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A review by deedireads
Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo
emotional
reflective
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? No
4.25
All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.
TL;DR REVIEW:
Family Lore was right up my alley: beautiful, heartbreaking, and crackling with life. These characters are so well written, and Acevedo’s talent as a poet shines.
For you if: You like family sagas with many POVs, magical realism, and prose by poets.
FULL REVIEW:
If you can believe it, Family Lore was my first Elizabeth Acevedo. (I’ve always meant to read her books but they’ve just slipped through the cracks of my TBR every time!) And it’s no surprise that I liked it very much: a character-driven story about strong women and their relationships, magical realism, and prose by a poet? Sign me right up.
The book focuses on six women from the Dominican-American Marte family: Flor, Matilde, Pastora, and Camila (all sisters); plus Ona (Flor’s daughter) and Yadi (Pastora’s daughter). Nearly all of them have family “gifts,” and Flor’s is that she can see someone’s death ahead of time. So when she decides to throw herself a living wake but won’t say why, naturally everyone is concerned. At the same time, Matilde is reckoning with a lifelong bad marriage, Flor is struggling to conceive, and Yadi’s teenage love is suddenly back in town. The narrative bounces between them all, and between past and present, as we hurdle toward the wake.
This book isn’t going to be for everyone (especially if you have trouble keeping track of a lot of POV characters, are squeamish about bodily functions, or feel embarrassed by bold references to sex and sexuality), but there’s no denying Acevedo’s mastery here. It took me a bit to really get into the story — and I had to forgive some pretty glaring factual errors about my alma mater, Binghamton University (I’m 99% sure she originally wrote about Cornell but changed it at the last minute) lol — but once I did, I was all in. I found this book beautiful, heartbreaking, and crackling with life. These characters are so well written, and Acevedo’s talent as a poet means there are some really breathtaking sentences in here. Acevedo also reads the audiobook herself, which always leads to such a great listening experience.
I’m glad I read this one, and Acevedo’s backlist is more firmly on my TBR than ever.
TL;DR REVIEW:
Family Lore was right up my alley: beautiful, heartbreaking, and crackling with life. These characters are so well written, and Acevedo’s talent as a poet shines.
For you if: You like family sagas with many POVs, magical realism, and prose by poets.
FULL REVIEW:
If you can believe it, Family Lore was my first Elizabeth Acevedo. (I’ve always meant to read her books but they’ve just slipped through the cracks of my TBR every time!) And it’s no surprise that I liked it very much: a character-driven story about strong women and their relationships, magical realism, and prose by a poet? Sign me right up.
The book focuses on six women from the Dominican-American Marte family: Flor, Matilde, Pastora, and Camila (all sisters); plus Ona (Flor’s daughter) and Yadi (Pastora’s daughter). Nearly all of them have family “gifts,” and Flor’s is that she can see someone’s death ahead of time. So when she decides to throw herself a living wake but won’t say why, naturally everyone is concerned. At the same time, Matilde is reckoning with a lifelong bad marriage, Flor is struggling to conceive, and Yadi’s teenage love is suddenly back in town. The narrative bounces between them all, and between past and present, as we hurdle toward the wake.
This book isn’t going to be for everyone (especially if you have trouble keeping track of a lot of POV characters, are squeamish about bodily functions, or feel embarrassed by bold references to sex and sexuality), but there’s no denying Acevedo’s mastery here. It took me a bit to really get into the story — and I had to forgive some pretty glaring factual errors about my alma mater, Binghamton University (I’m 99% sure she originally wrote about Cornell but changed it at the last minute) lol — but once I did, I was all in. I found this book beautiful, heartbreaking, and crackling with life. These characters are so well written, and Acevedo’s talent as a poet means there are some really breathtaking sentences in here. Acevedo also reads the audiobook herself, which always leads to such a great listening experience.
I’m glad I read this one, and Acevedo’s backlist is more firmly on my TBR than ever.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity, Infertility, and Death of parent
Moderate: Sexual content and Child abuse