Clap When You Land - Elizabeth Acevedo

 My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Camino Rios lives for the summers, when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic. But this year, 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, they learn of each other.

Papi's death uncovers all the painful truths he kept hidden, and the love he divided across an ocean. And now Yahaira and Camino are both left to grapple with what a new sister means to them and what it will take to keep their dreams alive."

Everything Elizabeth Acevedo writes is impossible to put down, and Clap When You Land is no exception. This book is beautiful, breaking and warming your heart at the same time. The alternating perspectives of Yahaira and Camino were handled beautifully, and I loved the way the two narratives came together at the end. Even though they've been apart their whole lives, their voices intermingle, and without a clear distinction like in earlier pages, sometimes it's hard to tell who is speaking until we get context. It reminded me of how sometimes when one of my siblings is speaking their voice sounds so similar to another sibling that I can't be 100% sure who it is until something they're saying gives it away. (Or let's be honest, how sometimes I'll play a video of my sister talking and for a second think it's me and I just forgot I said that.)

There are a lot of complex emotions at work in this story, and you will feel every single moment along with the characters. When Yahaira's mom tells her she has a sister, I was angry on her behalf. When Camino talks about being mad at her father for his lies and also shattered that she'll never talk to him again, I felt that mixed-up grief. I am blown away by how real these characters became and how their experiences leapt off the page. Also, I know there are lots of conversations and jokes about how New York is the "fifth" character in Sex and the City, but for real, the Dominican Republic felt like a character in this book, and I loved it. The personality, the vibrancy, the feel of Camino's home was all around me as I read. Just...incredible, the magic Elizabeth Acevedo is able to weave with her words. Read this book. Read all of her books. Read her grocery lists if she decides to publish those at some point. I will read anything Elizabeth Acevedo gives me.