3.78 AVERAGE

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
emotional reflective sad 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
bethbolton's profile picture

bethbolton's review

4.0
adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

doreendizeye's review

3.0

3.5 ⭐️

karriganatkins's review

4.75
dark emotional mysterious reflective fast-paced

My only complaint is that I wish there was more to read! Alvarez is a master storyteller. This book in particular was so hard to put down. The characters are clearly very carefully thought out. Each one is complex and driven by their own emotions and convictions. She weaves their stories together artful. I found myself holding strong feelings for each of them. I was not expecting this novel to have such a twist either. It is one of the reasons it is such a page turner. I just had to find out what happened next. 

This sounded like such an interesting concept and I was excited to read it.
However, the book was long, rambling, and confusing.
amazonanne's profile picture

amazonanne's review

5.0

I enjoyed this book. Julia Alvarez is one of my favorite writers since I lived in the Dominican Republic for four years and loved it. In this book, an author decides to literally bury all her unwritten books. It seems pretty autobiographical, but who cares. The author (Alma) returns to the Dominican Republic from the US after she inherits some land and, with the help of a local artist, sets up a cemetery for her manuscripts. Yet the voices from the untold stories come and haunt the groundskeeper, whose story is also part of the book.

I did like how the stories intertwined and it was easy to read.

kpolstein's review

3.5
mysterious reflective slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: N/A
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
canadianbookworm's profile picture

canadianbookworm's review

5.0
emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-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: Complicated

https://cdnbookworm.blogspot.com/2025/02/the-cemetery-of-untold-stories.html

"The Cemetery of Untold Stories" by Julia Alvarez felt like bait-and-switch to me: the title, the blurb and the art cover promised a bibliophilic novel, a mix of historical fiction and magical realism... all things right up my alley. Instead, the actual book I read felt like a collection of short stories that had little to do with each other. At times, the plot veered into telenovela territory. Really not my cup of tea.