Clap When You Land Review: family and grief

Oof. I knew this book was going to be good, but I couldn’t imagine how much it would gut me. ANOTHER book of prose (I’m really really into them. Also I’m reading them for CYBILS so that helps me find out about them).

More books about sisterhood and family and they always get me in my feels. As I said in my review of Turtle Under Ice, I am also always interested in books that explore grief. This book did it extremely well and in a complicated way. These two sisters find out their father had another family, and that they are half sisters. One is in New York and the other is in the Domincan Republic.

They are coming to terms with who they know their father to be, and the parts of himself he kept from them. How do they love him? How do they stay angry with him? How do they accept his death? This book seeks to answer their questions.

This book was inspiring in how family is portrayed. It wasn’t shown in a perfect light, but these people show up for each other and try, and what more can we ask for really? Camino and Yahaira are realistic, flawed, and lovable characters. I would follow them for a long time. However, the ending is pretty perfect and I have no complaints.

I HIGHLY recommend this book to everyone. It’s a quicker read since it’s told in verse, but it’s also so beautifully written that it reads EVEN quicker because I was racing to find out what happened next.

I look forward to reading more book by Acevedo!