Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo

27 reviews

passionatereader78's review

emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I love Elizabeth Acevedo! I enjoyed the generations of women telling the story of their family and their experiences.  The way Elizabeth tells a story is like the gentle ripples in a lake. Each new experience flows into the previous ones seamlessly. Flor is dying soon and she wants her flowers while she's alive, so she plans a living wake. We follow the family as they plan the wake. Each woman in the family gives us insight on the family.  We learn from each person the family's history.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Alcohol, Death, Infertility, Alcoholism, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Mental illness, Sexual content, and Infertility

Minor: Vomit and Confinement

stephmcoakley's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Alcoholism, Infertility, Infidelity, Child abuse, Mental illness, Police brutality, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, and Miscarriage

emmas_bookshelf's review

reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

If you like a multigenerational family saga, this is the book for you! The way the story explores family ties and the way women are forced to move in the world across different time periods and places was really interesting. I really enjoyed the audiobook. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Sexual assault, and Alcohol

rei_reads's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Sexual content, and Infertility

Moderate: Death of parent and Emotional abuse

Minor: Alcoholism

achay91's review

emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Infertility, Animal death, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, and Sexual content

Moderate: Infidelity, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and Sexual assault

Minor: Alcoholism, Death, Death of parent, and Grief

elb22's review

emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Alcoholism

happyblkhippie's review against another edition

This book had some good pros-y quotes but ultimately just wasn't for me. I'm not familiar with the author so this was my first introduction to their work. The book definitely tries to break the mold and go in a more experiential route in many ways which is good, but I found it disordered and confusing. 

It was difficult to distinguish who from who. I found myself not able to follow the story. There actually isn't a specific story at all. It really is a collection of individual stories that have some overlap based on time, location and familial bonds, but ultimately are separate stories. A character driven collection. 

It doesn't follow traditional labeling of chapters instead opts for the specific character as the chapter name. This is fine for reading the physical book as you are turning a page to denote a new character or chapter, but when listening to the audiobook (which is my primary choice), it's very confusing because it's easy to miss when it's moved on to another chapter/characters story. 

The time jumping and pacing also threw me off too. I couldn't tell if we were in the present day or the past regarding the timeline leading up to the main plot point. I had to reread things to understand what was going on and who was being referred to often.

This is one that you have to be in a specific mood for and maybe for a specific audience that I don't fit into. Definitely literary with heavy topics and themes. I may revisit this at a different time and definitely read the physical book. 


TLDR: Good prose, slow pacing, character driven collection of stories with past and present timelines, literary with heavy topics, may be for a specific audience that likes more of a historical fiction. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Sexual content, Addiction, Classism, and Mental illness

emmapaigereads's review

emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infertility, Alcoholism, Grief, Pregnancy, and Suicidal thoughts

gondorgirl's review

emotional hopeful mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Infertility, Colonisation, Grief, Misogyny, Sexual content, Alcohol, Infidelity, and Pregnancy

booknerderika's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes

3.75

This is not at all what I had expected. The writing was beautiful, as always with Acevedo, so I wasn't surprised by that. The topics and the way things are discussed so openly and intimately that it feels almost intrusive is what caught me off guard. I loved the way that the stories were all intertwined and how new bits and pieces of each character are revealed as the story progressed. There were some scenes and topics that made me stop and process the things that weren't being said. I am torn on how I feel about the end because it felt so sudden yet it also gave perfect closure. The full circle moment of new life at the same moment of death was perfect. I have still been thinking about this book even though I finished it a couple of days ago. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Addiction, Infertility, Alcoholism, and Child abuse

Moderate: Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Death

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