Elizabeth Acevedo’s “Family Lore”: A Book Review

INFORMATION ABOUT THIS BOOK
Publisher ‏ : Ecco
Publication date ‏ : ‎ August, 2023
Format:  Hardbook, Paperback, Audiobook and ebook
Print length ‏ : ‎ 384 pages
Genre:  Hispanic American Literature & Fiction

MY PERSONAL OPINION OF “FAMILY LORE” BY ELIZABETH ACEVEDO

I got the book from my local library. I went to work and browsed the shelves looking for a book that “I have wanted to read for a while,” and saw this book displayed. I have seen this book in Barnes and Noble and online, and felt intrigued and decided to borrow it. I also was able to get the audio version from Libby so alternated when possible.

This book was a great read. I enjoyed the writing a lot, with mixes of sensibility and reality, interwining the past and present beautifully. I enjoyed the characters, each one unique, each one special, each one had flaws and strengths, and as a reader, I believed in them. Through different generational times, the women find weakness and strength within themselves and the family around them.

The end was sad, but expected. Sad, but done in a way that I was able to close the book and smile and feel peace. It was truly a book that will remain in my thoughts for a while for all the right reasons.

I recommend this book from the bottom of my heart. As a Latina, this read touched my soul.

PREMISE OF THE BOOK AS FOUND IN AMAZON / GOODREADS:

Flor has a gift: she can predict, to the day, when someone will die. So when she decides she wants a living wake—a party to bring her family and community together to celebrate the long life she’s led—her sisters are surprised. Has Flor foreseen her own death, or someone else’s? Does she have other motives? She refuses to tell her sisters, Matilde, Pastora, and Camila.

But Flor isn’t the only person with secrets: her sisters are hiding things, too. And the next generation, cousins Ona and Yadi, face tumult of their own.

Spanning the three days prior to the wake, Family Lore traces the lives of each of the Marte women, weaving together past and present, Santo Domingo and New York City. Told with Elizabeth Acevedo’s inimitable and incandescent voice, this is an indelible portrait of sisters and cousins, aunts and nieces—one family’s journey through their history, helping them better navigate all that is to come.

MY RATING:

My rating for this book is a solid 4.7

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bibliography:

ELIZABETH ACEVEDO is the author of Clap When You Land, With the Fire on High and The Poet X, which won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, the Michael L. Printz Award, the Pura Belpré Award, the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, and the Walter Award, amongst many others. She is a National Poetry Slam champion and holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Maryland. Acevedo lives with her family in Washington, DC. You can find out more about her at http://www.acevedowrites.com.

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