So here's my last catch-up review. This is a double review for the two books by Elizabeth Acevedo I finished at the end of May. The first one I finished was With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo and it was definitely a 5 star read. As always spoilers
With the Fire on High is about a high school senior named Emoni who lives with her abuela and her daughter. Emoni had a daughter as a freshman in high school and is trying to finish high school while raising her daughter and supporting her abuela. When the school she attends begins a Spanish cooking course she lets herself dream big dreams again. Emoni is a strong passionate young woman who pushes aside her insecurities and pain over her mother's death and her father's life in Puerto Rico in order to raise her daughter and support her abuela to the best of her abilities. She balances her responsibilities at home with her passion for cooking, the rigors of her cooking class, and fundraising for her class's trip to Spain. Along with all these other things she has a boy, Malachi following her around despite her distinct lack of time. In the end things come together and not only does Emoni get into Drexel's culinary program but she manages to rustle up the money to go to Spain with her class. In the end she makes some adult decisions and decides to attend culinary school part time while working in a restaurant owned by an acquaintance of her cooking teacher. She finds the balance to raising her daughter, with a new co-parenting relationship with her ex, the beginnings of her relationship with Malachi, and school while staying true to her dreams.
I loved this book. It reminded me why exactly I fell in love with Acevedo's writing when I first received a copy of her first book The Poet X in a book box a couple years ago. Unlike her other two books I've read thsi one is written in a traditional novel format rather than verse. Even though this book wasn't written in verse, her style is very lyrical and fluid. I also liked the recipes that were interspersed throughout the book, they felt very authentic and were written in the way that someone would actually cook: nto with temperatures, times and precise measurements but in pinches, dabs, and textures. I love her books adn will definitely continue reading them as she releases them.
The other Elizabeth Acevedo book that I read in May was her newest release Clap When You Land. This was also a 5 star read for me.
This book is told in dual perspectives, narrated by Camino Rios in the Dominican Republic and Yahaira Rios in New York City. The two girls know nothing of each other and each other's lives until their father is killed in a plane crash and they learn of the existence of each other and the fact that their father had secrets, two families: one in the Dominican Republic with Camino and one in New York City with Yahaira and her mother. Camino lives with her aunt, her mother having died of a fever when she was young and only sees her father during his annual summer visits to the Dominican Republic. Despite the poverty of her neighborhood and even of her life with her aunt, her father has been paying for a private education and she dreams of going to Columbia University and becoming a proper doctor to follow in the footsteps of her healer Aunt. Yahaira lives a life of privilege with both parents in New York City, happy with her girlfriend and playing with her makeup tutorials to distract herself from the fact that she's learned her father was married to another woman, Camino's mother. After their father dies, the two girls find out about each other and make plans to meet. Yahaira secretly buys a plane ticket to the Dominican Republic to accompany her father's body to the island for his burial. Her mother follows her and when everything comes to a head, Yahaira's mother gets a visa for Camino and takes her home to New York City with them to finish school and get into Columbia.
Clap When You Land has a lot about secrets and lies and forgiveness and family. It questions what family is and how do you forgive someone for their secrets and lies after their death. Like her first book, this book was written in verse and the two girls serve as mirrors of each other, the only thing they have in common being their shared father and their struggles to come to terms with his death. It was a beautiful book and I enjoyed it immensely. I can't wait for another book by her to come out. This book also got a 5/5 star rating and left me itching for more from Acevedo.
So that's the last of my back log of book reviews. There were highs and lows in the month of May as far as reading went but it went out on a real high note with these two books.
Happy Reading!
Richelle & Emma
No comments:
Post a Comment