Review: The Empire of Gold

The Empire of Gold by S.A. Chakraborty
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'm so glad that this is one of a small handful of books I've been able to acquire in physical form since California got locked down - and that I found my way to the right place to get a signed first edition from Chakraborty herself, courtesy of Interabang Books in Dallas. The Empire of Gold, a green and gold brick of paper clocking in at over 750 pages, wraps up the trilogy in such amazing fashion that I'm glad I took my sweet time savoring it a little more strongly than I even did for the first two books the first times I read those.

Review: Clap When You Land

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Trigger warnings for this book: parental death, stalking, sexual assault.

Elizabeth Acevedo returns to the novel-in-verse style that helped her debut so amazingly in The Poet X and once again brings us a literary experience unlike any other. This time, she splits the book between the POVs of two Dominican girls - Yahaira, living in NYC, and Camino, living on the island - and how their lives unexpectedly intertwine in the wake of a DR-bound plane crashing after leaving New York.