Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

Wow. This book was so good!  It’s the story of two sisters, one living in New York and the other in the Dominican Republic, who are unaware of each other’s existence until their dad dies in a plane crash. Their dad is married bigamously to both of their mums and lives a frankly creepy double life, spending most of the year in New York and summer in the Dominican Republic. 

The book is written in free verse and I listened to it as an audiobook. The author was one of the narrators, which was great because I guess she had the chance to  read the verse exactly how she meant it to be heard. The writing is lyrical and flowy and there’s some really awesome use of language. 

A queen
offers her hand to be kissed,
& can form it into a fist
while smiling the whole damn time.

Perfection. I love it. 

After their father dies, the sisters discover each other, but they also discover the man their father really was. Before his death they both hero worshipped him, but they come to discover that he was, like all humans, imperfect.  Because, you know.  Bigamy. But we also see their development as characters and the way they come to terms with their father’s pretty serious flaws. 

I loved the world building too.  New York was pretty much just New York, I’ve visited and read about it in hundreds of books. But I’ve never visited or read a book set in the Dominican Republic and I was glad to read about it here. 

All in all this was a really lovely book. Recommended. 

5 stars