It’s been awhile since I read anything in Young Adult. This is a genre I consumed so fiercely in high school, but have neglected in adulthood. I am happy to be returning to the genre with Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo. This is another novel consumed in less than a day. I know 2020 sucks for a variety of reasons, but it feels like a great book year, or maybe my reading game is just on point.
Here’s the plot –
Camino Rios lives in the Dominican Republic with her Tia (aunt), awaiting for her father’s annual visit for the summer. She spends her days assisting her Tia, who is the town medicine woman, with greater dreams of one day becoming a doctor. However, those aspirations come to a halt once she arrives at the airport to find that her father’s plane has crashed. Camino doesn’t know how she’ll manage to finish the school year, let alone what will happen after. She’s not the only one who’s life has been turned around from grief and uncertainty. In New York City, Yahaira Rios has also lost her father. Yahaira and her mother struggle to overcome the terrible news while receiving a settlement from the airline company that pales in comparison to their heartache. Everything changes when she finds out about her sister across the ocean.
As a sister myself, I love when a story explores sibling relations, especially complicated ones. The layered emotions Camino and Yahaira experience at finding out about each other are intense and intricate. I enjoyed getting into these two girls’ head and exploring the disparity between them while also experiencing the strong bond that forms almost on instinct. After all, who better to understand your grief than the secret sister who is suffering the same loss? Both girls are smart, quick thinkers, with different strengths. Yahaira is a chest prodigy and Camino knows how to deliver a baby. These are two strong characters who each face different challenges. It’s impossible not to account for the lack of opportunity Camino faces at her father’s loss. With not even a mother left to support her, and a predator set on extorting her, the danger she faces is truly terrifying. I was happy with the way this book ended and the perspective into a different culture.
This is one of those books in which the lesbianism could be described as incidental, which is something I look for. I enjoy stories that feature lesbian characters, but the plot isn’t focused on their lesbianism. Here, we have two girls, struggling through grief and a family secret burst wide open, and one of them happens to be gay who has a very sweet, botanically-inclined girlfriend.
It was suggested in a few of the reviews I saw of this book, to listen to it via audio because it is written entirely in verse. I ended up following this advice. It seemed like a good way to absorb the narrative, and it was, but as a fan of poetry I almost wish I read it instead. There were quite a few moments where, if I was reading, I would have looked up from the page to allow a line to marinate in my thoughts before going on. The writing here is beautiful.
I know summer has ended, but if you’re not ready to let that warm weather go, Clap When You Land will transport you to the beaches of the Dominican Republic. You can almost feel the sand between your toes…