A review by girlonbooks
Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring 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? No

5.0

♟️♟️♟️♟️♟️ (five stars as rated in strategically placed chess pieces that will make you think they let you win)

It started like any other day. The weather was nice, the route was perfectly routine. And then flight AA1112 crashed into the ocean en route from New York to the Dominican Republic, killing everyone on board. When her father’s plane went down, Camino Rios was waiting to pick up her father from the airport in Santo Domingo. Yahaira Rios was going about her school day in NYC. In the wake of a tremendous tragedy that changed both of their lives, the last thing they expected to discover was the existence of each other.

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

What first must be said about this book is that it is an absolute delight to listen to. I am blown away by the talent that is Elizabeth Acevedo. Both her voice and style of writing generated such tangible imagery for me that I was literally move to tears at moments. This book is truly stunning on all counts. I love that Acevedo narrates her own work. I think it gives a different sort of depth to a novel when the author does that. Also, I can't find any other completed audio book projects by Melania-Luisa Marte but I certainly hope there are a few on the horizon because her portrayal of Yahaira was outstanding!

✨ Rep in this book: Dominican and Dominican-American MC's, Queer MC

✨ Content warnings for this book: plane crash, death of a parent, infidelity, sexual violence, medical stuff, thoughts of suicide, mentions of sexual trafficking

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