Anyone who has been reading my blog for a while will know that I have a real love for verse novels, so I was really excited to get my hands on an advance copy of Elizabeth Acevedo’s new YA novel, Clap When You Land. Like the hugely successful Poet X, it is written in verse.

"Camino Rios lives for the summers when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic. But this time, on the day when his plane is supposed to land, Camino arrives at the airport to see crowds of crying people…

In New York City, Yahaira Rios is called to the principal’s office, where her mother is waiting to tell her that her father, her hero, has died in a plane crash.

Separated by distance – and Papi’s secrets – the two girls are forced to face a new reality in which their father is dead and their lives are forever altered. And then, when it seems like they’ve lost everything of their father, they learn of each other."

It is a story of grief, love and forgiveness. Whilst I did find some moments of real beauty in this book, it’s sadly not one that I’ll be raving about. I loved the concept and I think dual narrative was an obvious choice given the storyline, but I found the voices weren’t as distinct as I would have liked. I never felt I really got to know the two young women, Camino and Yahaira, and I was often flicking back in the book to work out whose chapter I was in.

However, I’ve heard really good things about the audiobook edition so I’d definitely recommend seeking that out if you’re interested in reading Clap When You Land. If it’s dual narrated, that’ll really help with the distinction between the two characters, and I think the book’s conversational style would work really well in audio.

Thanks to my Mum for typing this up for me.
Thank you to NetGalley for sending me this eARC in exchange for an honest review.
This book follows the main characters Camino and Yahaira grieving their father following his sudden death in a plane crash, however, neither of the girls is aware of the others existence.
What I Liked:
The Writing, This book is written in verse, similar to Acevedo's first novel, which gives it an emotional and lyrical feel. I felt the writing style was accessible to anyone who wants to pick this book up and it also gave me a tangible connection to both Camino and Yahaira.
Characters. Every character in this book felt unique and well developed. This was demonstrated most clearly in the distinct voices of both the main characters. I felt I knew these characters and what their dreams and aspirations were, I also think the familial relationships were depicted with honesty, authenticity and care.
Themes. This book tackles a number of themes; grief, what family means, cultural identity, sexual harassment and the difference in upbringing of girls in different cultures. All of these were navigated with care and extreme thoughtfulness and I feel this book could be read multiple times to have a different perspective with each read.
Overall this was a well crafted look at the effects of sudden bereavement on teenagers. It was an emotional and heart wrenching read.
I would highly recommend it to anyone.

I have been excited about this book ever since I first saw it! I absolutely love prose poetry novels, and this one sounded especially fantastic. And I was not disappointed in the slightest!

CLAP WHEN YOU LAND tells the story of two half-sisters who only find out about each other when their father is killed in a tragic plane crash over the ocean. Camino Rios lives in the Dominican Republic, dreaming of becoming a doctor while helping her aunt caring for the local sick. Yahaira Rios lives in New York City, struggling with her connection to a country she has never even been allowed to visit. When their father's will reveals that he is to be buried in the Dominican Republic, the sisters' paths meet, and they realize that within their grief and loss, they might find something, too.

This book hits hard. Elizabeth Acevedo manages to make me cry with just one simple sentence, and I keep thinking about lines from this book days after finishing it. The language is incredible, and many of the short chapters read almost like stand-alone prose poems. So many difficult subjects are addressed in this book, and in such an incredible way. And, above all, stands the message of female strength, of women standing up for each other and keeping each other on their feet. It definitely is a book that I wished every single person would read, and I can strongly recommend you picking it up!

Another great read by Elizabeth acevedo. Her writing style is so easy to read and lyrical, I didn't want to put it down. An original, well written story.

Amazing novel by Elizabeth Acevedo. This book is written in such a compelling format, told from the point of view of 2 girls who live across the sea from each other - and who live very different lives. As the story unravels their lives begin to intertwine, and the two worlds they are a part of get drawn into each other. I flew through this, desperate to find out what happened next and losing myself in the wonderful prose. It felt fresh, poignant and engaging - I loved it!

I knew CLAP WHEN YOU LAND was a special book after reading just the first few pages. Whilst I enjoyed Acevedo's debut, THE POET X, I didn't quite feel like I got it at the time. Well, now I get it. I get Acevedo's genius, her beautiful way with words, the way she manages to weave poetry into an emotionally effective plot.
I felt almost immediately connected to both Yahaira and Camino. Both of them had such specific and discernible POVs, and both had a lot to love and empathise with. I loved Yahaira's romance with Dre, which was truly a breath of undramatic air. And I loved Camino's work with her Aunt as a healer and midwife.
There were several other aspects of the story that I connected to on a deeper level that I'm not willing to go in to here because they're in regards my own family, but know that I thought it was executed with care and grace.

It's a book about loss and grief, family and found family, the perceived truth and the hidden truth, about what you will do to get what you want and what you should do to get what you want. It's about what it means to be a woman, and women's bodies, and gender roles, and how this differs in different societies. It's about ethnicity, and cultural identity, and what constitutes a community.

I really haven't read poetry like this, even from Acevedo. At times it's closer to prose, but always lyrical and purposeful. At other times, it felt like a chapter could be read and appreciated as a poem completely separately from the novel.

Despite the heartbreaking and serious subject matter, I was never turned off from reading the novel or felt that the tone got too dark. Acevedo found a good balance between the realistic experience of grieving daughters, and the human need to carry on. Between being close to and remaining somewhat distant from their loss. Both girls feel a slight distance from their father; Camino because he is away for most of the year, and Yahaira because she knows the secret of his other wife. What they don't realise is that the missing piece is also each other.

This is another really moving book from Elizabeth Acevedo in a slam poetry format.

Personally I did not enjoy this book as much as the poet x but I did still enjoy it.

What I love most about her books is the way she can include so many important topics and themes.

This book was no different. It looked at grief, family, culture and siblings.

I really love Elizabeth Acevedo's writing style. I do enjoy reading slam poetry. If I was to read this again, I think I would listen to the audiobook, as I think that would help with some of the pronunciations.

I did think this book was quite slow to get going. You don't get much from the first half which isn't already in the synposis.

But apart from that, I really enjoyed this book and I look forward to reading more from her in the future

TW: death and grief

After reading Acevedo's novel With The Fire on High I knew I needed to read Clap When You Land. I was fascinated by the idea of a tragedy bringing together unknown family members and the difficulties they have after learning the truth.

This is ultimately a story about grief, family and secrecy. While both Camino and Yaharia share a father, their lives couldn’t be more different. One is used to living in New York in reasonable comfort, while the other is keeping her head above water with her aunt in a struggling neighbourhood.

As with Acevedo’s other book I read, there are a number of diverse characters in terms of race and sexuality as well as looking at forms of intimidation women may face around the world.

The way in which this is written is beautiful, I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of the Dominican Republic and Camino’s sense of community and love for those around her. Overall I think I felt more connected to Camino, simply because I was rooting for her the whole time. That’s not to say I wasn’t rooting for Yaharia, it was just a different kind of connection.

For me this was a 4.5 star read, I can't talk about the ending without risk of spoilers but I wanted to see more of that happened after the endpoint. I would definitely read a second book about the girls. I wish I could say more but I refuse to spoil this wonderful book for anyone.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for review.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks as always to Netgalley for sending this to me.

Elizabeth Acevedo is such a solid, dependable author. Her debut novel, The Poet X, is one of my favourite books, so when I heard she was bringing out a sapphic book I was unbelievably excited. Clap When You Land definitely delivers. It’s a novel about love and loss, family and overcoming times of intense struggle. While it’s often dark and emotionally heavy, it’s such a powerful book.

We follow two teenage girls, Camino and Yahaira, who lose their father in a plane crash. His accident splits their families wide open, revealing a myriad of secrets – namely that he was leading a double life. Before his death, neither of the girls was aware of the other’s existence. Now they have to balance their grief about losing their father and their joy at finding one another.

I had a bit of a hard time getting into this book at first. I definitely connected more to Yahaira, the sapphic character – something about her personality clicked with me better – but I also loved Camino, who is fiercely prideful and also secretly scared, but tries not to show it. The book does a great job of showing the similarities between them whilst also highlighting their many differences: Yahaira has lived a fairly privileged life in New York, while Camino has grown up in the Dominican Republic surrounded by poverty and dealing with the threat of a local man who requires cash bribes to keep him away from her. But it’s when they come together that both girls really shine, as we see how they quickly develop an amazing bond and come to care for and respect one another despite the difficult circumstances that brought them together. If anything I wish the book had united them sooner, because I think they bounce so well of each other and I spent a lot of the book being impatient for them to meet.

In terms of subject matter, Elizabeth Acevedo definitely didn’t shy away from the darker stuff here. There’s a lot of pain in the book, and we get to see a lot of the characters facing personal and financial difficulties, as well as the impending threat of sexual assault that hangs over one of them like a storm-cloud. While we do get to see the positive effects too, I found it quite a heavy read and so I wasn’t always motivated to read it. Right now I’m seeking out fluffier books, which isn’t necessarily a critique of the story itself – just a current preference. That being said, I wouldn’t recommend picking this up if you’re not prepared for a bit of a beating, emotionally speaking.

I enjoyed a lot of aspects of this book, but I did feel like I was at a bit of a distance from it in a lot of ways. There were also a few issues with the pacing in my opinion, as we spend a lot of time getting to know the two girls separately and don’t really get to see them together. The book isn’t that plot-heavy as it is, so I found that this distance between them made it feel a bit slow, like 75% of the book is made up of an introduction. While we’re getting an intimate look into their minds and lives, I definitely enjoyed it more once things got moving, I just wished that things had progressed more quickly and we’d had some more consistent action rather than saving everything for one big push at the end. I also felt that while the individual character work was excellent, I didn't feel that either Yahaira or Camino had particularly strong relationships with any other characters. They both felt like lone wolves, which I guess could be related to their grief, but it just seemed like neither of them really connected that much with the people around them. I noticed this particularly in Yahaira's relationship with her girlfriend Dre, which was sweet but didn't feel that developed on the page, but it was also present in the ties of family and friendship. I would have liked to maybe see a little more of an exploration of these dynamics because they felt a bit flat for me, and kept me from really getting invested in any of the side characters.

Overall, this wasn’t my favourite of Elizabeth Acevedo’s works, but it was a solid exploration of grief with great family dynamics, and as usual she tackled a very difficult subject with a lot of care and sensitivity. 3.75/5 stars.

Warnings: this book contains two instances of sexual assault. It's not vividly graphic but please take care while reading.

Elizabeth Acevedo knows how to write - whether it's prose or verse novels, her words are always infused with emotion; reading her stories positively transports you to the places she's writing about, makes friends of the characters she portrays.

I loved this book, the way it dealt with family secrets, the way it portrayed sisterly love, the way it allowed all the characters to be messy and human and above all, kind and loving and lovable. I would most definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to try verse-novels; to anyone who needs help dealing with grief, with messy families, with knowing how to be kind and loving.

Wow, really enjoyed this a lot! It felt very reminiscent of Poet X, and I loved the format! There is something about Verse that makes a story feel more powerful!

I absolutely LOVED this book! It is the first book I have read by Elizabeth Acevedo but have heard so much about her first book Poet X and this definitely lived up to the Acevedo hype. It was such a unique story and I was absolutely hooked. I just couldn't wait until the two main characters met! And the ending was absolutely perfect! I was going to say that I was a sequel but I just think it ended so well that I don't want anyone to touch it.

Thank you so much for the review copy!

I absolutely love Elizabeth Acevedo’s writing. Her way with poetry and prose is just stunning and I love listening to her books because I love the candor of her writing. I did this book on audio and some of the poetry was just beautiful in places. The whole thing is written in verse but some sections read more like a traditional poetic style than others. Obviously the fact that this book is written in verse does make this a quick read but I do recommend listening to the audiobook if you can because having this style of writing read to you is just so beautiful.





This book is all about identity, it is at heart and soul of the text. I loved watching our two main characters discover themselves and learn more about their identities as the book went on. Their idea of their family identity changed as the plot thickened as well as their identity in relation to their heritage, There is discussion of the differences between where you were raised versus where you come from and how that differs from the way you comport yourself in everyday life and I really like that this writer went deeply into this issue.




If you have read books by Elizabeth Acevedo before you will know that she creates strong female characters and I loved reading about Yahaira and Camino. They are so different and yet so similar. I love the fact that they both have a strong sense of self and have built themselves a support network. Both of them have insecurities and fears though and so they are also united in that. I was so desperate to find out if these young women would ever meet and what that would be like and I think that is because I found them so intriguing as characters.



I highly recommend this novel and really recommend the audiobook.

This was alright. I liked how this handled and explored the grief of the two main characters but this did not do too much for me overall. I liked the tone throughout and thought it was interesting how it was written and structured. This isn't as good as Elizabeth Acevedo's first book for me but it still had some good moments.

Acevado tackles themes of family, identity, trust, belonging and culture in this beautifully written and engaging verse novel. Her depiction of the Dominican Republic is vivid and feels authentic. It would be a great choice for a school reading groups as it offers lots of opportunity for discussion but it's enjoyable enough in its own right to be read solely for pleasure! Another great story featuring strong, female characters from Acevado.

Representation- Both MCs are Dominican. Camino lives in the Dominican Republic, both girls parents were Dominican, Camino’s best friend is Haitian and her parents are from Haiti.

Look out on May 5th because the Queen of novel in verse, Elizabeth Acevedo, returns. You do not want to miss this!

*Thank you to Netgalley and Quill Tree Books for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.*

I loved this novel in verse so much, and trying to find the words to express that was difficult. Partly because words just tend to me my enemy but also, Elizabeth Acevedo wrote something so wonderful and so captivating, that this review doesn’t even do it justice. Clap When you Land took my breath away and kept me up most of the night just to finish it. It’s a stunning novel in verse about love, grief, betrayal, and hope, as two sisters both face the loss of their father, and discover the other exists.

Yahaira Rios is angry, she’s grieving her father but she’s still mad at him- she’s also mad at world for taking him away before they could talk.

“Playing chess taught me a Queen is both: deadly & graceful, poised & ruthless. Quiet & cunning. A queen
Offers her had to be kissed,
& can form it into a fist
While smiling the whole damn time.”

Camino Rios is both grieving and in danger. Her father was her light- and only living parent- but, he also provided for Camino and her Tia, and without his money, Camino is in danger of losing her school, and also from El Cero- a pimp her father payed to leave her alone. However, Camino is determined to go Medical School in the states and she’s not giving up.

“The patron saint of the ocean is known for containing many parts of herself: she is a nurturer, but she is also a ferocious defender. & so I remember that to walk this world you must be kind but also fierce.”

I adored this novel and I loved both Yahaira and Camino so much. Their voices were very distinctive and even though the novel alternates between the two POVs- I was never unsure of who was talking.

Most of the novel revolves around Yahaira and Camino separately but the highlight for me, was when they finally meet. Even without truly knowing each other the bond of sisterhood is present from the first meeting. It was beautiful.

Apart from their relationship with each other I also loved the relationship between Yahaira and her girlfriend.

“I love them. I love you. You are the only thing that does not hurt.”

And, the relationship between Camino and her Tia . Her Tia means the world to her and I loved how they bond through healing and medicine. There’s a scene towards the end that had me cheering. Camino’s Tia may be old, but she is one BADASS LADY!!

Clap When you Land was hands down one of my favourite 2020 reads. This captivating novel in verse had me glued to pages throughout. I couldn’t put it down. It’s exquisite portrayal of grief brought tears to my eyes. This is not a novel I will ever forget and I highly recommend to everyone.

Content warnings- sexual harassment, stalking, sexual assault, cheating, grief, loss of a parent.

Clap when you Land is a dual narrative novel in verse for young adults. It is set in the Dominican Republic and New York. Camino, one daughter, is in DR and Yahaira the other in NY. It turns out when their father dies in a plane crash that he has two families. They find out about each other.
I found The Poet X her first novel easier to read as it was split into separate poems with titles. This was all one long poem split admittedly into viewpoints. The girls’ voices however are very similar so you have to look for other markers to remember where you are.
It is poetically written, concise and detailed and a joy to read for the writing as much as the story. Recommended. Thanks to #Netgalley for a review copy. This review appears on Amazon.

Wow! What an astonishing book! This is beautifully lyrical, with a highly emotionally charged storyline.

Camino and Yahaira are sisters; neither knows about the other. One lives in New York, one in the Dominican Republic. They share a father, a man who is killed when Flight 1112 crashes into the sea. This collision of plane and water leads inexorably to the lives of both families entwining.

I kept stopping while I was reading this, just to savour the words. Gorgeous and intense.

Beautiful story about grief.

Clap When You Land is my first Elizabeth Acevedo book. It won't be the last. This books takes you on a range of an emotional journey. The power of family, love and forgiveness.

This was simply beautiful, a free verse novel about two sixteen year old sisters who had no idea the other existed - until their father dies in an airplane crash and his lies are revealed. The use of alternating perspective chapters is perfect, we quickly come to care for both sisters and understand their same-but-very-different pain. The writing is electric, the words and imagery swirl off the page and regularly hit with an incredible amount of potency. This book highlights the important of diversity and how all voices should be reflected in literature - it will mean a lot to so many young people.