Reviews with content warning for Infertility - Family Lore

disclaimer: I don’t really give starred reviews because I don’t like leaving them. I enjoy most books for what they are, & I extract lessons from them all. Everyone’s reading experiences are subjective, so I hope my reviews provide enough information to let you know if a book is for you or not. Find me on Instagram: @bookish.millennial or tiktok: @bookishmillennial

Oh gosh, I'm nervous to write this because I absolutely ADORE Elizabeth Acevedo. LET ME BE PERFECTLY CLEAR: I AM A MASSIVE FAN OF ELIZABETH ACEVEDO! I have read everything she has published and I have been absolutely *ENAMORED* with her work. She is a master class in novel-in-verse, and in powerful writing in general. I truly believe that. However, this was just an example of me being the biggest fangirl ever, and yet not loving something by one of my favorite authors. Believe me, this is as devastating for me as it is for yall!

I was so excited by the premise, and when I realized what this book was about! I love a multigenerational family saga, and following the women in the family who have magical gifts?! FUCKING INCREDIBLE PREMISE! Flor hosts a living wake and doesn't say who it is for and when the person will die?! Iconic behavior. However, overall, the novel just did not work for me. See: *me wistfully ruminating on how sad I am that I didn't love this*

My problem with this novel is the same problem I had with books like Atlas Six by Olivie Blake - there were too many characters' POVs, and to *fully* invest in, leaving me a bit flustered and frustrated when I had to switch POVs to someone else, just as I was getting pulled in to one character's arc/motivations/desires/hopes. I understand this is not a decision that only Acevedo makes, and I've seen it in other books, especially in thrillers (which I also love to read!). However, I don't think it was executed well in this book, and I could have done without three POVs; I still could have learned about the rest of the characters through the main POVs' chapters! I didn't feel that many of them were able to be fully fleshed out because of this choice to split up the story's POVs so much.

I've seen criticisms that the book has too much Spanish in the book that is not translated to English but I didn't mind Googling anything if I felt I was missing context. That's not a factor in my review; I actually really enjoy seeing more languages in books, and it consoles me that more books are being written with the authors' community in mind, rather than for the white gaze.

However, that last sentence is where this novel fell short for me. With the resolutions for certain characters by the end of the book, I felt like this was written for a white audience. The Spanish may not have been, but the actual plotline and storyline really felt like it was catering to what big publishing houses think the "market" wants, and that was super disappointing. I don't want to spoil anything obviously, and my opinion is not gospel, but this is just the vibe I got.

Anyway, I will go re-listen to The Poet X for now, and this doesn't mean I will never read a book by Acevedo again. GET REAL! I will continue to read her work, and I'm sad that this one just didn't hit for me.

steam rating: steam was sort-of open-door but not written as explicit smut if that makes sense! So yes, there's sexual content in here but it's not particularly the smut you'd read in another romcom, so just keep that in mind.

cw: infertility, infidelity, miscarriages, death, grief, fraught family dynamics

Content Warnings

bessadams's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

Content Warnings

danajoy's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

Content Warnings

gondorgirl's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

serendipitysbooks's review against another edition

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emotional 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

I didn’t have the best of starts with Family Lore, struggling to remember the characters and follow the plot. I thought format may be the issue so grabbed an e-book from Libby. That - particularly the family tree at the front - helped a lot, but I didn’t enjoy hearing myself mangle the Spanish words and phrases in my head. Tandem reading, reading and listening simultaneously, was the charm giving me the best of both worlds.

The book begins with Flor deciding to hold a living wake for herself. Most of the story unfolds in the two days prior to the wake and during the wake itself, but is infused with plenty of memories from the recent and more distant past. The story itself is a matrilineal family saga focussing on Flor, her three sisters Matilde, Pastora and Camila, Flor’s daughter Ona, and Pastora’s daughter Yadi; their lives in the Dominican Republic and in the United States. Each woman came up against a fair amount of misogyny (many of the men in their lives do not come across well), and between them they experienced many other tough things including infertility, infidelity, migration, physical, emotional and sexual abuse. The bonds between the women may have been complicated but they were strong, much like the women themselves. They had all experienced pain and hardship but knew how to find moments of joy as well. There was an element of magical realism in the book with each woman having a particular power or gift, but I never felt as if this artificially drove the plot; rather each woman’s power was just part of who they were. Ona is an anthropology professor and has been interviewing her family members for a possible project and parts of these interviews are included. I enjoy a little textual variety so this worked for me. Acevedo’s prose was very lyrical, no surprise given her background as a poet and the incorporation of plenty of Spanish felt really appropriate and reflective of the family’s identity.

Overall I enjoyed this novel and found the women’s positive character arcs to be satisfying. However, it didn’t surpass her YA novels in my affections.

Content Warnings

kylieqrada's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious 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

5.0

Undoubtedly one of my top books of the year, probably of all time. Although the sexual aspects were a little much for me, that does not diminish my pure love for this book. I have no words.

Content Warnings

mldavisreads's review against another edition

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reflective

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes

4.0

Adult contemporary fiction. I have loved Elizabeth Acevedo's young adult books, so I had been looking forward to her first book for adults. I went back and forth between the audio and print versions. This was partially due to trouble keeping track of different characters at the beginning, which was helped by the cheat sheet in the front of the print edition.

Flor is a woman who has a gift of sight, primarily in having dreams about death. So when she decides to have a living wake in her honor, the whole family is put on alert. Flor has three sisters: Matilde, Camila, and Pastora. Her daughter Ona and niece Yadi are also involved in the story. Narration of the chapters switch between all of the women. As the title suggests, this story deals a lot with their roots, which are in the DR. Ona is an anthropologist at a university, so this story is set up partially as interview transcripts with various family members. This is definitely a character based story rather than a lot of action, which is part of the reason it took me awhile to read. But once I got a hold on the differences between the characters I was able to dive in to the story a little more. I wanted to see how Flor's wake went, I wanted to see how the other characters grew. The last few chapters seemed to tie up a lot of plotlines quickly in a neat bow, which was a bit jarring after the slower pace of the rest of the story.

Content Warnings

booknerderika's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

Loveable characters? Yes

3.75

This is not at all what I had expected. The writing was beautiful, as always with Acevedo, so I wasn't surprised by that. The topics and the way things are discussed so openly and intimately that it feels almost intrusive is what caught me off guard. I loved the way that the stories were all intertwined and how new bits and pieces of each character are revealed as the story progressed. There were some scenes and topics that made me stop and process the things that weren't being said. I am torn on how I feel about the end because it felt so sudden yet it also gave perfect closure. The full circle moment of new life at the same moment of death was perfect. I have still been thinking about this book even though I finished it a couple of days ago.

Content Warnings

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