Scan barcode
A review by mldavisreads
Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo
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.
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
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Infertility
There is a lot of sexual content, including one character who openly discusses her p@rn preferences.