This is so poignant, lyrical, heartfelt, well-conceived, true to life, sublime, extremely emotional novel about two sisters’ bounding story who never knew each other till an unexpected accident shatters their lives and takes their father away from them.

Elizabeth Acevedo’s poetry combines with the heartwarming story based on true events: on November 2001, American Airlines Flight 587 flight was regularly scheduled to fly from JFK International Airport to Las Americas Airport in Santa Domingo but it crashed into Belle Harbor/on the Rockaway Peninsula of Queens, took 260 people’s lives and nearly %90 was Dominican and of Dominican descent. Tragedy might be forgotten but it truly affected the lives and shaken Dominican community of New York to the core. According one of the writers of NY Times: For Dominicans: those journeys to the home were defining their complex push-pull relationship with their homeland.

At the very same accident: two girls lost their father. Camino lives in Dominican Republic and Yahaira lives in NY. Camino goes to the airport to summon her father and after seeing the crying crowds of people, she startles in shock, in the meantime in New York, Yahaira is summoned to the principal’s office to get the tragic news.

They don’t have enough time to digest the news when they learn double life of their father. Now they are dealing with their grief, starting to learn about each other, trying too hard to adapt in their new lives. They also need to accept the fact their father is not the perfect man they adored. Only true thing may help them move on their lives: he really loved both of them.

Especially Camino’s new life conditions will be more challenging because she lives in a dangerous territory, chasing by a man named El Cero who is a local pimp. She just wants to lay low and survive, studying premed and being a normal teenager.

This is so intense story consisting sensitive elements like sexual assault, grief, plane crush, betrayal, dysfunctional family dynamics. Sometimes you feel the burning sensation coming from your heart during your read and you want to stop for taking few breaths because the characters already conquered your soul and it’s so natural to ache and deeply care for them. But at the end: all those suffering and emotional stress you endured are truly worth it because this is unique and beautiful sisterhood story brighten your mood and it is one of the best young adult fiction novels of the year.

Overall: I enjoyed it and I highly recommend it.

                                By Nilufer Ozmekik

Clap When You Land is my second book from Elizabeth Acevedo and to summarize everything, I would say that this is a realistic book and it is beautiful. It’s a thrilling experience to listen to the audio book, not because it’s scary but because Elizabeth Acevedo is a great narrator and I could feel her emotion in her voice.

Where do I start? Right, Elizabeth possesses the ability to create melodious story that makes you feel certain emotions throughout the book. Her writing is lyrical and magical—I can’t never get enough of it and I feel like I want to absorb every words. Elizabeth used voice to explore the depths of how it feels to idolize someone but turns up they’re not like the person we’ve known, to lose someone important in your life, and to accept the truth no matter how ugly it is.

What I love the most about this book is the characterization of Yahaira and Camino—and the part where they discover each other. There is this kind of silent understanding that they both have to learn to life with the fact that their father is way more complex than they thought. Both girls struggle with their own grief, and it’s captured perfectly in the book.

Overall, I recommend this book a lot! And I suggest you to listen to the audiobook!

                                        By Ikram