resonate with some people but personally I don't care for that type of story and I found it hard not to skim).
On the plus side I really liked the name Pastoria.
There are multiple POVs and it was hard for me to keep track of what happened to whom, when and of what actually did matter. The writing is beautiful and compelling however I can't help but feel like it was lacking an actual plot. The whole thing about the woman wanting a baby bored me half to death (it will probably resonate with some people but personally I don't care for that type of story and I found it hard not to skim).
On the plus side I really liked the name Pastoria.
August 7, 2023
*sigh* a little underwhelming.
Review to follow
Review to follow
November 11, 2023
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!
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!
October 20, 2020
Whatever this book is I need it. December 2020? Hell, I know why I was missing winter so much since December 2019.
July 11, 2023
She’s gone and done it again. 💕💕 ugh this was so good. So so good.
4.5✨💕
4.5✨💕
August 26, 2023
The difference between young adult and adult books is not writing about vagina-related stuff like an adolescent would.
Man, this was a disappointment. I'd read The Poet X and With the Fire on High from this author and really liked both. I thought she portrayed her teen characters very well and appreciated how she told the stories she wanted to tell in each book. When I heard she had a first novel for an adult market, I was excited and happy to see it as a BOTM selection.
And uhhhhh. That didn't exactly pan out.
I do like the idea of telling a complex family story through a bit of magical realism, and there were elements of that in here that I enjoyed. I also thought some of the interpersonal relationships among the family members was done well. But that's about it. There were too many POVs and nowhere near enough characterization to differentiate them. The voices of these characters all sounded very similar, and the combination of multi POV with jarring timeline shifts/flashbacks meant that I just never felt fully grounded in this story. The weird bits of interview transcripts and parenthetical asides felt gimmicky and unfinished. We're dropped into these characters' lives and suddenly being given all this backstory about marriages or whatnot, but it's like...I'm not able to care about this because I've literally just met this character and you're acting like I've read 200 pages of them. It was impossible to keep the various life threads straight amongst all of them. I just couldn't feel engaged with the story because all of these clunky storytelling devices.
And the whole "alpha vagina" thing in Ona's chapters was just SO FUCKING WEIRD and as I said, felt like a teenager trying to make their writing sound mature by talking about body parts and porn. And like, magic aside, one person starting their period causing every other uterus-haver in the vicinity to start their periods immediately would not be a mystical ability but rather an URGENT HEALTH EMERGENCY. The thing about "it doesn't take me those few seconds to start peeing like most girls" I mean, sure, that's what happens when you hold in your pee, but if it's happening all the time, I don't think that's something to brag about??? And why the fuck would you want your vagina's "funk" to "penetrate a room"??? If everyone in my family had a magical ability and mine was "I can pee fast and make the room smell like my underwear" I would feel hella cheated. This whole aspect was just so cringey and weird, and then there's the whole "at 8 I snuck into the room while my dad was watching porn and then I went off and masturbated and then came back and he saw me and we just stared at each other" and whatever like CHRIST ON A CATAPULT and also in case you were wondering, yes it is supremely uncomfortable to read about a small child learning how to masturbate.
I don't want to sound condescending, but like...not every writer can write every type of book. Some people have a lane they excel in, and they should stick to it. Please. I beg you.
Man, this was a disappointment. I'd read The Poet X and With the Fire on High from this author and really liked both. I thought she portrayed her teen characters very well and appreciated how she told the stories she wanted to tell in each book. When I heard she had a first novel for an adult market, I was excited and happy to see it as a BOTM selection.
And uhhhhh. That didn't exactly pan out.
I do like the idea of telling a complex family story through a bit of magical realism, and there were elements of that in here that I enjoyed. I also thought some of the interpersonal relationships among the family members was done well. But that's about it. There were too many POVs and nowhere near enough characterization to differentiate them. The voices of these characters all sounded very similar, and the combination of multi POV with jarring timeline shifts/flashbacks meant that I just never felt fully grounded in this story. The weird bits of interview transcripts and parenthetical asides felt gimmicky and unfinished. We're dropped into these characters' lives and suddenly being given all this backstory about marriages or whatnot, but it's like...I'm not able to care about this because I've literally just met this character and you're acting like I've read 200 pages of them. It was impossible to keep the various life threads straight amongst all of them. I just couldn't feel engaged with the story because all of these clunky storytelling devices.
And the whole "alpha vagina" thing in Ona's chapters was just SO FUCKING WEIRD and as I said, felt like a teenager trying to make their writing sound mature by talking about body parts and porn. And like, magic aside, one person starting their period causing every other uterus-haver in the vicinity to start their periods immediately would not be a mystical ability but rather an URGENT HEALTH EMERGENCY. The thing about "it doesn't take me those few seconds to start peeing like most girls" I mean, sure, that's what happens when you hold in your pee, but if it's happening all the time, I don't think that's something to brag about??? And why the fuck would you want your vagina's "funk" to "penetrate a room"??? If everyone in my family had a magical ability and mine was "I can pee fast and make the room smell like my underwear" I would feel hella cheated. This whole aspect was just so cringey and weird, and then there's the whole "at 8 I snuck into the room while my dad was watching porn and then I went off and masturbated and then came back and he saw me and we just stared at each other" and whatever like CHRIST ON A CATAPULT and also in case you were wondering, yes it is supremely uncomfortable to read about a small child learning how to masturbate.
I don't want to sound condescending, but like...not every writer can write every type of book. Some people have a lane they excel in, and they should stick to it. Please. I beg you.
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