Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo

7 reviews

fkshg8465's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective 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 was full of pain, love, self-discovery, and sisterhood. All great ingredients for a good story. Rounding up to a four. I  was satisfied with the ending, surprised by some of the middle, and enjoyed the novelty of the beginning.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Excrement, Infidelity, Death, Mental illness, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Deportation, Medical content, Rape, Body shaming, Alcoholism, Abandonment, Blood, Emotional abuse, Confinement, Grief, Infertility, and Pregnancy

atamano's review against another edition

emotional hopeful 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Misogyny, and Infidelity

Moderate: Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Death, Classism, Sexual assault, Grief, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Abandonment, Racism, and Alcoholism

Minor: Blood, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, and Infertility

celery's review against another edition

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?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Deportation, Domestic abuse, Abandonment, Ableism, Child death, Classism, Gun violence, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Violence, Grief, Medical content, Misogyny, Gore, Racism, Sexual harassment, Death of parent, Drug use, Excrement, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Animal death, Incest, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Alcohol, Blood, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Body shaming, Car accident, Child abuse, Colonisation, Confinement, Cursing, and Sexual assault

kshertz's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I found this one to be a lot different from her other books. A lot more mature and covered a lot of topics. There was a lot of in-depth looking into the different characters and their lifestyles and their growth as they move forward. I think I’m more drawn to her YA works but I will keep giving these books a shot because I know she’s a magical writer

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Content Warnings

Minor: Abandonment, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual assault

cadence99's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful 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? Yes

4.0

This was a fantastic first read for me from Elizabeth Acevedo. Her writing is deeply lyrical, and drew me in so easily to the narrative of this family’s story. Thought it’s not normally my favorite format, I REALLY loved the shifting points of view and flashes back and forth between timelines here. In written form, the flow felt so natural, weaving in remembrances of life as the book simultaneously works toward its conclusion. However, I’m really glad that I read a physical copy and not audio, because I think I would’ve had a much more difficult time following the narrative. 

One think I didn’t LOVE here was that it felt VERY clear that the author was making their debut into adult fiction- there is no mistaking that there are adult themes at play, to an extent that they felt overused. 

This book was an emotional, funny, and hopeful anthology of a family’s love. It left me feeling deeply connected to the characters and to their history

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Death of parent, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Medical trauma, Violence, Alcohol, Grief, Pregnancy, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, and Misogyny

Minor: Ableism, Classism, and Colonisation

thecriticalreader's review against another edition

emotional hopeful 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

3.75

 

Review:

I enjoyed my experience reading Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo; I found the characters and their family story to be interesting and the writing to be beautiful and powerful. Acevedo unapologetically uplifts the lives and experiences of her six main characters, portraying them as flawed but ultimately sympathetic people who live ordinary live despite their supernatural abilities.

 

Despite my overall positive reception of Family Lore, I imagine that it will not be everyone’s cup of tea. For one, it goes into descriptive detail of multiple bodily functions/fluids, which will undoubtedly turn many readers off. For another, it uses a lot of sentences, phrases, and words in Spanish, so people who cannot read Spanish may find themselves annoyed at frequently having to guess at the meaning or look up the phrases. 

 

The book also uses a rather unconventional storytelling form; the different points-of-view are supposedly compiled by one character, Ona, an anthropology professor who wishes to capture her family’s lore in a book. However, it is easy to forget this, as many of the chapters feel like traditional third-person narratives told from the perspectives of the different women. On top of the switching of perspectives between six characters, the book tells the fifty or more years of family history in a non-chronological fashion. My guess is that the author does this to mimic the way family lore is passed down; that is, in piecemeal fashion from various viewpoints rather than as a singular, cohesive, narrative. The drawback to Acevedo’s approach is that it takes considerable focus on the reader’s part to keep track of a story with an already ambitious scope, which will probably frustrate some readers. While I was able to (more or less) follow the characters and the narrative, I think I did lose a bit of enjoyment and understanding from this format. I also found the anthropological aspect a little annoying, because it was never clear which parts of the story were truly from a person’s perspective and which were interpreted or fabricated by Ona to complete her book. I would have preferred a more traditional third-person narrative without Ona’s interjections, or a book that leans more heavily into the anthropological angle. 

 

I enjoyed Family Lore and think it has a lot going for it in terms of the power of its narrative, characters, and writing. That being said, I think this book will not be for everyone due to some of the choices Acevedo makes for her storytelling. 

 

The Run-Down: 

You might like Family Lore if . . . 

·      You like multi-generational family sagas

·      You enjoy or don’t mind some magical realism

·      You appreciate when authors make untraditional storytelling choices in order to best uphold the experiences of their characters and community rather than to make the reader comfortable

·      You don’t mind switching POVs and non-chronological narratives

 

You might not like Family Lore if . . .

·      You cannot read Spanish and don’t like it when books have lots of untranslated Spanish words and phrases in them

·      You dislike detailed descriptions of bodily functions and fluids

·      You have a hard time following or dislike books that switch POVs between many characters, tell their stories out of order, and follow a long timeline

·      You find it difficult to sympathize with or root for characters who are flawed and sometimes do bad things

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, Excrement, Infidelity, and Sexual content

Moderate: Cursing, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Death of parent, Sexism, Drug use, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Animal death

Minor: Incest, Slavery, Classism, Grief, Colonisation, Miscarriage, and Police brutality

Graphic: Ophidiophobia, menstruation

cassimiranda's review against another edition

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

4.0

I received an eARC of this book for review from Ecco via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.
• The Brief: Family Lore is a warm contemporary family saga with expressive prose in Acevedo’s poetic style. It tells the story of a Dominican American family narrated by two generations women coping with their entwined histories while facing future heart break.
• This story will work well for readers who enjoyed the author’s lyrical writing in previous books and is interested in seeing it put to use in a more mature story.

     Family Lore is a story about the generational trauma told from the perspective six women, most of whom are blessed with magical skills. One of the elder sister’s is planning a wake for herself. Given her ability to predict death, her family struggles to prepare for the worst, resolve their past suffering, and discover their futures. 
     I loved Acevedo’s writing and sentence structure here, just as in previous novels. The characters were interesting and believable – although the POV voices were not as distinct as they could have been. The plot and world building was interesting to the point that for once I didn’t mind unexplained magical realism which can be very hit or miss for me. I wasn’t enamored of the way the sex and masturbation scenes were written, but that is a personal preference. This was a beautiful novel, and I’m so glad I had the opportunity to read it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Infidelity, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Abandonment, and Addiction