Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

17 reviews

sup3r_xn0va_maya's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

💬:“& although most people here won’t admit they 
think like me, 
a woman should be able to sell whatever she wants 
to sell. 
But not if it’s at the insistence of a man. This man."

Acevedo, Elizabeth. Clap When You Land (p. 46). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition. 

📖Genres: fiction, teens, young adult, contemporary, LGBT, realistic fiction, poetry

📚Page Count: 424

🎧Audiobook Length: 05hrs 32mins

👩🏾‍🏫My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5

TW -
sexual assault, stalking, parental death, plane crash


Clap When You Land is a young adult fiction story written in verse by Elizabeth Acevedo. This story is heartbreaking and powerful, I cried more than once while listening to the audiobook. This story centers around two teen girls, Camino Rios & Yahaira Rios, who share the same father, but neither knows of the other girl's existence. Suddenly, when their father passes away in a plane crash, the two teens are left to deal with their father's secrets and each other. 

Elizabeth Acevedo definitely has a talent for telling stories in verse, her poetry is always beautiful and it flows so nicely. This story is based on a real life event that took place on November 12, 2001, when a flight taking off for the Dominican Republic crashed after take off in Queens, New York, killing a total of 260 people on the flight as well as 5 people on the ground. More than 90% of the passengers and victims were of Dominican decent. Here's apart of the author's note; 

"It completely rocked the New York Dominican community. It is the second-deadliest aviation crash in United States history."

Acevedo, Elizabeth. Clap When You Land (p. 420). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition. 

Overall, I think this story was fantastic, heartbreaking, and moving. I will definitely be reading the rest of Acevedo's work.  I'm going to give this 5 out of 5 stars
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5

I listened to this audiobook for free on [Libbyapp.com]

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chelle22's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad

5.0


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olive_lol's review against another edition

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emotional 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

4.25

This novel is a tender exploration of grief and family, and it approaches the topic with so much heart. I especially loved that it's in verse and how it uses that to show emotion.
The ending also felt fitting and well-foreshadowed.
I would absolutely reccomend to anyone looking for a heartfelt story.

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marissasa's review against another edition

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emotional sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

I listened to the audiobook while reading along with the physical book, and it was an amazing experience. I highly recommend the audio as the performances by Elizabeth Acevedo and Melania-Luisa Marte were so powerful and it really elevated the story to hear both sisters narrated with different voices. The story itself is full of grief and drama, which is highly relatable to anyone who has suffered a loss in their immediate family and/or discovered new truths about someone they thought they knew. The sisters both felt so real and I loved how complicated and messy their emotions and actions were, showing the reality of pain and loss and love especially when you are going through it as a teen girl. The writing was gorgeous and there were certain scenes like Carline giving birth, the sisters meeting for the first time, and the women saving Camino at the beach that left me breathless. There are a ton of beautiful words strung together in this book and it was such a treat to read/hear.

"How can you lose an entire person, only to gain a part of them back in someone entirely new?"


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camille_farrar's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad tense fast-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

5.0


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ems_rxlibrary's review against another edition

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emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75


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ashley_1206's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

4.5-5⭐️

i’m stuck between these two ratings because the book was something i didn’t expect. like yes we learn about two daughters that found eachother but honestly this book was so much more.

this book was so heavy. and the writing style made it the book so easy to fly through but also gave it so much emotion. i’m in love with these characters bc i connected with them on so many levels.

being dominican, this book was such a huge representation for the community. and having family in DR, the story really portrayed everything it was so realistic that it hurt.

i love this book because of the representation, the characters, the story. just yes. (my favorite quotes belong on pages 323 and 416!)

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bash5617's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0


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criticalgayze's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful 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

4.75

I am a huge fan of Acevedo's National Book Award-winning debut, The Poet X, so I was thrilled to get to read this as one of my grad school book discussion selections. Acevedo remains at the top of her craft as both poet and storyteller in her third effort, and I need to make time for her sophomore effort, With the Fire on High.

What I love most about Acevedo is that, like with Aiden Thomas's Cemetery Boys, she makes time to celebrate so much of the culture and peoples that she loves. There are so many different facets of Latinx and immigrant heritage here, and she also makes sure to also have Queer rep in a way that feels authentic and cared for.

Acevedo is also a phenomenal poet, and, like Jason Reynolds, is able to sustain the individuality and emotional tone of the pieces while still crafting a compelling novel with them. I do think there is a little bit at the end that becomes a little more narrative than the rest where I think the format loses its function, but it is brief and comes at an understandable point in the novel. Once I realized what was happening, I found the structural difference between the two sister's poetry, and I'd love to find an article or interview where Acevedo discusses the choice a little more.

Finally, I appreciate that, unlike most novel-in-verse (including The Poet X), Acevedo does not feel the need here to give a reason (like, "I'm doing this for a school project.") to explain why the story is told this way. There is form without making excuses for function.

(I listened to this one while following along in the text - thanks to Libby for allowing this to be an easy, available, and free option - and I found both Acevedo and Melania-Luisa Marte to be wonderful narrators.)

Quotes:
But it might be a sinkhole/trying to feast     quicksand/mouth pried open; I hunger for stable ground,/     somewhere else. (Page 2)
I've always loved that phrase for birthing:/dando a luz     giving to light./I was my mother's gift to the sun of her life. (Page 13)
He must have realized/his laugh was like one of those paper shredders/making a sad confetti of my hopes. (Page 15)
How could I have known then/there are no rules, no expectations, no rising to the occasion./When you learn news like this, there is only/     falling. (Page 22)
They can't dance bachata or sing Juan Luis Guerra,/can't recite Solomé Ureña or even name the forefathers;/ they wrap their flag around their shoulders like a safety blanket,/& if a heart has topography,/I know none of these boys know the coordinates/to navigate and survive mine's tough terrain. (Page 44)
& if the game taught me one thing,/it's once you lift a pawn off the board,/you have to move it forward. (Page 55)
There is an artist my mother loved,/Juan Gabriel, who was once asked/in an interview if he was gay./His reply: What's understood need not be said. (Page 75)
Fight until you can't breathe, & if you have to forfeit,/forfeit smiling, make them think you let them win. (Page 86)
Can you be from a place/you have never been?/You can find the island stamped all over me,/but what would the island find if I was there?/Can you claim a home that does not know you,/much less claim you as its own? (Page 97)
I am from a playground place. (Page 159)
As if she couldn't believe this of Papi./But me, I know a man can have many faces & speak out of/both sides of his mouth; I know a man can make decisions/based on the flip of a coin;/a man can be real good at long division,/give away piece after piece after piece of himself. (Page 266)
She doesn't look like an American-apple-pie mother./She looks like a tres golpes of a mother. (Page 279)

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valerie127's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

"can you be from a place you have never been"

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