Review of Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo

*Family Lore* by Elizabeth Avecedo (2023). Published by Ecco.

A hot minute ago, I was blessed with an advanced reading copy, or ARC, of Family Lore by Elizabeth Avecedo. This review is a product of that, as I fortunate to receive this through NetGalley and the publisher.

I was already familiar with Avecedo’s work on a superifical level before going into this book. I hadn’t read any of her previous writings, but had read other people’s writing about her novels and whatnot, as well as interviews with her. I have a ton on my reading list, but I’ve been meaning to read The Poet X for a hot minute.

Anyways, I began to read Family Lore on a flight to San Diego to visit my Iranian relatives down there, which I got halfway through the book before I decided I needed to switch to something else before I finally went insane.

So what I did was I then forgot about the book for several months, then returned to it. I felt like I hadn’t forgotten anything at that point and felt comfortable diving straight back into it, which, to me, means this is a book I could return to in the future.

Some books you have to completely reread to full understand the magic, but due to how this story stuck with me, I felt like I could skip straight into certain sections to relive the magic.

I’ve rambled enough already—onwards with the review!

When the matriarch decides to hold her own wake, it will uproot the family and their own secrets.

An important concept to note before jumping into Family Lore is that we don’t end up staying in a singular perspective throughout the novel. We switch around based on who is being focused on in that chapter, so we truly end up getting the extent of the extended family and their lore, per say.

The catalyst for everything being revealed in the book is this: Flor, one of the matriarchs in the family, has always had the uncanny ability to predict when someone is going to die. She suddenly surprises everyone when she announces she wants to have a living wake, rather than one when she’s dead, to celebrate the life she’s had so far and the people who have been in it.

Naturally, this shocks everyone, as this is typically for dead people. Her family suspects that Flor saw her own death and is only preparing for it, which unearths some problems from the get-go because it will partially take the family apart. Her sisters are still alive, Matilde, Pastora, and Camila, and they are unable to comprehend why she is doing this, nor does Flor give them any reasons why.

But as we delve into their perspectives, we learn that almost everyone in this family has a secret of their own. For some, it’s infidelity they’ve experienced with their marriage, but for others they think they’re not appreciated as much as they should. The further we run the thread through the needle of the past, the more this becomes a brief, but epic saga about each one of these women’s lives and what led them to be in New York City at this moment.

One of the more interesting stories for me were the two cousins Ona and Yudi, as they’re experiencing problems with conceiving (Ona) and with a first love who went to jail (Yadi).

There’s also a certain relative who is an anthropologist, so her chapters and interludes serve as an examination framework of what’s going on, a record keeping of what’s happening in the family. As I mentioned before, each of the chapters focuses on a different character, so we really begin to understand everyone’s issues in the background and the varied opinions about what’s going on in the family.

The writing style in this book is a clear indicator to me that the writer is a poet. It’s experimental in some ways at times, but also quite flowery throughout. I liked the writing on a technical level, but I will say upfront that the disjointed narratives, when I finished the book and stepped back to think critically, did not work on such a micro scale.

It’s an awesome book when it comes to its synopsis and I enjoy what it was trying to do, but because we are all over the place when it comes to perspectives, we never truly get to sit with one character and what’s going on in the broader picture. I think we lose track of why we got to this point, as it begins to feel muddled.

Overall Thoughts

We kind of already dug into my thoughts, but I think this is a solid book with some flaws. The flaws might make some people like it, and others might not be able to get through the book because of it. I personally did not give up on the book and am glad I didn’t do so, but I think that it became a bit of a chore.

I wouldn’t have set it down for months if I was more engaged with the narrative, and I think I was pulled in too many directions to continue at that point in time. The prose it very gorgeous though and I think Avecedo does an excellent job of fleshing out each and every character.

Perhaps we simply need to spend more time with them at the end of the day. But always remember—reviews and opinions are subjective! I may not like it as much, but others definitely will.

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