Set in the run up to and day of a living wake, Family Lore follows the lives of several women from the same family as they navigate life, secrets and their respective pasts. The collected stories are predominantly third person with the exception of Ona, as if her character has compiled them. It's an interesting switch in writing styles but one that didn't work well for me in comparison to some of Acevedo's other works. Similarly If you are looking for a more adult version of her previous YA works this is not the book for you. Family Lore is a complete departure from Acevedo's other works. Family Lore is an exploration of womanhood and sisterhood with some dark subjects covered so be sure to check content warnings before reading. I personally struggled with so many povs and timelines, the uncomfortable sexual content, and the slow first half, but I can see how it would appeal to those who are particularly drawn to novels that explore the reality of female life, especially those at the intersection of dual citizenship.

This was a DNF for me unfortunately. I was intrigued by the idea of Flor organising a living wake but the constant switches in POV and timeline began to become tiresome. Eventually I decided I had no interest in learning more about Ona's 'alpha vagina', the details of Yadi's excrement and her unusual relationship with limes, or their sexual predelictions. I can see the author is a gifted writer and others have really enjoyed it, so I think this is a case of right book, wrong reader.

Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4 stars
Publication date: 10 August 2023
Thank you to NetGalley and Canongate for providing me with an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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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 foreseen her own death, or someone else's?
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I heard a lot of good things about this author and was looking forward to reading her first adult novel.
This has a lot of my favourite narrative devices: generational saga focusing on the women of the family, multiple POVs, multiple timelines - this all really worked for me. The writing was gorgeous and it was very much a character study of these four sisters and their daughters. The stories of these women were seemingly collected for a thesis by Ona, one of the daughters, who interjected here and there in the middle of people's narrations to bring in her anthropological expertise and perspective. But nothing came out of this and it ultimately felt like a pretty useless narrative gimmick.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book; I particularly loved looking back at the history of the four sisters, taking them from the Dominican Republic to New York, more than I enjoyed the present storyline and its focus on Yadi and Ona, the two daughters.
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The women of the Marte family all have a special gift, and they use their gifts in different ways in this magical story about a family from the Dominican Republic who are living their lives in modern-day New York. Sisters, daughters, nieces, and the men in their lives are due to gather for Flor's living wake, and as the party gets nearer you find out more about each of the characters and their lives. Lovely and touching, the ending is very moving and the whole will lift your spirits with the warmth of connection and belonging.

Family Lore is the highly anticipated adult debut from award winning author Elizabeth Acevedo and as a fan of her previous works I was very excited to get my hands on a copy. I am pleased to say that it did not disappoint, and readers who enjoy her strong and beautiful writing style and her ability to populate her books with powerful and independent female characters will find much to enjoy here.
The book is the story of several such women, all part of the Marte family, the sisters Matilde, Flor , Pastora and Camila, as well as Flor's daughter Ona and Pastora's daughter Yadi, all of whom have to a greater or lesser degree some sort of magical ability inherited through the generations. These range from Pastora's abilities to see people's truths and Flor's ability to foresee death to Ona's magical vagina. It is Flor's ability that provides the premise for the book as she decides to throw herself a living wake and bring all the family together, but this is really a book for readers who enjoy character more than plot as it is these women and their relationships that are the real focus of the book, and readers who like a mutigenerational story will find so much to enjoy here. The author makes clever use of the fact that one of the characters is carrying out scholarly research on the family history to incorporate snippets of interviews into the text which act as introductions to the individual character's backstories. As a reader I was fully transported while reading this book, it was a truly special experience.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

Family Lore centres around Flor Marte, who can predict when people will die, planning her own wake. This novel explores the Marte family and their complex relationships to each other.

I’ll start off by saying that this book had some beautiful quotes and there were some interesting observations on the struggles that women face in society.

However I found the structure of this book quite tedious as in each chapter we were given an anecdote from their past which didn’t always feel relevant and killed the momentum of the plot making this book incredibly slow paced. Also I felt there were too many characters and I found it difficult to connect with them.

There was quite a lot of sexual content in this book which I wasn’t expecting and at times it felt over the top and too vulgar to the point it came across as cringey.

Overall, having read Clap When You Land and With The Fire On High, I was so excited to read this but found myself very disappointed.

A multi generational story told through the women of the family, most of whom have a supernatural gift of foresight to one degree or another.  There are quite a few characters and the narrative jumps around a lot, especially as the point of view switches with each new chapter and there are a lot of (mostly short) chapters.  This made the pacing of my reading experience a little awkward at times. This is unquestionably a beautifully written story, but if it had been a little longer perhaps I could have got to know some of the lesser used characters a bit more. Having said all that I did like this novel but I think I preferred the author's earlier books.
3.5 stars

A wonderful story of Life within one family from the Dominican Republic. The book has a magic all of its own and was a wonderful read. Many thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this book.

I think that this was a brave novel.
It tells the story of a family originally from the Dominican Republic (DR) who have moved to the United States of America.
The family are gifted in many different ways but still don't have life easy in their new life.
I guess that it is the story of many immigrants in the USA.
The matriarch decides to have a living wake, and this affects the feelings of the other family members.
I found the concept interesting, and for the main part enjoyable, even though some was hard-hitting.
Although I took school certificate (GCSE) Spanish, this involved the studying of European Spanish language and culture not South American language and culture, I struggled to follow quite a bit of the text.
As this spoilt the story for me I have only given the book 4 stars.
If the book had contained more explanations of the parts of the dialogue that were specifically DR or 'American' it may have squeezed five stars.
Thanks to the author for a thought-provoking book, and to the publisher for an advanced reading copy for honest review.

My students love Elizabeth Acevedo so this will definitely be a purchase for them. In her adult debut, she discusses family, legacy, traditions and magic, Acevedo weaves her literary craft wonderfully once again!

Many readers, including myself, must be grateful that Elizabeth Acevedo has decided to branch out from writing youth fiction to adult fiction like ‘Family Lore’ that embraces uncomfortable but pertinent contemporary issues.
‘Family Lore’ is centred around a Dominican-US-American family of four sisters, all of whom possess magical spiritual powers. Although there are multiple perspectives, the majority plot is narrated through interviews that Ona (one of the sisters’ children) completes. By talking at length to various family members, Ona is able to delve into the family’s history and traditions, both formed in their birth country of the Dominican Republic, and in their current New York community. Multifaceted and therefore at times confusing, this is a thought-provoking exploration of what it means to make sense of the past, and to creatively reinvent it.
Thank you to NetGalley and to the publishers for the free digital ARC that allowed me to familiarise myself with this fresh voice in the contemporary fiction market.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with an ARC to review!

3 stars!

I really wanted to like this more and it really is written beautifully, but for me, I just couldn’t keep an interest in the story, I think this is due to me being unable to follow who was who. This is just how it was for me, and obviously this won’t be the case for everyone. That’s the reason for my rating. But the way it’s written I loved. I will definitely look out for more from Elizabeth Acevado, just sadly couldn’t connect with this one,

Beautiful writing throughout this book, however I found it difficult to sustain interest because of the multiple perspectives , who were not distinct enough to tell apart. Overall, it fell short on characters and not enough magic to warrant the description. 2.5 stars, rounded up. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC

I have really liked two of Acevedo's books and thought her latest YA was okay. I was interested to see what she would do with this book, her adult debut, but this was such a disappointment.

There are so many POVs and it's hard to keep up with every single one of them. I think the main character was Ona because only her POV was told in first person, but besides her all the voices blended together and I could barely keep track of who was who, anymore. Besides, none of them were interesting enough for me to care whenever I was yanked between POVs.

Because of the POVs, the story was all over the place. The majority of it was spent in flashbacks or recalls that were poorly transitioned into and out of. There wasn't even world-building to explain why Flor and her family had magical powers. I can't remember if there were others outside the family who had magic or how normalized magic is in society. I don't need a super detailed, complex magic system, just a few lines every now and again fleshing out how the magic worked.

Overall, this was a dud for me. I know Acevedo is a good writer, and I like that she has tried something different with each one of her books, but, unfortunately, it didn't work in this book for me.

Very different from her previous books but certainly not disappointing! This book reminded me of Isabel Allende books. A bit of magical realism, culture and traditions, multiple generations.. I loved getting to know the Martes sisters. They are all so real and strong. It would have been useful if there was some list of names. Overall, i really enjoyed this book!

A multi-POV story throughout a single family, this book covered so much. It's centred around the living wake of Flor and each of her family who are involved along the way. This was such an interest point to centre a story on, everyone's own journeys radiating out from the centre point of Flor. Each of the sisters and the two nieces were so well written and developed. Often, these stories become confusing or you only really latch on to a couple of characters. But here it was all so richly written. Really interesting and full of heart.

Acevedo presents a complex family narrative, exploring various characters, points of view, and storylines. While some readers may appreciate the intricacies of this approach, I personally found the multitude of characters and perspectives to be overwhelming, leading to confusion and loss of interest. I also struggled to find the magical realism convincing, and I'm not generally a fan of explicit sexual content especially when it doesn't seem to serve the story.

Whilst I enjoyed this novel, the frequent use of Spanish, with no translation offered, was slightly annoying and made me feel that I was missing something. I’m always drawn to book about family dynamics and this book certainly drew you into the Marte womens’ world and their relationships.

— 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 —

𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: Family Lore
𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬: N/A
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫(𝐬): Elizabeth Acevedo
𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: Contemporary/Magical Realism
𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭: eARC
𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝: 10th August 2023
𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝: 10th July 2023
𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: 4/5

”How do lineages of women from colonized places, where emphasis is put on silent enduring, learn when and where to confide in their own family if forbearance is the only attitude elevated and modeled?”

Family Lore describes a family from Dominican Republic where the females have affinities. Flor can tell when someone is going to die. Pastors can tell when someone is lying. Matilde doesn’t have an affinity but her dancing sounds magical. Yadi has an affinity for limes. Camila is a herbalist. And Ona, who holds the perspective of this novel yet isn’t quite our main character, has a magical alpha vagina, which is as cool as it sounds.

This is Elizabeth Acevedo’s first adult novel and she has blown me away. She writes incredibly, in such a touching and deep way that really resonates in the soul and yet there is a touch of lightheartedness there. I found this book emotionally provocative and magical.

Throughout this multigenerational story, trauma is prevalent, drawing on female experience and basing this on a background of Dominican anthropology. There are heaps of cultural references, tons of Spanish, and enough sadness and joy to last a reader a lifetime.

—Kayleigh🤍
@ Welsh Book Fairy🧚‍♀️✨

I think this may be the first book by Acevado that wasn't aimed at a YA audience and good for her, the transition was great. I enjoyed this book, I found it a little hard to keep up with the big cast considering the book was so short.