Reviews with content warning for Infidelity - Family Lore

I struggled with this book a lot. I wanted and expected to love it since The Poet X was one of my favorite reads of last year and I thought Clap When You Land was really excellent too. I’m not a YA reader generally so I assumed Acevedo’s adult writing would be even more up my alley! But this took me over two weeks to finish because I just struggled to keep reaching for it and the pace felt so disjointed and slow and somehow just overall exhausting. I ended up finally having to switch formats — I love Acevedo’s voice and her reading in the two YA novels of hers was so memorable for me — and that made it possible for me to finish; I think otherwise it would have maybe taken weeks more and possibly ended as a DNF for me.

I was baffled and honestly a little upset to not love this because I think EA is such a remarkable writer and her characters and worlds are so vivid and real. I think that the constant switching of viewpoints here and the constant switching of timelines was part of it for me. Though these are devices I actually often love, here they made the characters feel so separated and their journeys so walled off, even though their stories are so intertwined. By the time the final chapters arrived and we were at the long-awaited living wake, actually seeing the characters interact in real time for me had much the most emotional and touching writing in the book, and seeing that made me acutely aware of what I had missed elsewhere in the novel.

I guess I will also say that I left a little puzzled — and was throughout — about the peculiar ways sexuality and very graphic writing about it played in each woman’s story and sense of identity. I am NOT averse to vivid writing about women’s sexuality, but somehow I felt like it was so emphasized and repeated in the emphasis that there was either an over-exerted point (about…women’s sexuality being normal? Or ???) or — at this rate I should probably say and/or — perhaps that there was a point about it that simply wasn’t quite effectively made by my reading. Either way there was a way in which the sex writing, like a lot of the POV devices and hyper-segmenting of the book in general, felt like it was being juxtaposed onto these many (compelling and basically quite memorable) characters; and that as such it took on a slight remove that was peculiarly not resonant with the people and the stories the book asked us to love and examine.

I don’t know — overall not like, awful by any means, but I was sad over and over again to not truly enjoy this one. I will definitely keep an eye out for more of Acevedo’s work and perhaps accept that with her I’m more a YA reader.

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hannah_rs's review

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challenging slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

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baybeegirl's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

this book made me bawl my eyes out. it was perfect.

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_weirdreads13's review

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I am so disappointed with this lecture. As a Puertorrican (I'm a fellow Caribbean, I have an attachment to La Kiskeya), I really really wanted to loved this book, to the point that I would love to have it in my shelf. Elizabeth really had a good premise for the book: the story of a family saga and a woman grieving her life and family. I think the lack of depth in the stories of the character's is what made me lack enjoying and connecting with the book. Another thing that I felt was a "killing vibe" of my lecture was the jumping between times (present and past). I think the timeline in the stories will change suddenly and without any given reason or connection. I even wrote down what I felt needed more depth in the story:

The different perspective between the daughters and their mothers: It's obvious that Mamá Silvia, Flor, Pastora, Camila, Ona and Yadira had different relationship with their mothers, according to the time each one were born. Why Mamá Silvia despised her daughters, except Camila? How Flor and Pastora view sex, different from their daughters that were exposed to a different culture?
Silvia's and Susano's past: if this is a family saga, why was not the past of the matriarch and the patriarch included? It was because of them that everything started. And don't think "but then Elizabeth would have to start with Mamá's and Papá's family", no, this is the story of the Marte family, and because of them and how they raised their kids is why the story developed itself.
La Vieja's mount: how did she get mounted? It will be interested to see more in depth this character and the impact she had on Pastora and Flor.
More about Samuel, the brother: what do you mean you are going to give me a family saga and leave out the brother?! "It's a tale of sisters". No, it's a family saga. What was his role in the family history? How he impacted the sisters' life?
Flor and Nazario: developing a "relationship" between them, making something happened would make Flor to have a deep secret. I feel that what happened in the book was superficial.
Camila: she was the youngest of the daughter and she was raised differently from her sisters and, again, it's a family saga and she was not often included in the story nor how was her relationship with Flor, Matilde, Pastora, Samuel, Mamá and Papá. Adding her by the last part of the book was not in the bingo card, which takes me to the next point.
The connection that could develop between Pastora and Camila: they have something in common, they are the youngest of the children and both were harassed by the same pendejo. I would love for their story and relationship to have more depth.
Matilde's marriage: again, superficiality is what killed the depth and connection of the character's and their story.
Flor's character: the main character, the next matriarch, the person who the story goes around the story of her marriage? Which is the "continuation" of the Marte family? And the struggles the marriage went through? Flor's feelings toward her marriage and life in general?
Ona's infertility: the daughter's story was like reading a teenager's story: confusing, suddenly changing, emotionally and irrational with their love story. What Ona really wanted? How it affected her? How it affected her relationship?
The nun: another character who is from the family and you are not going to tell me the impact of the character on the Marte family?
Yadira's role in the book: the most misunderstood character. I didn't understood her role nor the reason of her perspective in the book.
Flor's role in her family: for me, Flor was the most special of the family (obvio), but I wish to see more of her role in the family.
Flor's grief: by the end of the book we can understand that Flor knew she was dying. It will be so cool an amazing to see more of the process of Flor grieving her life while she reminiscence of the past. This would have give the story a huge different perspective on every story of the Marte family (which remind me of Erik Erikson's theory: despair vs integrity, the last "stage" of a person's life. I'm not saying that the book should be an analysis of Flor's life, but I believe I put this here because I've been studying for my test, LOL!)

As a person who is fascinated by people and their story (if you couldn't noticed by me involving psychology theories, LOL), I really really wanted to love this book. I will give the benefit of the doubt to Elizabeth, because it was her first adult novel. I will read from her too Clap When You Land which is kind of too another "family saga" and see if there is difference between the two genres and how she writes them.

In conclusion: this book had so much potential but it felt superficial.

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melodys_library's review

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emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I will read anything written by Elizabeth Acevedo.

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reasek's review

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emotional funny hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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znvisser's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

I love multiple POV family sagas, but four sisters and two of their daughters is too many similar characters to be introduced to in such a short story; I kept forgetting what happened to whom or whose daughter they were, so I spent the first half of each chapter trying to remember which woman, partner and/or story it was about.

As my Spanish is very limited (and most of my interpretations were more a result of more elaborate French and Italian knowledge), I fear lots of it went over my head. Although I understand it is more authentic if bilingual people think and speak in a mix of their languages, I understood most of these conversations as fully Spanish anyway, so I don’t understand the need for codeswitching in text. And Ona’s quotes interrupting the story and just rerouting it elsewhere was confusing too, because it was yet another (third!) cause for me to lose track of what was going on. Because of all these storylines I felt there were many loose ends too. I wasn’t uninterested in these women but reading about them in this way was a struggle, and additionally, there was a surprising amount of sex and horniness for a family story (in part due to Ona’s magical “wet wet” ?🫠).

There were some details in the writing that I really liked but as a reading experience this was weird and confusing.

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nikogatts's review

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emotional hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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