Book Review
Title: Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Rating: 4 Stars
Clap When You Land wasn’t initially on my radar but I have heard nothing but good things about Elizabeth Acevedo’s books. I picked this one because the audiobook was less than 5 hours long so I should be able to fly through it. All I knew about this book before picking it up was that it is a novel told in verse, and we are following to girls in the aftermath of a plane crash. We are introduced to Camino Rios and Yahaira Rios and we will be following them from the day of the plane crash and the next 60 days after. Camino lives in the Dominican Republic where she is eagerly awaiting her father’s annual arrival to visit them as he works and lives in the United State when the plane he is on crashes. It is too early for anyone to know about survivors right now but we can already see Camino’s father is hiding something as when she mentions going to medical school in the US, he tells her that he doesn’t want to pay for another fancy school which is going to hint at the other life he has in America. Novels in verse are difficult to review as they move quickly like poetry but have the depth of a novel so this review might be a little shorter than normal.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, Camino doesn’t have the news about whether or not her father survived or not but she is hoping even as the days pass. This is because with her father dead there is no one to pay El Cero to leave Camino alone and he has had his eye on her for a while and if she feel into his hands then he would destroy everything about her. Back in the US, Yahaira has also received news that her father’s plane has crashed but she seems to be aware of the secret her father was keeping and she is determined to keep it a secret forever as it would dishonour her father’s memories if he is dead. We follow both girls in the aftermath of the death of their shared father, although only one is aware of this as they are met with the news that there are no survivors from the crash. For Camino, this is even more devastating as she knows as well as her aunt Tia, that without her father the life they have lived is coming to an end and with her mother already dead from dengue fever, Camino has never felt more orphaned that she does in that moment. For Yahaira, she is devastated but she has her mother and her girlfriend to keep her going and they have the money that Camino lacks. Yahaira is also aware of Camino’s existence after finding what I presume is Camino’s birth certificate by accident and she ponders what to do with this information but she doesn’t seem to have any sympathy for the sister she never got the chance to know, as she has lost her father too and Yahaira will also be aware about how much harder life is in the Dominican Republic is than is the US and even though she is grieving she seems very cold and callous towards this other child her father had.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, we don’t hear much from Camino but we learn a lot about Yahaira. It turns out she knew her father had another wife, he married a few months after he married her mother but she seems unaware of the other daughter he had, the one that is fighting to survive in the Dominican Republic as she is swallowed by her own grief. Almost two weeks after the crash, people are being identified and her father is among the dead plunging the whole family into a spiral. By the time talk turns to funeral arrangements, Yahaira’s mother wants her husband buried in America but his brother knows he wanted to be buried in the Dominican Republic and his wife agrees but state that neither she or her daughter will be there and although Yahaira isn’t aware of it, it is clear that her mother and uncle are both aware of the other family her father had but Yahaira is planning to go whether her mother allows it or not. We switch briefly back to Camino where we can see that El Cero is making serious advances towards her and she realises that her time is running out, especially since without her father she can’t afford to go to school next semester and may have to defer until she can get a scholarship which delays everything she has planned about her life. Seeing both girls grieving and fighting in different ways really highlights the father they shared and the marks he left on them as his children and I hope that these girls get to meet at some point.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, Camino is struggling with the attention of El Cero as he seems to constantly follow her around and flaunts the power, he has over her as she continues to refuse him. Meanwhile in the US, Yahaira learns of the settlement the airline has given them for her father’s death of half a million dollars but it is to be spilt between his dependents, his two daughters. Tia tells this to Camino but realises she won’t get to the US as her visa was going to be approved on Zoila’s citizenship and she isn’t a forgiving woman but she has to fight for her half of that money or she has to abandon her dreams forever and eventually give into El Cero which she refuses to do. Yahaira at this moment still seems unaware of Camino’s existence but I believe it is going to come to light soon as there will be a battle for the money that will ensures Camino’s survival if Zoila doesn’t hand it over willingly. It was heart-breaking to think that these girls are grieving for their father and are learning about the secrets he kept for most of his life but it didn’t diminish the fact he loved them all, that he loved his two wives and two daughters and did everything he could to give them the best lives possibly. He was even planning to bring Camino over to America which says to me that he has plans for his daughters to meet and know about each other eventually, he just never had a chance for it to happen because of the crash.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, in different ways the girls now know about each other and are learning about the man that was their father. While they both loved him, they both feel betrayed by him and the secrets he kept from them but Camino understands this better than Yahaira as Yahaira has never had to worry about money or when her next meal was going to be. Alongside this we know that Yahaira’s mother, Zoila is spending the money from the settlement before they have even received this and this is going to cause problems especially if Camino fights for her half of it. Zoila also wants Yahaira to have nothing to do with Camino but Yahaira wants to know her sister and decides to go behind her mother’s back and get a plane ticket to the Dominican Republic, so that she can be there when her father is buried and she can meet the sister that has been hidden from her for so long. Both girls have conflicted feelings about meeting because both wants to hate the other but finds themselves unable to do that because they understand that their father meant to each other. I can’t wait to see what happens when the girls meet in real life for the first time and how their stories are going to resolve and I hope it is a happy ending but I can’t be sure. It turns out that Yano meet Zoila through Camino’s mother but when she explains his actions to Yahaira we understand them. Zoila’s father was high up in the military and everyone was against their marriage so Yano felt like he had to act with Zoila but with Camino’s mother, his childhood friend he could be himself and even she believes that he loved them all but he couldn’t abandon Camino after her mother’s death even when Zoila refused to bring her to the US, so Yano split his time as well as he could between his family in the US and his family in the Dominican Republic which led to his death. If Zoila had brought Camino to the US then Yano would still be with them and I think this thought is haunting her now more than it has done in years.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, the sisters are making arrangements for Yahaira to come to the Dominican Republic for their father’s funeral and Camino also gets Yahaira to transfer ten thousand dollars which will look after her and Tia for a while and even allow her to stay in school but El Cero is trying to hide what he wants from Camino less and less. When the day arrives when Yahaira is going to fly out without telling her mother, both girls are nervous and this is understandable as the last time Camino was in an airport her world fell apart and Yahaira feels them same as she flies over to the DR. When the girls meet face to face for the first time it is impossible for them to deny that they have come from the same father and there is a connection between them but Camino seems to pulling back from it because she doesn’t want the pressure of looking after anyone else and she is also angry and bitter that her life has been so hard in comparison to Yahaira’s. However, this peace doesn’t last long as Zoila has learned what her daughter has done and makes preparations to fly out the DR herself which makes Yahaira nervous. When her mother arrives, she realises that she knows Tia, the sister of her former friend and she even greets Camino tenderly as if even with all the anger she had at home she couldn’t bring herself to summon it when faced with another grieving child. With the funeral days away, I am not sure how the novel is going to end but it is nice that all the family will be present for the funeral of Yano despite all the secrets that have been between them for so long.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, we see the sisters discover a bond between them but when Camino steals Yahaira’s passport intending to go to America as her in order to escape her life in the DR she is cornered by El Cero. Camino offers to pay her father’s debt but when he realises, she has more money and is planning to run he attacks trying to rape her and take what he wants from her. Luckily, for Camino her sister and her dog realise something in wrong and along with Tia and Zoila head to the beach where they rescue Camino from El Cero and in that moment Yahaira knows they have to take Camino back to America with them and refuses to leave without her. Zoila has realised this too and uses her connection to get Camino a visa faster. Camino also makes friend with Yahaira’s girlfriend but she is hit with realisation she is really leaving and isn’t sure she wants to even though she needs to but Tia pushes her onwards and together with Yahaira and Zoila, Camino heads to start her new life in America but she will never forget where she came from. Overall, I really enjoyed Clap When You Land but I would have liked to see more of the sister’s together and to see more development in the relationship between Zoila and Camino, maybe a small epilogue would have done that but the truth behind the novel was also devastating, heart-breaking and I was immensely pleased that someone had the courage to write these stories down.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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