A review by nytephoenyx
Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

emotional slow-paced
  • 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

4.25

Elizabeth Acevedo does it again, but I’m not surprised. Clap When You Land has all the heart of her other books, but it has something else too. While The Poet X and With the Fire on High revolve around imaginary people in familiar situations, there’s a historical event that drove Clap When You Land. It is heartbreaking and I’m glad Acevedo has brought attention to it. Altogether this is a wonderful, touching story about grief, discovery, fear, desperation, vulnerability, and acceptance.

Clap When You Land follows two young women – Camino and Yahaira – unknowing sisters separated by their father’s secrets and an entire country. Both love their father, and so, when the flight that takes him annually from New York to DR crashes without survivors, they are devastated. With nobody left to protect them, their father’s secrets begin to bubble to the surface and the girls are left to grapple with their grief and the discovery of one another.

This novel is all heart, deep and guttural at times, but filled with memory and desire and fear and love. It’s impossible to read it and not feel yourself a bit heartbroken. Camino’s perspective in particular was hard and heavy, having lost many more promises as well as her father. I appreciated watching the girls tiptoe around one another as they lowly peeled back the layers to learn about one another.

There are moments, too, where little details take over. These come when Yahaira talks about her early chess tournaments or when Dre shares her fire escape garden, or when Camino looks at the altar in their family home. Acevedo always brings her worlds to life in small, meaningful ways. Along with the depth of her characters, these little moments stay with me.

Clap When You Land was … I wouldn’t say “inspired by”, but maybe… “influenced by” American Airlines Flight 587. In November 2001, American Airlines Flight 587 crashed into Belle Harbor in Queens, killing everyone on board and five people on the ground. It was the second deadliest airplane crash in history. It was also one I’d never heard of, and that makes it worse. The crash, two months after September 11th, was deemed not to have been a terrorist attack and once that determination was made, the media lost focus. But Elizabeth Acevedo didn’t. This story was built on the memories and stories and grief of those in the community whose loved ones were lost. Acevedo honors those memories.

Even if you decide not to read this book – and you should read it, it’s excellent – please consider looking into American Airlines Flight 587 from New York to Santa Domingo on November 12th, 2001. One of Acevedo’s goals with Clap When You Land was to honor the dead by remembering them, and you can help her do that by learning their story. While Clap When You Land is fictional, the outlying story remains important.

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