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zikeyag's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Graphic: Grief and Death of parent
Moderate: Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Infidelity, and Pregnancy
lizziaha's review against another edition
3.75
Graphic: Stalking, Death of parent, Grief, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Infidelity
Moderate: Misogyny and Pedophilia
Minor: Pregnancy, Fatphobia, and Homophobia
snail_reading_on_a_mushroom's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Death of parent, Grief, and Stalking
Moderate: Abandonment, Sexism, Pedophilia, Infertility, Pregnancy, and Racism
hayleythegoose's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Grief, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Death of parent, and Stalking
Moderate: Infidelity, Pregnancy, and Pedophilia
Minor: Vomit, Cancer, and Abandonment
readingwithkaitlyn's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Racism, Pedophilia, Sexual harassment, and Grief
Minor: Child death and Cancer
bookmark3brodi's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Classism, Sexual harassment, Abandonment, Death of parent, Grief, Sexual violence, Cancer, and Pedophilia
ollie_again's review against another edition
3.75
Graphic: Grief, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Stalking, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Rape, and Medical content
Minor: Terminal illness
melanieripple's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Stalking, Death of parent, Pedophilia, and Sexual assault
nannahnannah's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
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.
Graphic: Pedophilia, Stalking, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Rape
also: adultery, sex traffickingspark_879's review
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Stalking, Death of parent, and Grief
Moderate: Pedophilia