I have to say that I don't think this was a bad book, I just don't think it was me. I had a hard time keeping up with the multiple POV's. However, Elizabeth Acevedo is clearly a talented writer.

Family Lore is written in a new style for Acevedo, but her family storytelling is as incredible as always!

I am a big fan of Elizabeth Acevedo. I’ve read multiple books by her and I had high hopes for Family Lore. I was happy to get exactly what I was hoping for. Acevedo has a great way of getting the reader invested in the stories of every character.

"Family Lore" by Elizabeth Acevedo is a captivating exploration of heritage, identity, and the intricate tapestry of family stories. Acevedo's lyrical prose effortlessly weaves together the past and present, inviting readers to delve into the complexities of familial bonds and the power of storytelling. With rich characters and evocative imagery, this novel is a poignant reminder of the importance of understanding where we come from and how it shapes who we are. Acevedo's narrative mastery shines through in every page, making "Family Lore" a must-read for anyone who appreciates the beauty of intergenerational tales and the enduring legacy of family.

Another good outing from one of the best at what she does. This weaving tale of family lore is a great one. I highly recommend it.

Disappointed and I’m so sad about it. I was ready for this one to blow my mind and be a beautiful story but honestly too much porn talk and way too many POVs. 6 is just too many for me and I lost interested really quickly. Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book

Flor can see the time of anyone's death. When she calls her family together for her living wake the aftershocks are felt through three generations of Dominican-American women. Elizabeth Acevedo's first novel for adults is a journey through family history- a story of love and triumph.

I am a huge Acevedo fan and was anxiously awaiting this book’s release. Unfortunately, it took me months to finish because I just couldn’t get into it. There were definitely moments of beauty in her language, as there always are. In the end, I felt this book was trying to do too much - tell too many stories from too many points of view.

This book was beautifully written, but I found the past/present timelines and multiple POVs really difficult to follow. I was constantly confused about what happened to each sister. I also don’t know that it was made clear that this was an adult book when the authors previous books were all YA, but this definitely was adult.

Family Lore is a story of two generations of an immigrant family. Most of the family members possess unique powers, ranging wildly from the ability to predict death to having an affinity for limes. Beyond their powers though, they all also face many challenges which is where their inner strength shines through, and what the book is mostly focused on.

Throughout the book we get to know this family via mostly flashbacks as they prepare for one of the sisters' living funeral. Since this event is planned by the sister that can tell when someone will die, it makes the family face the possibility of losing her, and their own mortality. They're also each at a precipice of their own, making them face where they are in life.

Family Lore is made up of things I love: it’s written by Elizabeth Acevedo, it’s a family saga and it’s magical realism. While I am glad I read it, and there were a lot of parts in it I really liked, I also never fully connected with it.

There are a lot of different topics handled in the book, infidelity, immigration, sexuality, infertility, and familial and romantic relationships. Acevedo handles each of these topics beautifully.

While I mostly appreciated reading their stories, my reading experience wasn’t entirely smooth. I felt like it dragged in so many points that it just made me want to stop reading it altogether. I think partially this was because it’s very vignette-like. If the character development or the writing were better, perhaps those might have gripped me. Basically, while there were many moving moments, I was not usually moved by them.

🎧 I’d heard her audiobooks were really great, so I listened to it on audio. I don’t know if it was because this one is in prose, but the narration was not my style.

Thank you to Ecco and NetGalley for the eARC!

Not really my cup of tea but applaud the strong writing. It was a Bad On Paper Book Club selection and glad I had the opportunity to read it.

A multigenerational story following the Marte sisters and the two daughters. The plot is in the title, this is a book of family lore. Their histories, their magic, their lives leading up to the “living wake” of the second oldest aunt, Flor, who knows when people will die.

I’ll be honest in that I felt my own lack while reading this book. Lack in what, I’m not sure— maybe culture, maybe the particular love for family, probably both. Family Lore felt like a love letter to Dominican women and the complicated mess that is familial relationships.

I was so endeared to these characters despite not always knowing where the story was heading or what the “point” of it was. I believe now, having finished it, that Acevedo is inviting us to sit around a table with these characters and enjoy a cafecito while they told their stories.

The Marte women are special, most of them hold special gifts. Flor can predict the day when someone will die. Pastora knows when someone is lying. Camila has a gift for herbs. Matilde doesn't have a gift but has problems of her own. The 2nd generation, Oona and Yadi, are dealing with infertility and a returned lover. Flor has decided to throw herself a living wake, turning everyone's life upside as they help her prepare. Going back and forth between the past and the present in the days leading up to the wake, Family Lore explores how the past will catch up with you and one family's journey.

There were multiple things I loved about this book- I loved learning about Dominican family customs and food. I loved the family relationships, especially the sister/daughter because that is something I am familiar with. I loved the magical realism with the women's gifts and how they played out throughout the book. I will say that when the book traveled to the past, it felt abrupt and I had to realign myself to where I was in the timeline. I also would have like a family tree but the description at the beginning helped.

I was excited to read this one, as I loved With the Fire on High. What an interesting concept! It wasn't what I expected, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Elizabeth Acevedo's writing is beautiful, as always. I did find myself getting confused with all the characters; I would have liked a family tree or chart of some sort.

This book was excellent! Acevedo’s way with words and characters is truly unmatched. As a long time fan of her work, it was great reading new work from a new genre. The multiple POV’s in the book were my favorite part. I just love seeing the characters different perspectives

I'm sorry, Elizabeth. It's not you. It's me.

This book just did not speak to me. It did not have the same lovable characters from her other works. Instead, it had too many characters that all felt somewhat under-developed.

I just left the book disappointed :(

Elizabeth Acevedo's latest, Family Lore, is a multigeneral tale of the matriarchal Marte clan steeped deep in tradition and magical realism. Tracing their roots from the Dominican Republic through the streets of New York City, Family Lore examines the impact of generational trauma through a shared family history across the Marte descendants.

When Flor, the eldest Marte sister, tells her siblings that she is planning a living wake for herself, the rest of her family assumes that Flor has seen the date of when she will die. When she won't tell her family what she has foreseen, the lies the sisters have been keeping from each other threaten to tear at the seams as each struggles to handle their magical tendencies in conjunction with the idea of Flor's impending death.

Told between three generations of Marte women - the mother, the aunts and their children - Family Lore provides a great look at how unresolved tension and conflict flows linearly through each generation until someone does the work to examine the root cause.

I really liked Family Lore - it is not a quick read and not for the person looking for a fluff piece - it's a beautiful piece of literature that pays homage to Dominicans while elevating the struggles of immigrants into NYC. The only reason I didn't rate this higher is because the ending didn't close up all the ties I had hoped for - it felt rushed and I would have like to see the Marte story end more full circle.

Thanks to NetGalley, Elizabeth Acevedo and Ecco for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

So beautiful. It’s about the aunts and the history and their gifts. But pared down to the core, it’s about finding and recognizing the beauty that is family and the relationships we have with each other.

The story follows a Dominican family in the Washington Heights area of New York City and centers around the women in the family, many of whom have gifts. The timeline switches between present day New York and the older generation’s past in the Dominican Republic.

There were so many beautiful and complicated relationships. Mothers and daughters, sisters, cousins, husbands and wives, queer relationships, ex-lovers, new-maybe-lovers-who-were-also-your-best-friend-before-they-went-to-prison, grandparents and grandchild, and one’s relationship to their lineage and homeland. But there was also so much self discovery in this book.

It was fascinating to see the back and forth between the older generation and their youths in the motherland, how they changed and grew, and how a lot of their actions in the present day and how they treated their family could be traced back to those past experiences. I particularly resonated with the two cousins in the younger generation (one was queer, one was vegetarian, and they both went to the same college as me!) and their struggle to break bad generational cycles and maintain healthy relationships with their family. The powers the women had were definitely fantastical but were woven so seamlessly into the story that they actually felt so effortless, and to be honest I really wanted Pastora’s gift of being able to tell when someone is lying.

Family Lore talks about what home means, what family means, what makes you who you are, the magic of women, of love, and identity. Read. This. Book.

I have been a huge fan of Acevedo in the past, but this one did not work for me. I tried over the course of a couple months and a few different times picking it up, but I couldn't connect with it for some reason. I'm still looking forward to her next one because she is a phenomenal author. .