Reviews with content warning for Violence - The Cemetery of Untold Stories

Thank you to NetGalley and Algonquin Books for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoy the concept of this book, and I was excited to read it. However, I did not feel that the book captured my attention for more like 30% of the book. The majority of the book I just felt disinterested and did not know where anything was going.

Getting Filomena, Perla, and Manuel’s POVs were the best parts because I loved finding out their connections to each other and Alma + her sisters. After that, I became disinterested again.

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cassielaj's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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? It's complicated

4.25

I really enjoyed the premise of this book, and I think that the themes of storytelling, what constitutes a story, and who gets to tell a story were fascinating to trace throughout the novel.
Of all the characters and their compelling stories, I thought that Filomena and Bienvenida Inocencia really elevated this story. They were both such nuanced characters with my favorite stories, despite the fact that neither particularly thought their story needed to be told.

I thought that the decision to have Pepito tell Bienvenida’s story at the end, against Alma and Bienvenida’s will, was an effective point to drive home the lives that stories take on outside of their subjects.

Note: I found quite a few similarities between this book and Alvarez’s ¡Yo!, which I thought was kind of odd.

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burnedoutbookdragon's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective 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? No

4.0

If you're a writer, author, or someone who loves bookish stories, this book is for you.

Genre: literary fiction
Diversity: Latina community. Dominican & Dominican-American

Set against the backdrop of a small village in the Dominican Republic, Alvarez invites readers to follow a celebrated author, Alma Cruz, who is seeking to bury all the stories she couldn't finish. Hoping this will give her characters and herself peace.

Alvarez's writing is both poetic and rich, seamlessly blending elements of historical fiction and magical realism. I loved as a reader we got to see a different side of authors. I feel like this book was cathartic and maybe personal for Alvarez. Here we get to see a side of authors who are at a point done with their career and don't know what to do with the untold stories they carry.

We get four different perspectives sprinkled in perfectly, between Alma, Filomena, and two of Alma's story characters. This is a character driven plot, that may feel slow for any action or climax. The alternating of Alma and Filomena's perspective helps alleviate the slowness feeling tedious.

Thank you to Ms. Alvarez's team and Algonquin Books for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

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kimwritesstuff's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

This book is so heartbreaking, for any readers who cannot handle graphic child loss, this would not be a book for you. I definitely had to put this book down and walk away a few times because it is a very heavy read. With that being said, it is a heartbreaking story that ties together the history of the Dominican Republic and multiple characters.

Alma is the primary character, and she is an author who has used her family's stories as the basis for her books. When both of her parents die, she inherits a parcel of land in her homeland of the Dominican Republic. She decides to move home and create a cemetery of sorts for her untold stories. These stories create both real and fictional historical characters. Through the construction of the cemetery, we learn more about the first wife of El Jefe, a brutal dictator in the Dominican Republic's recent history, and the history of Alma's own father.

The secondary plot of this story follows Filomena, the across-the-street neighbor of Alma who becomes the caretaker of the cemetery. Filomena grew up in a rural campo and later was a live-in maid/caretaker for a wealthy family. Her story is outside the main story until closer to the end, where it starts to intertwine. The beauty of this novel is how the characters touch each other's lives and the rich as well as brutal history of the Dominican Republic.

This book is a brutal read in places. The only reason I didn't give this five stars is that I found this book to be a little bleak. I wanted more hope at the end of the novel. I also really hated Perla and her storyline, though it does serve as a way to show the crooked prison system and how it can be bought.

Overall, this is an achingly beautiful story that could have used a little more hope.

Thanks to NetGalley and Algonquin Books for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

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