Reviews - The Cemetery of Untold Stories

1.3k reviews for:

The Cemetery of Untold Stories

Julia Alvarez

3.78 AVERAGE

nspar's review

3.0

challenging mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

tristy216's review

2.0

challenging mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

badham's review

3.25

challenging reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

kbeucler's review

4.0

An author retires to a barrio in the Dominican Republic where she builds a cemetery to bury all the notes from stories she didn't write. Those untold stories weave together with her own story and the story of the woman she hires to care for the cemetery. A quiet, lit-fic book that asked a lot of really interesting questions about storytelling and who gets to tell stories and what happens to stories that aren’t told and the line between truth and fiction. Nice use of omniscient POV and weaving together of so many different people and stories. I liked that she didn’t tone down the Spanish for an English speaking audience. I liked working for it a bit.

chrismichcon's review

3.0

I don't feel like I got to know any of these characters well enough, so I guess I'd have liked this to be longer. It was a good draft but generally felt unfinished to me. The magical realism was fun and delicate, and I enjoyed hearing the interconnect untold stories and wondering how "true" any of it is. The start of the novel with Alma's writer friend and her book didn't circle around well, and we spent so much time with this that it felt like a sharp turn into our later characters.