Familia is a twisty mystery that navigates family (both blood & chosen), sacrifice, and redemption.

Twenty-five years ago, Isabella’s baby sister Marianna disappeared in Puerto Rico. Now Isabella lives with the pain of missing her every day, though she’s finally found stability in a loving relationship and passion through her art. She’s never given up though, and checks DNA websites each day in the hopes of stumbling across Marianna once again.

Enter Gabby, a fact checker for a well known magazine in New York. She’s used to verifying truths, until a genealogy test she took for work tells her something absolutely impossible: she has a sister in Puerto Rico. Gabby is convinced there’s an error in the results, but she cautiously heads to Puerto Rico to figure out which story is the truth.

With jumps between past and present, the two young women figure out the meaning of family, truth, and justice.

It’s a well-written and fast-moving piece. I enjoyed the questions the storytelling raised, though I often thought different arcs and scenes wrapped up a little too smoothly. For a narrative that interrogated fact versus truth, I would have loved a little more grayness; open endings; general messiness. 

There’s a deep love for family here, and for family of all kinds. We see the care and strength of chosen family, and the bonds of blood family, even when they are unexpected. And sisterhood … Isabella fights for her lost sister through grief and anger and loving frustration. 

Familia also asks questions about justice, sacrifice, and redemption. Many parents make sacrifices for their children – but if those sacrifices have other consequences, when do the ends justify the means? And redemption – who can find redemption; can some people never be redeemed? Is there a point where you can shrug off the past, let go of what is fact or what is ‘truth’, and live with what is? 

It’s definitely complicated, and I was aching for a bit more of an overarching care for community. I love dark and gritty reads, but I’m also conscious of the power of stereotypes enacted over and over again in storytelling and how people can be painted in broad strokes. I’m not sure we got enough of a full view of Puerto Rico and its people - beyond “watch out, Gabby” / this area is unsafe / everyone is up to something / you’re surrounded by criminals.. And it’s too bad, because Gabby really needed more opportunities for growth. She’s sheltered and privileged and doesn’t fully consider the lives she is interrogating for her articles; traveling the island and meeting more community members might have helped her expand her perspective.

CW: murder, death of parent, child abuse, addiction, alcoholism, rape, toxic relationship, trafficking, kidnapping, grief, fire

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(I received an advance reader copy of this book; this is my honest review.)