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lindsayerin'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
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Sexual assault
rowancdewit's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
sad
fast-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
1.0
I would like it to be known that after the first 100 pages, I started only reading the first line of every other paragraph, and I still understood everything that happened in the story.
I’m pretty bummed, because the things that I did enjoy about this book, I really liked! But the things that I didn’t enjoy about the book ruined and tainted my experience with the book as a whole.
I wish more than ANYTHING that Acevedo would have focused on the four sisters. Or just a book written on Flor’s perspective, or just a book written on the three sister’s perspective of Flor in their life and leading to the wake. Every single time the narrative switched to Yadi or Ona, it took everything in me not to skip chapters entirely. They’re thirty year old women that speak like twelve year olds, extremely unrealistic and unnatural and just, super teenager-esque.
Oh goodness, Yadi and Ona’s chapters are so graphic! Granted, I am more conservative on my tolerance for sexual references in books, but this book? I’m sorry, it is so disgustingly graphic for absolutely no purpose. Gross, nasty, perverse graphic scenes that just gave me the ick. And pages and pages of it. If this book had been focused on only Yadi and Ona’s stories, I really wouldn’t have finished this book.
If anyone’s familiar, this book just had major Rupi Kaur vibes. Overexercised metaphors and details and exaggerations that make this book sound so out of touch. Granted, there were some good quotes in this book, but I think it’s one of those “even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then” moments. Choppy writing, chapters that just felt like they had no purpose. I’d find myself mid-paragraph saying “what is the point of this?” Really, the writing felt like the author wanted the book to feel so real and so relatable, but it was really just unnatural and hard to read.
Oh! And then the Spanish! I do not mind the interweaving of Spanish and English, I really feel like it adds character to the bilingual characters. But! To drop it in all the time, full sentences, and no context clues to understand what they’re saying. I’m confused if the author just wanted me to have Google translate up the entire time (because we all know how reliable of a translation that gives?) I’m really good at picking up context clues in books, but there were many times that a Spanish line was written out, and after a few minutes, I’d just keep reading and hope it wasn’t important, which seems like the opposite of what the author would hope to achieve by adding in Spanish elements?
Again, I wish we could have a version of this book that just focused on the narrative of the sisters, because even that would have done wonders for this story. Family Lore really felt like a child trying their absolute hardest to write a mature, adult book and prove that no one would know a child wrote it. Overused metaphors, simple words switched out for bigger more complex words JUST for the sake of it, a story structure so insanely hard to follow, and language so foul it would ONLY make a twelve year old giggle. If anyone mentioned to me that they were going to read this book, I would 100% steer them away.
I’m pretty bummed, because the things that I did enjoy about this book, I really liked! But the things that I didn’t enjoy about the book ruined and tainted my experience with the book as a whole.
I wish more than ANYTHING that Acevedo would have focused on the four sisters. Or just a book written on Flor’s perspective, or just a book written on the three sister’s perspective of Flor in their life and leading to the wake. Every single time the narrative switched to Yadi or Ona, it took everything in me not to skip chapters entirely. They’re thirty year old women that speak like twelve year olds, extremely unrealistic and unnatural and just, super teenager-esque.
Oh goodness, Yadi and Ona’s chapters are so graphic! Granted, I am more conservative on my tolerance for sexual references in books, but this book? I’m sorry, it is so disgustingly graphic for absolutely no purpose. Gross, nasty, perverse graphic scenes that just gave me the ick. And pages and pages of it. If this book had been focused on only Yadi and Ona’s stories, I really wouldn’t have finished this book.
If anyone’s familiar, this book just had major Rupi Kaur vibes. Overexercised metaphors and details and exaggerations that make this book sound so out of touch. Granted, there were some good quotes in this book, but I think it’s one of those “even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then” moments. Choppy writing, chapters that just felt like they had no purpose. I’d find myself mid-paragraph saying “what is the point of this?” Really, the writing felt like the author wanted the book to feel so real and so relatable, but it was really just unnatural and hard to read.
Oh! And then the Spanish! I do not mind the interweaving of Spanish and English, I really feel like it adds character to the bilingual characters. But! To drop it in all the time, full sentences, and no context clues to understand what they’re saying. I’m confused if the author just wanted me to have Google translate up the entire time (because we all know how reliable of a translation that gives?) I’m really good at picking up context clues in books, but there were many times that a Spanish line was written out, and after a few minutes, I’d just keep reading and hope it wasn’t important, which seems like the opposite of what the author would hope to achieve by adding in Spanish elements?
Again, I wish we could have a version of this book that just focused on the narrative of the sisters, because even that would have done wonders for this story. Family Lore really felt like a child trying their absolute hardest to write a mature, adult book and prove that no one would know a child wrote it. Overused metaphors, simple words switched out for bigger more complex words JUST for the sake of it, a story structure so insanely hard to follow, and language so foul it would ONLY make a twelve year old giggle. If anyone mentioned to me that they were going to read this book, I would 100% steer them away.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infertility and Sexual content
Moderate: Sexual assault
emmas_bookshelf's review against another edition
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? No
4.0
If you like a multigenerational family saga, this is the book for you! The way the story explores family ties and the way women are forced to move in the world across different time periods and places was really interesting. I really enjoyed the audiobook.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcoholism, Sexual assault, and Alcohol
bex4dayz's review against another edition
emotional
funny
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
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault and Pregnancy
achay91's review against another edition
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Infertility, Animal death, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, and Sexual content
Moderate: Infidelity, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and Sexual assault
Minor: Alcoholism, Death, Death of parent, and Grief
elb22's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault
Minor: Alcoholism
serendipitysbooks's review against another edition
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.
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
Graphic: Infertility, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, and Sexual assault
enlamont's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Addiction, Death of parent, Infertility, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Death, and Grief
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Murder, Incest, Mental illness, and Sexual assault
bookrokosmos's review against another edition
emotional
sad
tense
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? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, and Miscarriage
Moderate: Death, Sexual content, and Death of parent
Minor: Blood, Infertility, and Infidelity
snipinfool's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
Family Lore was the story of a Dominican-American family told through the eyes of the women of the family. Some of the women had unique abilities. Flor had the ability to be able to tell when someone would die. After viewing a show featuring a man having a living wake, she decided she wanted one as well. The rest of the book followed the days leading up to the wake and flashbacks of the women's lives. The family wanted to know if Flor was going to die, but she woud not say. Her sister, Pastora, had the ability to read whether someone was telling the truth by their words. Pastora decided not to ask her sister if she saw her own death because she didn't want the burden of knowing her sister might die. Others wonder if Flor saw another family member's death and the wake was a way to get the family together before it happened.
This was a great premise for a book. Unfortunately, I had a hard time keeping up with the characters in the book. There was a "Table of Principal Characters" in the front of the book, but each chapter bounced to a new character each time. Most of the book was told as flashbacks and the stories did not follow a linear progression to me. The writing style was difficult for me to follow at times as well. The characters in this book were very interesting. I wish their stories had been presented in a more concise way as I was disappointed I could not enjoy them more.
I received an e-ARC for Family Lore and want to thank Elizabeth Acevedo, Harper Collins Publishers, Ecco Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to voluntarily read and give an honest review of this book. Family Lore is scheduled to be released August 1, 2023.
This was a great premise for a book. Unfortunately, I had a hard time keeping up with the characters in the book. There was a "Table of Principal Characters" in the front of the book, but each chapter bounced to a new character each time. Most of the book was told as flashbacks and the stories did not follow a linear progression to me. The writing style was difficult for me to follow at times as well. The characters in this book were very interesting. I wish their stories had been presented in a more concise way as I was disappointed I could not enjoy them more.
I received an e-ARC for Family Lore and want to thank Elizabeth Acevedo, Harper Collins Publishers, Ecco Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to voluntarily read and give an honest review of this book. Family Lore is scheduled to be released August 1, 2023.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault, Misogyny, Adult/minor relationship, and Emotional abuse
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