The Reading Women Challenge – A YA Novel by a Latinx Author

Looks like we’re nearly done with the first fortnight of the new year – this proves time does fly even when you’re not having fun 😛  

My biggest achievement so far has been completing my return to work and unclogging my inbox. Given the mini hiatus that I’ve been on, I am keen to pick up the slack and get up to speed with blogging about the remainder of the Reading Women Challenge.

In 2021, I started with the Reading Women Challenge (A full wrap up is coming up imminently) in the hopes that it would serve as a guide for my reading and also introduce me to new authors.

The prompt I chose next after A Protagonist Older than 50 was a YA Novel by a Latinx Author. Having seen Clap When You Land all over the book community through the better part of 2020 and ’21, now was as good a time as any to finally dive into this book.

Summary

I imagine it’s kind of giving thanks. Of all the ways it could end it ends not with us in the sky or the water, but together on solid earth safely grounded

To begin with, it was a challenge to read. The plot is simple enough (more on that later), but being written in verse meant adapting my reading to the novel in verse style. It worked mostly, but I did struggle – and that’s not got anything to do with the book, but more with the KIND of books I am normally used to reading.

However, once you get used to it, Acevedo’s narration flows effortlessly, drawing you in as the story alternates between Camino and Yahaira’s POV. Both have the same father. A father who lives a double life, meaning both are unaware that they are half sisters.

Then the plane crashes and just when they both think they have lost everything, they find each other. And learn to become sisters, become family.

Alternating between New York and the Dominican Republic, Clap When You Land is a book filled with grief, loss, heartbreak, but most importantly about familial ties and the feeling of being at home whenever and wherever one is when one is with family.

A book filled with hope and a definite recommendation for its lyrical narrative style.

Reading Women Challenge – Total Prompts Completed 7/24

1. A book with a rural setting
2. A book with a cover designed by a woman
3. A fantasy novel by an Asian author
4. A book by a Neurodivergent author
5. Reread a favourite
6. Protagonist older than 50
7. Young Adult Novel by a Latinx author

Blog Post Cover Image Courtesy : amazon.co.uk