Clap When You Land

by Elizabeth Acevedo

The stunning New York Times bestselling novel from the 2019 Carnegie Medal winning and Waterstones Book Prize shortlisted author of THE POET X

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.

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.

• ISBN10: 0062882783
• ISBN13: 9780062882783
• Publish Date: 5 May 2020
• Publish Status: Active
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Inc
• Imprint: Quill Tree Books
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 432
• Language: English

Reviews

[Marissa Lupe Author]

This was the first novel in verse that I had ever read and it made me want to read more! So well done, beautiful writing and heartbreakingly beautiful story.

[nannah]

Even though I haven’t exposed myself to much poetry, I adore novels in verse. But I had trouble with this one feeling more like split bits of prose until I looked up a video of the author reading an excerpt, which really made things clearer. I strongly suggest you check it out if you struggle with that similar issue, too!

Book content warnings:
- adultery
- stalking
- sexual assault
- pedophelia
- attempted rape
- sex trafficking

Representation:
- the main characters are all (Afro-?)Dominican
- one of the two sisters is also a lesbian/bi
- a secondary character is a lesbian/bi

Camina from the Dominican Republic and Yahaira from New York have just learned that their father has perished in a plane crash. They had no idea each other even existed until the crash unearths truths about their father and changes how they see him, the rest of their family, each other, and themselves.


I don’t read (or find?) novels in verse all that often, but when I do they tend to be some of my favorites. Words are chosen with such care, and I tend to read the books slower to savor them. While I initially struggled with the poetry here, the author reading from the text cleared that up pretty quickly. The opener, too, is especially gorgeously written, where Camina talks about the mud that makes up her island.

I also read that initially the book was written in one sister’s PoV instead of both, which makes sense because one is much stronger than the other’s and their voices are very similar. But Camina’s chapters give me such a great sense of place and emotion. The secondary characters of her world are fleshed out, despite the few words that are allowed to them. Camina’s aunt, her Tía, particularly stands out. But Yahaira’s girlfriend, Dre, is also strong and remains well defined many days after finishing the novel.

Even though my opinion is overall positive, there’s a few things I dislike about Clap When You Land, though they’re mostly small. For a book with a fairly small word count compared to others in its category, there is a large amount of typos, which stood out even more so because of it. Sometimes the Spanish peppered into the English conversation becomes jarring to read, because there's lines of dialogue like, ”Pero if this is what he wanted, then take him back. But we won’t be the ones there to see him buried,” (“pero” and “but” mean the same thing). But complete lines of dialogue written in Spanish don’t have that same jarring effect, and I’m glad they aren’t translated.

And then there are just some other nitpicky things that I wish aren't included due to personal opinion, like Dre taking issue with the way Yahaira was coming out, me wishing the girls were a little bit more critical of their cheating father, and me wishing the book spent more time on Yahaira and Camina’s relationship after they finally met.

But overall it's a beautiful, poignant book dealing with a lot of heavy themes.

[writehollydavis]

Awesome voice (or rather, voices as it's dual POV), a beautiful message of family and overcoming grief. With rich culture, Elizabeth's stories are always top tier!

[Artemis]

This book came highly recommended by just about everyone in the universe. I really enjoyed the story but I wasn't so crazy about the style in which this was written. I don't gravitate towards poetry and I found it hard to focus on reading when it was constantly poetry. It was a powerful medium that, in the end really enhanced the story. But I don't know if I could handle another book in the same style.

[kiracanread]

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo is the first book that I've ever read that was written in verse and I don't think I really like this writing style unfortunately, but we all learn from experience! I found this book quite tedious to read as it felt like things were happening but at the same time nothing was happening? And for the first 75% of the book I was actually really confused about which character was which, that might just have been me being a bit dumb though. I found it difficult to read and downloaded the audiobook as a companion to get through this book, and I found the audiobook to be a lot more entertaining than reading the book for myself as the two main characters were narrated by different people and it made the book a lot clearer for me.

I thought the concept of Clap When You Land was really interesting, that it was loosely based on a true event and wanted to highlight this event due to history covering it up and Elizabeth Acevedo definitely did that.

Overall, I'm rating Clap When You Land, three out of five stars as it was a good book, I just didn't love it.

[Bianca]

It’s probably not the book, it’s just me. I just couldn’t get into the writing style and idk if it’s because of reading slump, but I really struggled to finish this.

[Amber]

I’m posting this review with the caveat that I tend to not enjoy novels written in verse. I knew this when I requested a copy of Clap When You Land for review, but I thought I would love it because I’ve read both of Acevedo’s other books and I thought I was used to the writing style.

So, while I have only given Clap When You Land three stars, that is only because my enjoyment of the book was hindered by my lack of connection to in-verse writing. The rest of the story was worthy of at least four stars, and I want my written review to reflect that.

I absolutely adored the relationship between the two main characters, and I think relationships are really where Acevedo shines with her writing. She wrote the story of these two sisters beautifully, as they discovered one another and came together and connected. It was wonderful, and I loved it.

I also really enjoyed the setting, as it’s set, in part, in the Dominican Republic. As a reader who hasn’t been to either the Dominican Republic or New York City, I still managed to get a feel for the contrast between where the two sisters live and the differences in culture that they experienced. But also the similarities. I thought it was wonderfully done.

Overall, while the writing style just wasn’t for me, Clap When You Land was a fantastic book about grief, sisterhood, friendship, and loyalty. I’d recommend it for YA readers everywhere because I think everyone will get something out of it.

[Heather]

I have loved this author's previous two books.  I was so excited to get to listen to this one as well.  However, I didn't really enjoy this book.  I think this is an issue of having wrong expectations of what the book was going to be about.  

Reading that description, I expected to hear a story about two sisters who find out that they share a father.  I was interested in that.  Instead this book is a study of grief from several different viewpoints.  It does that very well but because that wasn't the story that I thought I was signing up for I was frustrated through most of the book.  I just wanted them to get to the point where the girls meet each other.  That doesn't happen until about 3/4 of the way through.  

The father in this story was just a horrible person as you find out the facts about his life.  It was hard for me to care about their grief for this man when he had been not good to the women around him.  There was also a subplot about a man trying to prey on Camino now that her father was dead that I'm sure was realistic but it was quite disturbing.  It added to the whole "women are forever being victimized by men and they have to just take it" feeling that the story had.  I just was not in the mood for it.  

So, great writing as expected from this author but it wasn't for me.  I think if you know what the book is really about, you might enjoy it more when you are in the mood for something deep and sad.  This review was originally posted on Based On A True Story

[shannonmiz]

You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight

There is a lot to love about Clap When You Land. Like, a lot. So I want to talk about it all!

The Things I Loved:

• ►The characters were incredible, and the author did an amazing job of distinguishing between the two voices. Camino and Yahaira are so different from each other, in so many ways. But they also are more similar than they may initially seem, especially that they are both stronger than they should have to be, and stronger than they ever knew. And obviously their common tragedy plays a big role in their character development.



• ►This is a very family-oriented story and I was totally here for it. Camino lives with her Tía most of the time. Tía is such an amazingly strong, caring, wise, perfect character, I don't even have the words for how much I adored her. Camino lost her mother early in life, and her father was absent most of the year, working in the United States. So these women are each other's rocks, and it is a beautiful relationship. Yahaira lives with her mother and father in New York, and has an incredible girlfriend named Dre, who is a great support, as is Dre's mother. Honestly just having our characters surrounded by so much love makes you feel like they will be able to come out the other side of this tragedy. Their support systems give so much hope.



• ►Both settings were done so well. Whether I was reading scenes in the Dominican Republic or New York, they both were incredibly authentic, and I could get a real feel for the girls' lives. Obviously, they come from totally different worlds, but being immersed in both of them was a pleasure to read.



• ►So many strong and beautiful women. While family is a huge focus, the fact that it is women gathering strength from each other, whether they're family, friends, or lovers, is a really great concept. Of course there were men in their lives that they loved, don't get me wrong, but having this story be so female-centric was a really powerful choice.

The One Thing I Had Trouble With:

• ►Especially during the first half of the book, while I really appreciated the story and characters, I just didn't feel fully emotionally connected. The best way I can describe it is that I felt empathetic from a distance. And perhaps that is on me, maybe I just have problems with verse? It really may be. But even with such an emotional plot, it took until at least halfway before I really felt the emotions, rather than merely acknowledged them.

Bottom Line: It was an absolute joy and heartbreak to take this journey with Camino and Yahaira, and I absolutely recommend that you do too.

[Sam@WLABB]

When a plane traveling from New York to the Dominican Republic falls from the ski, Yahaira and Camino's lives are forever changed. With the crash come some very big reveals. Family secrets are unearthed, and both young women must deal with the truth about their father.

I will never be able to do this book justice in a review, no matter how many times I write, and rewrite it. This is a story you need to experience yourself. I believe, this multifaceted tale will impact different readers in different ways, but I have no doubt, it will leave its mark.

Acevedo created two wonderful and robust main characters, and as always, she injected so much of her culture into their DNA. I loved how very different these two young women were, and yet, how they were bound to each other. Learning about them, their lives, their families and friends painted this full-color picture for me, and helped me understand the many different pieces, which made up the whole, while not obscuring their differences. Their daily lives, as well as their upbringing, were night and day. It was in these moments, where the author touched upon issues such as economic disparity, toxic masculinity, and grief.

I enjoyed getting to be with Yahira and Camino separately, but I really loved, when their worlds collided. Seeing something beautiful rise from the ashes was extremely satisfying for me. And, wow! The ending of this book had my emotions all sorts of everywhere. I was practically weeping, but I promise, my tears were the good kind.

This was a touching and moving story of secrets, lies, grief, forgiveness, and family, which was exquisitely told, and imprinted itself on my heart.

*ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

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