Serious Poetry in Clap When You Land | Book Review

March 9, 2022March 3, 2022 ~ Kirstie Ellen

【 CLAP WHEN YOU LAND 】

A very powerful story, but haltingly written as poetry.

Genre: Contemporary, Poetry
Author: Elizabeth Acevdeo
Published: May 2020
Publisher: HarperTeen
Pages: 417 (paperback)

In sum, what didn’t work for me was solely the form of writing. I thought the story itself was actually very compelling and beautiful – and touching on really big issues. But I couldn’t get past the poetry-prose this time and struggled my way through.

I’ve been really eager to try Acevedo’s writing as she’s such a popular author, and I can really see why lots of people connect with her books. I’d love to try reading more of her stuff if it is written in a different form, because I see it’s very powerful.

I loved the way we have two (unknown to them) sisters in this book, sharing a father and yet dealing with very different realities. The parallels between the privileges that Yahaira experiences and the difficult challenges that Camino is confronted with highlighted the absolute unfairness of how different a hand can be dealt by fate depending on where you live, and what is available to you.

So looking at things from that point of view, this is a brilliant book that the right kind of person would absolutely adore. But as I’ve said, for me this was really hindered by the poetry style. I found the reading flow clunky and just a bit jarring.