was a bit unsure about this at the start and it took me
a few chapters to settle into reading it and then I was
hooked on finishing it, I love when I come across a new
author and usually end up checking out what their other
books are like, this had a few moments when I smiled
as each of the women could be any family member and
it brought back a few memories of growing up, the
countries might be different but grandmothers and
aunts are the same the world over. An enjoyable family
drama style read.

Thank you to the publisher for the advance review copy but unfortunately I did not really engage with this story. We were introduced to so many characters in the beginning that it became confusing and although there was a list of characters and their relationships provided at the beginning of the book, unfortunately with a kindle, it is not really easy to pop back and forth easily between pages. Additionally, as other reviewers have mentioned, the untranslated Spanish phrases are a bit frustrating. I decided not to finish this book as clearly not for me, but I can see many other readers really enjoyed the writing style.

I was really looking forward to this, having loved the author's YA books.

The characters were well-drawn and complicated. There were a lot of them, and a lot of backstory, so I found it difficult to keep them all straight at times. But the story was engaging and interesting and kept me reading. I felt it was a little slow to start, but once it got going about halfway through, it was really unputdownable.

The language, as you'd expect from Elizabeth Acevedo, was amazing. I did find the frequent user of untranslated Spanish a bit frustrating. I have a very limited knowledge of Spanish and found myself often resortingp to Google translate.

Overall, I liked this book a lot, but I wanted to love it. But I would still recommend it to anyone who has previously enjoyed Elizabeth Acevedo's work and who likes female-dominated family stories.

There's a family of strong women, all of them need to change something or are ready for great changes. There's magic realsm, strong emotions, and well written story that I loved.
Great characters, tighly knitted plot, excellent storytelling.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

The women in the Marte family all have a special power, from being able to predict death to the being able to heal with herbal potions. When Flor decides that she’s going to hold a living wake to celebrate her life rather than her death, her family suspect that she knows when she is going to die. This book tells the intertwined stories of the mothers, sisters, daughters and nieces of this complicated family and I did enjoy it, although there were a lot of characters to remember. An enjoyable read though.

I've almost finished this book but had to stop reading to review as it's just so beautiful. I was already a fan of the authors previous works and this hasn't disappointed me so far.
A more detailed review will be uploaded on my Instagram: @thebraidedbibliophile. Thank you for allowing me to read a copy, I can't wait for it to be published and I'm excited to get back to reading.

The story spans only three days, but it takes us on a journey of three generations of the women of the Marte family.
This Dominican American family is worth every word written about them, and every sentence is aiming towards a gathering of strong, imperfect women with a thirst for life. They all have powers, but most of all, they have a heart.
Burdened by personal and historical restrictions and struggles, they're all fighting for themselves one way or another, not wanting to be defined by the men and husbands in their lives. At the center is Flor who is throwing herself a living wake, inspired by a patriarch she'd seen doing the exact same thing on TV. Her power is predicting death, but what she wants is to live, sing and dance. At the days leading to the wake, her daughter Ona is doing interviews with the family members, and thus telling their stories.
I have to admit that at times I've zoned out while reading, just letting paragraphs washing over me. But every couple of pages the narration had me back again at the edge of my seat, with a need to dive further into these women's lives. A book that will stay with you for a while

4/5 stars

Thank you @netgalley and @canongatebooks for the eARC!

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating:3/5
I've enjoyed Elizabeth Acevedo's YA works before, which made this a huge disappointment. I did not hate it, but I did not like it either.....it just fell flat. It was very confusing to get into, and almost put me in a reading slump. Despite being a very short book, it took me almost a month to finish reading it, as I couldn't read more than a few pages at once upto the 60% mark. However, as I started to get the hang of it, I enjoyed certain aspects of the book. My main problem with the book was the number of POVs. I could not connect with any of the characters as there were 6 POVs in a book less than 300 pages. The magical realism had a lot of potential but was not really implemented well. The ending left me even more confused than before. Overall, this was a pretty mediocre, forgettable read ........maybe I'll give it another chance some months later.

A family saga which bounces between narrators and years and shows the wide array and similarities between the women in the Marte family.
Set in the Dominican Republic, New York and a few other places in the USA, the book is vivid and has beautiful prose. Some of the Marte women have “gifts” and it’s so interesting to learn more about how they affect their lives. The writing and characters are so vivid, if Elizabeth told me to come over to come meet them, I totally would.
The text is interspersed with DR Spanish words and short phrases, some translated, but most weren’t. I used my built in Spanish - English dictionary which sometimes was helpful, sometime wasn’t. But I think the author using certain words and phrases in her native language were very powerful. So much can get lost in translation and it challenges the reader (in a good way) to immerse themselves in the world of the book.
Don’t want to spoil anything, but it is a truly beautiful book, the characters are very well rounded and broken in different ways. Everyone is well fleshed out. Will start to read her previous works after this.

Magical, beautiful, and so very special. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this lovely book in advance!

As a long time fan of magical realism, I was attracted to this book's description and it did not disappoint. The story of the Marte sisters, a Dominican family now living in New York, and the magical "gifts" some of the sisters hold is a beautiful story of family and especially female family relationships - mothers and daughters, sisters, cousins, and aunts and nieces. The perspective of the second generation, largely raised in New York and the contrast with the older generation who grew up in the Dominican Republic is also masterfully presented. The story is told from many different viewpoints, which adds depth to the story that could not have been achieved any other way. Overall a highly enjoyable read!

[3.5 stars, rounded up].

‘Family Lore’ centres around the lives of the multigenerational Marte women (siblings Matilde, Flor, Pastora, and Camila, and daughters/nieces Ona and Yadira), a Dominican-born, NYC-based family who are all imbued with innate, other-worldly gifts. For example, Pastora intrinsically senses when someone is lying (even a little white lie). Camila can create the perfect poultices to heal a range of maladies. Flor’s dreams tell her when someone will die! (I thoroughly enjoyed the magical realism aspect of this novel).

So, when Flor decides to host a living wake for herself, her family are, naturally, surprised, suspicious, and - most of all - scared for their beloved relative. Spanning a short period in the lead up to the wake, Family Lore traces the lives of each of the Marte women, weaving together their past and presents, their hopes and anxieties, and their inviolable bond which has survived, and thrived, across borders and decades.

Acevedo has crafted a beautiful story, a lyrical exploration of life, love and loss through the lines of one family. Character-driven, the plot is secondary to the unveiling of the lives of these incredible women.

However, my main criticism of this novel (which prevented me from awarding it four, or even five, stars) is that incorporates too many perspectives. Six POV characters meant that our time with each was stretched incredibly thin, and made the story feel both over-long and overly segmented.

I personally feel that several POVs could’ve been left out without any real detriment to the main narrative, or our investment in the remarkable Marte family. I would have enjoyed ‘Family Lore’ much better if it’d centralised the experiences of the three elder Martes: Pastora (my favourite), Flor and Matilde. Ultimately, I found the younger generation (Ona and Yadi) much less interesting to read about, Ona and her magical vagina(!) were quite irritating, and Yadi’s storyline with Ant was sweet but, for me, unnecessary to driving the main storyline forwards.

Overall, I just found the story over-long - a more condensed version of this story could’ve easily been 5 stars from me!

Magical. An intergenerational story of love, home and family, Elizabeth’s adult fiction debut is vibrant and colourful. I loved the different perspectives of the Marte women and how they wove into the countdown to the wake. Highly recommend!

Thank you to the publisher for this advance copy. I know I'm supposed to write a review but I don't think I possess the right words to do justice to the experience of reading this novel. Ms. Acevedo has RANGE for days! I have read all her books so I didn't even know what to expect, I'm beyond impressed by her narrative style in this book and I can't wait for more readers to experience the magic I also experienced. 10/10

BOOK: Family Lore
GENRE: Literary Fiction
TROPES & THEMES: family ties, magical realism, multi-generational, past and present events, multiple povs, secrets, unique storytelling
RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐🌟
RELEASE DATE: August 1st, 2023

Elizabeth Acevedo is the most talented writer I have ever read. Someone works hard on his or her's craft but she is simply talented.
The compelling storytelling and innovative ways she comes with when she crafts her books are absolute proof of that.

Here we have a deep dive into the intricate family relationships of Marte women as they prepare for the wake of Flor. No, she is not dead but a person who very much has a gift to predict someone's death. So why is she having a living wake?

The story starts six weeks before the living wake and it is told mostly through interviews that Ona, Flor's daughter is doing with the other family members.

"You grounded me here, with both feet, on both knees, stooped on all fours, heaving to bring you forth. I have known death since before I was born, but I had not truly known life until I gave it to you."

There are many topics and characters through which we are introduced to this Dominican American family.

I loved Ona. She is mu favorite character. Fun fact on Croatian Ona means Her/She which is fascinating considering Ona's character description; " possessing a magical alpha vagina."

I would recommend this book to all readers who love to read books with magical realism, close-knit family storylines, and strong female voices in their books.

I haven’t read any books by Elizabeth Acevedo before, so was not sure what to expect. The story of sisters and their extended families spans just three days but also covers their childhood in Dominican Republic and later life in New York. Some of the sisters have magical gifts, for example, Flor can foretell death in her dreams. This sets up the main aspect of the story - Flor plans a living wake, but does not tell her family that she has ‘seen’ her own death. The narrative has multiple POV across the chapters for the sisters and two nieces as stories of their current and earlier lives are related. I particularly liked the parts about their life in DR and how this influenced their relationships as older adults.
I’m a little wary of books that need to list dramatis personae and in this case I did have some difficulty in remembering who was who at first, and this was compounded by the inclusion of notes, almost footnotes, and transcripts of interviews by one of the daughters, and different time points within some of the chapters. Although a relatively short book, I read this over several days and perhaps if I had read it in one or two sittings I would have become familiar with the characters more readily.
Overall, an interesting read about the lives of people from a rich cultural background told through the viewpoint of strong women, but one which, I felt, tried a little too hard in terms of structure.
Many thanks to Netgalley and Canongate for the opportunity to read this e-arc.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this eARC of 'Family Lore' by Elizabeth Acevedo

'Family Lore' is the newest contemporary novel by the wonderful Elizabeth Acevedo and it was a star. The writing is superb with natural and realistic characters woven into a story about family and just life experiences. The thing I loved about this book was the fact that Acevedo added in the writing format of an interview to further narrate the story which had more than one pov. Spectacular.

Family Lore is a saga that follows generations of women from the Marte family and explores their pasts and presents when they are brought together by Flor, who can foresee death, deciding to hold herself a living wake.

I have read and really loved Acevedo's previous works and there were elements of this book that I really enjoyed too. The magical element, so many of the woman have a special 'gift'. The way the women intertwine and how relationships with closeness such as aunt and niece are explored. And, the feminist undertones and sex positive nature. That being said, I just really struggled to keep all the characters 'in my head' and often had to go back to the first page to remember who they were.

If you're a fan of magical realism and family sagas I think you will really enjoy this book! It just didn't quite land in the same way for me.

I enjoyed this book but didn't love it. The overall narrative was great, and I enjoyed the jumping around in time and place. However, I struggled to separate all the characters in my head, and often had to remind myself who was who and whose daughter they were. There were also a number of lines only written in Spanish. My Spanish is not bad, but there were phrases I couldn't understand which was a little frustration.

Thanks to Canongate and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book.

Elizabeth Acevado is an awarding winning children's author who with work has turned her hand to adult fiction. The story is instantly intriguing - Flor has a gift: she can predict, to the day, when someone will die, so when she predicts her own demise she holds a living wake.

Through this prism we are introduced to Flor's family, her world and more. This is an extremely well written novel - I expected no less based on the awards Acevado has won. The characters are very well drawn. The novel drifts back and forth through time, between these related characters, but it never confuses. I will admit it took me a few chapters to fully connect with its narrative - but this is more down to my own failures than any of Acevado [I had finished Les Mis the night before and was still reeling from that experience]. Once I was engaged, though, this was a very strong novel, with beautiful detail, character and plot.

There are elements of magical realism here, hints of Garcia Marquez and Isabelle Allende. It will certainly appeal to their fans.

Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for the ARC.