Title: Clap When You Land
Author: Elizabeth Acevedo
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Publisher: Harper Teen
Year Published: 2020
Start Date: July 2
End Date: July 3
Goodreads Summary:
Camino Rios lives for the summers when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic. But this time, on the day when his plane is supposed to land, Camino arrives at the airport to see crowds of crying people…
In New York City, Yahaira Rios is called to the principal’s office, where her mother is waiting to tell her that her father, her hero, has died in a plane crash.
Separated by distance – and Papi’s secrets – the two girls are forced to face a new reality in which their father is dead and their lives are forever altered. And then, when it seems like they’ve lost everything of their father, they learn of each other.
Papi’s death uncovers all the painful truths he kept hidden, and the love he divided across an ocean. And now, Camino and Yahaira are both left to grapple with what this new sister means to them, and what it will now take to keep their dreams alive.
In a dual narrative novel in verse that brims with both grief and love, award-winning and bestselling author Elizabeth Acevedo writes about the devastation of loss, the difficulty of forgiveness, and the bittersweet bonds that shape our lives.
My Review:
I don’t even know where to begin. I haven’t read a book that I couldn’t put down in such a long time. I power read through it. I’m a slow reader, but this book was easy to read so quickly because it’s written in verse. I have never read a book in that style before either and it was a nice change.
It’s hard for me to put into words how much I enjoyed this book. I love a multi-narrative story. I like getting different perspectives of a given situation in addition to totally different experiences.
At first I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about the verse writing style, but I quickly learned to appreciate it. The beauty of it was that I felt like I was reading the inner most thoughts that were constantly running through Camino’s and Yahaira’s heads, pouring out unapologetically. I relate to that so much because I have a million and one thoughts running through my own head. In this way, I was getting the true versions of these girls, not just the versions of themselves that they present to others. There wasn’t too much dialogue with others in the story, until the end, but I liked it.
I just want to share some of my favorite quotes, without any context, purely for my enjoyment:
“He must have realized his laugh was like one of those paper shredders making a sad confetti of my hopes.”
“& if a heart has topography,
I know none of these boys know the coordinates
to navigate & survive mine’s rough terrain.”
“Dreams are like the pieces of fluff that get caught in your hair;
they stand out for a moment, but eventually you was them
away, or long fingers reach in & pluck them out
& you appear as what everyone expects.”
“Just let yourself mourn, sweetie.
You can’t run from what hurts you.”
“& I wonder what will happen to the phone
if I drop it into the filled sink. Will it float on suds
or be weighed down to the bottom?
How does the water learn to readjust around the new object?
“Who knew death must be so damn polite?”
“no one gives you something simply for asking.
Life is an exchange.”
“Most families are messy; most parents will fail to live up to the hero worship of their children.”
howimetaraya 