Reviews tagging 'Deportation'

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

99 reviews

journey2's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny inspiring mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I *LOVED* this book. No pretext, this book is amazing.
 I felt every emotion. I cried many many many tears!
I love reading a story where you feel the love build naturally and honestly as you go. Their love was palpable. The way they saw each other and the passion they felt about everything about each other was so incredible and raw. They cared, they truly cared and wanted the very best for each other and he people that were important to them. 

This book was written with such heart, such beauty and such passion and it has immediately jumped into my favourite book collection. 
 I will read this again and again.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Gun violence, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Injury/Injury detail, and Deportation

TW for transphobia, deadnaming, bullying, blood, violence, death, murder, gangs, conversation about cultural appropriation, deportation

karobiner's review against another edition

dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Lovingly crafted YA, which treats it's Latino trans protagonist with love and respect as a teenager going through a series of fantastical misadventures.

I would argue that the main romance happens pretty quickly, but they are teens so I'll forgive it 😂

Came for queer romance - stayed for the nuanced portrait of Latinx family dynamics ❤️

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Transphobia, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Classism

Minor: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Deadnaming, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Police brutality, Outing, Abandonment, Dysphoria, and Deportation

readingqueerly's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

I really enjoyed this book. I thought the story was interesting, I loved each character so much. There we so many moments that made me wanna punch some transphobes, but also some that warmed my queer heart. I think Julian is definitely a fav new character. He was so funny and wonderful and silly and made me feel so emotional. Just ✨fictional men✨. 
My biggest issue was with the pacing. I felt like the story took a long while to get going and it was very dense only in the last fifty or so pages. 
The trans rep was phenomenal though. I really related to a lot of moments and situations (same as I did with Felix ever after). 
I'm also very glad I knew just enough Spanish to not need to Google the few sentences 😅. I'm very proud of myself for that haha. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Transphobia, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child abuse, Deadnaming, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Dysphoria, and Deportation

chris_reads's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia and Blood

Moderate: Sexism, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Murder

Minor: Deadnaming, Medical content, and Deportation

mxbluet18's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This is the second time reading this book, and the second review I'm writing for it. In short, this is one of the top books I've ever read, and I can't rate it highly enough. 
~
I'm not Hispanic myself and therefore can't and wouldn't comment on that particular area of representation, nor do I know enough about the magic element to say anything. However, with regard to the representation of a young trans male, I personally found it to be accurate to the experiences we have. And again, I feel that the lack of acceptance and understanding from his family was also very true to life unfortunately. 
~
Much as the first time, this book made me cry more than once. I felt a strong sense of euphoria when Yadriel's father first called him by his name, and said that he was a brujo. But I also really felt the pain when his abuelita called him by his deadname, and when people referred to him by the feminine forms of words (sadly gender can't be avoided in some languages because of their structure).
~
Ultimately, I really strongly enjoyed this book, and I'd really recommend anyone read it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Deadnaming, Homophobia, Transphobia, Violence, Death of parent, Dysphoria, and Deportation

carefulfearanddeaddevotion's review against another edition

emotional hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Julian Diaz, the sweetest dorkiest bad boy in all of fiction. <3 def my favorite character by far. 

Liked all the characters, overall cute story and pretty visuals/mythology. The only things that made me enjoy it slightly less were:

1. the big twist was, in my opinion, super obvious from the veryyyy beginning. Buuuut I was more interested in the characters’ journey anyway, so it didn’t really matter so much 

2. there was too much explaining re: the culture. Like at times it felt a little textbook-y. Like especially the translations of the Spanish directly after it was used (which I guess would be necessary to someone who doesn’t understand Spanish…) 

3. Take this with a grain of salt because I’m not very familiar with Central American religion/mythology, but the gods/mythology referenced, are, to my knowledge, Mayan. The characters, however, despite all being Hispanic, aren’t all from that region. Half of them are from the Caribbean. Why did a Mayan god 1000 years ago extend the brujx power to peoples she had nothing to do with? Unless those other people married into the brujx, which might also explain the dilution of magic, but that also doesn’t make sense given that we’re told several times the brujx don’t like outsiders or straying from tradition. 


Mhm…why do I always do this? I finish a book like “wow I liked that” and then when I start thinking about my thoughts as I was reading I come up with all these complaints lol. It’s still a fun cute book that I enjoyed but  obvi it isn’t perfect

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Body horror, Deadnaming, Misogyny, Transphobia, Blood, and Death of parent

Minor: Child death and Deportation

vaguely_pink's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Deadnaming, Death, Homophobia, Transphobia, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Physical abuse, Self harm, Kidnapping, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Racism, Police brutality, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, and Deportation

Discussion of gangs

theirgracegrace's review against another edition

emotional inspiring tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

An astounding book with no shortage of heart-wrenching teen drama. Yadriel is a brujo, one of the male members of a necromantic tradition stretching back to pre-colonial Central America. He is also transgender and accidentally falls in love with the first spirit he raises, Julian. With the backdrop of a mysterious death in the brujo community and the possibility that Julian's death is linked, I literally burned the midnight oil to read the end of this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Hate crime, Misogyny, Sexism, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Outing, Abandonment, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Deadnaming, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, and Deportation

Minor: Vomit, Alcohol, and Colonisation

thenerdybookwitch's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Amazing book! I cried so many times, laughed so many times—one of my new fave books I will treasure it. I cannot wait for the eventually sequel to come! 😭

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Transphobia, Blood, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Violence, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Minor: Ableism, Bullying, Child abuse, Vomit, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, Classism, and Deportation

a_libra_library's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Deportation