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piprigsby's review
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
relaxing
medium-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
3.5
i loved the characters in this book. also, the family dynamic was amazing, and i loved how this book centered on how the women in the family all interact and the care they have. one of the best parts was the realistic representations of families and siblings, and how some siblings still have the awkwardness of not always knowing how to reach out, since they did not always grow up together or did for only short periods of time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, Grief, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Alcoholism, Incest, and Miscarriage
Minor: Slavery
znvisser's review against another edition
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.
There were some details in the writing that I really liked but as a reading experience this was weird and confusing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Infertility, and Sexual content
Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Infidelity, Death of parent, and Pregnancy
Minor: Miscarriage and Grief
yvo_about_books's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
2.0
Finished reading: August 6th 2024
"It’s silly to have a nickname for a nickname, but we’d always loved taking apart each other’s names and seeing how else we could arrange the letters into love."
I'm honestly still shocked this happened. I absolutely loved Elizabeth Acevedo's YA books, and I confess that I added Family Lore without even reading the blurb first. I hadn't realized it was her adult fiction debut, and I hadn't realized it was going to be a family saga with a magical realism vibe... Because I probably wouldn't be in such a hurry to read it otherwise. This type of family sagas doesn't usually work all that well for me, although there have been exceptions in the past... But sadly Family Lore wasn't one of them. I have to stress here that this is by no means a badly written book; it's simply a case of me not being a good fit for this story. Add the fact that my fickle reading mood has been acting up again, and this type of slower and more character-driven stories just don't work for me at the moment, and it's definitely a 'it's not you, it's me' problem. Family Lore is 100% a magical realism family saga a la Gabriel García Márquez, and if you enjoy this kind of stories you will most likely enjoy Family Lore as well. There is a huge cast of characters involved and a multiple POV structure to consider where we learn more about the lives of most of them. Make sure to brace yourself for a LOT of drama and issues! For me personally they overshadowed the truly interesting (and magical realism) part of the plot, but then again I'm never a fan of family drama in the first place. Like I said before, I simply wasn't a good match for Family Lore! That will teach me to read the blurb first even if I've loved the author's work in the past...
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Abandonment
now_booking's review
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This is an autobuy author for me. I’m not a huge fan of YA fiction but in Elizabeth Acevedo’s hands, I’m typically sold. So when I heard she had released her first adult novel, I rushed to get it. And I’m not disappointed.
This is a multigenerational or maybe inter generational family history of the Marte family over 3 generations…. Set around middle Marte sister and dreamer of death’s, Flor’s, sudden desire to have a living wake, this is a story of mothers and daughters, sisters and aunties and the complex and essential nature of those relationships across a life span.
I overall liked this- it’s very much in the mysticism / literary fiction lane, whether with Flor’s ability to predict deaths in her dreams, or Pastora’s ear for discerning the truth, or Camilla’s ability to heal with herbs, or Matilde’s gift of embodying music, or whether it’s having evil aunt’s possessed or a daughter (Ona) with her pride in her “alpha” genitalia, this recollection of the Marte women’s history and collective experience across generations reads almost as a memoir and provides proud insights into Dominican culture and heritage.
I’m typically not a fan of novels where the timelines jump about but here Ona, the main narrator, an anthropologist documenting her family history, manages to make this not so jarring and few seem less. The Martes feel real- perhaps because this is not a memoir of one person but rather of the women in the family, the stories stop and start naturally. These are not women with “and then…” stories that build to some unattainable finale. These are snippets of memory and anecdotes like we all have, like we’re familiar with from grandmothers, mothers and aunts. They’re pockets of stories that help you understand the characters and guess how they came to be in their current state, but they feel like memories and character development rather than full on plot. That’s not to say that this book has no plot, it’s clearly a story of how a family faces their mortality and their heritage at an inflection point of the potential impending death of a matriarch.
For me, this ultimately felt like a story about love- the difficulty and misunderstandings and errors in demonstrating love between mothers and daughters but also around romantic love and heartbreak and the hope of healing. I overall enjoyed this. I perhaps wish there had been a bit more story about characters I cared about like Yadi and Ant… or perhaps Ona and Jeremiah. Perhaps I wished for a bit more comfort of the pastoral bits of happiness. I think I understand what the author wanted to do with this book but at the same time felt that by spreading the storytelling net so wide and not getting very deep, the book did not resonate as much. The writing was of course solid, the scenarios super relatable or otherwise empathy-provoking. You can’t read this without feeling something. And yet, it didn’t feel complete or as whole… perhaps the characters felt a little shortchanged… but perhaps that’s also intentional by the author…you never know anything about anyone and perhaps by approaching this book in this way, we are left with the same gaps in knowledge and questions and curiousities that exist in our own family lore.
This is a multigenerational or maybe inter generational family history of the Marte family over 3 generations…. Set around middle Marte sister and dreamer of death’s, Flor’s, sudden desire to have a living wake, this is a story of mothers and daughters, sisters and aunties and the complex and essential nature of those relationships across a life span.
I overall liked this- it’s very much in the mysticism / literary fiction lane, whether with Flor’s ability to predict deaths in her dreams, or Pastora’s ear for discerning the truth, or Camilla’s ability to heal with herbs, or Matilde’s gift of embodying music, or whether it’s having evil aunt’s possessed or a daughter (Ona) with her pride in her “alpha” genitalia, this recollection of the Marte women’s history and collective experience across generations reads almost as a memoir and provides proud insights into Dominican culture and heritage.
I’m typically not a fan of novels where the timelines jump about but here Ona, the main narrator, an anthropologist documenting her family history, manages to make this not so jarring and few seem less. The Martes feel real- perhaps because this is not a memoir of one person but rather of the women in the family, the stories stop and start naturally. These are not women with “and then…” stories that build to some unattainable finale. These are snippets of memory and anecdotes like we all have, like we’re familiar with from grandmothers, mothers and aunts. They’re pockets of stories that help you understand the characters and guess how they came to be in their current state, but they feel like memories and character development rather than full on plot. That’s not to say that this book has no plot, it’s clearly a story of how a family faces their mortality and their heritage at an inflection point of the potential impending death of a matriarch.
For me, this ultimately felt like a story about love- the difficulty and misunderstandings and errors in demonstrating love between mothers and daughters but also around romantic love and heartbreak and the hope of healing. I overall enjoyed this. I perhaps wish there had been a bit more story about characters I cared about like Yadi and Ant… or perhaps Ona and Jeremiah. Perhaps I wished for a bit more comfort of the pastoral bits of happiness. I think I understand what the author wanted to do with this book but at the same time felt that by spreading the storytelling net so wide and not getting very deep, the book did not resonate as much. The writing was of course solid, the scenarios super relatable or otherwise empathy-provoking. You can’t read this without feeling something. And yet, it didn’t feel complete or as whole… perhaps the characters felt a little shortchanged… but perhaps that’s also intentional by the author…you never know anything about anyone and perhaps by approaching this book in this way, we are left with the same gaps in knowledge and questions and curiousities that exist in our own family lore.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Child death, Homophobia, Racism, Vomit, and Classism
celery's review
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
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
4.75
How many different words do you need to describe a vagina?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation
psistillreadyou's review against another edition
I didn't care for the characters and the sexual content was too graphic for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, and Sexual content
Moderate: Child abuse
clairelisebella's review
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
I can’t put my finger on why this book didn’t work for me. It had a lot of good things going for it — I love magical realism, multi-gen family sagas, and a dark/macabre tone. But it just didn’t land. The pacing was off, the format with the sporadic transcripts and asides from Ona were unbalanced, and the intermixed Spanish felt distracting instead of immersive. I inched through it and I’m glad I finished it, but I didn’t have anything pushing me forward.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent
Minor: Alcoholism, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Vomit, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment
minimijn's review
emotional
hopeful
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Lovely read with excellent format!! Very poetic, would recommend to everyone!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Alcoholism, Miscarriage, and Sexual harassment
asulyi's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, and Miscarriage
moon_peach's review
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-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
4.0
This story uses multiple perspectives through different characters. All the Marte women have suffered some trauma in different forms.
Something to note is we aren't necessarily given a resolution to any of their trauma, however it (mostly) ends hopeful for most of them if not bittersweet.
Something to note is we aren't necessarily given a resolution to any of their trauma, however it (mostly) ends hopeful for most of them if not bittersweet.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Sexual harassment