“I knew there was no safe home in the world for the violence I felt in my body in that moment.”
Clap When You Land, Elizabeth Acevedo’s young adult novel in verse, was pure magic. When Acevedo’s first adult novel, Family Lore (Ecco 2023) was published, I wondered if Acevedo would be able to sprinkle some of that magic on it. Admittedly, the first half didn’t spark, and I’ll confess to having some doubts early on. For me, the novel was a bit The Fortunes of Jaded Women meets The Divine Inheritance of Orquídea Divina (Interestingly enough, all three of these novels are BOTM books!), and I was worried I’d be disappointed in it as I was with The Fortunes. But the second half ignited the pages, bringing that magic and finding me unable to put it down.
The novel follows the Marte women, blending past and present, weaving in and out of deeply guarded secrets and desires, and traveling from Santo Domingo to New York City. The novel is framed around Flor. Flor can predict the future, primarily when a person will die. When she decides to plan her own wake, her family readily accommodates her but moves in worried silence. Has she seen her own death?
Flor’s sister Pastora can read a person for truth – that is her gift – and she will not ask Flor about the wake and what she’s seen. She is afraid of what the truth will be. She, along with the other sisters, Matilde and Camila, begin to prepare for this family gathering – Flor’s living wake. Matilde’s magic is one of movement; she could move heavens and earth on the dance floor. Her curse is one of a barren womb and a philandering husband who has impregnated a much younger woman. Camila is the youngest and was raised as if an only child – but she’s the one who inherited their father’s understanding of herbs. The family’s lives, magic and madness are forever intertwined.
Flor’s daughter, Ona, and Pastora’s daughter, Yadi, cousins as close as sisters, join their mothers and aunts in preparations. Ona’s magic is in her vagina, the siren song between her legs a powerful testament to the strength and control of woman. But it’s failing her as all her attempts to get pregnant have been unsuccessful. Yadi’s power is in food, and her concoctions feed the mind, body and soul. While some people inherit family jewels, Yadi’s inheritance became a taste for limes and those limes completely turned her life around.
This is novel of sisters, daughters, and mothers – of family built on sisterhood. Of the secrets we hold for each other, the spaces we make for each other, and the choices we make for each other.
Read this novel.
A Girl Named Tommi 