Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

36 reviews

chaotic_corvid's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious 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? N/A

4.75

Nie spodziewałom się, że młodzieżówka może połączyć aż tak dobrze romans z wątkiem przygodowo-śledczym. Zwrot akcji nie jest w pełni przewidywalny ale są bazy by mieć swoje podejrzenia, niestety jedna postać drugoplanowa staje się przez niego trochę... słabiej napisana. Tak jak Yadriel jestem trans gejem i myślę, że gdybym miał te książkę w okresie gdy dopiero to odkrywałem to bardzo by mi pomogła w zrozumieniu siebie wcześniej. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Outing, Grief, Physical abuse, Xenophobia, Death, Dysphoria, Transphobia, Violence, Child death, Death of parent, Blood, Murder, Deadnaming, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Drug use, Misogyny, Torture, Deportation, Racism, Cursing, Homophobia, Cultural appropriation, Classism, Alcohol, Religious bigotry, and Animal death

bookish_purrsuits's review

adventurous emotional hopeful 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? No

4.75

Loved this book! I love the way Aiden Thomas writes characters. They all seem so real and believable as teenagers without falling into the whiny angst trap. Thomas has revitalized the YA fantasy genre for me and is quickly becoming an auto-buy author! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia and Deadnaming

Moderate: Blood

Minor: Death of parent, Physical abuse, and Deportation

kaziaroo's review against another edition

emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

I was shocked when I read the acknowledgements at the end and found that the author wasn't originally going to write about a trans character and Latinx culture, because those, and the bold, loveable characters, are what really make this book stand out. Otherwise, the writing was a bit repetitive (there's lots of "Yadriel didn't know how to respond" and "Julian tilted his head") and the main mystery was very obvious, but the characters and the depictions of the different facets of their culture and how the characters each relate to the culture are special. It just goes to show that plot isn't everything.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Dysphoria, Transphobia, and Death

Moderate: Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Outing, Death of parent, and Violence

Minor: Alcohol, Animal death, Car accident, Deadnaming, Child abuse, Deportation, Physical abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Xenophobia, and Cultural appropriation

robinks's review

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I forgot how much I love paranormal romances 🥲 I loved all the characters and all the important topics Thomas was able to seamlessly include in the story. Even though I was able to predict the ending pretty early on and the ending was a little too perfect, I still enjoyed it. I highly recommend the audio book, as Roque does a phenomenal job of narrating, and the bonus interview with Thomas at the end is so lovely. I love #Yadrian!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Grief, Misogyny, Deportation, Violence, Xenophobia, Death, Classism, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Sexism, Transphobia, and Homophobia

Moderate: Deadnaming and Racism

Minor: Alcohol, Kidnapping, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Outing, Cultural appropriation, Dysphoria, Animal death, Child death, and Bullying

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

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

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

Discussion of gangs

haylzno's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious reflective 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

I felt so immersed in this story,  I really clicked with Thomas' writing style. 
I immediately fell in love with all of the characters and the dialog made me giggle on multiple occasions. Fantastic queer rep.
I absolutely love this premise and the plot. 
I'll be dreaming of marigolds tonight I think ♥️

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Deadnaming, Blood, Murder, Grief, Death of parent, and Death

Moderate: Transphobia and Physical abuse

Minor: Car accident

mirireads's review

adventurous dark 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Transphobia, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Murder, and Death

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Outing, and Deadnaming

cozyteareads's review against another edition

emotional funny inspiring 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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Murder, Transphobia, Violence, Dysphoria, and Child abuse

Moderate: Drug use, Abandonment, Drug abuse, Outing, Medical content, Grief, Death, Racism, and Bullying

Minor: Animal death, Abandonment, Car accident, and Physical abuse

recycled_personalities's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring 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? It's complicated

5.0

Genuinely such a good read. It was really comforting queer representation and that definitely made me happy. It’s a LITTLE slow at the very beginning but please don’t make the mistake of giving up on it! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Gore, Abandonment, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Cursing, Deadnaming, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Homophobia, Dysphoria, Gaslighting, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Outing, Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Transphobia, Violence, and Xenophobia

jfield351's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious fast-paced

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

3.75

I enjoyed this book especially because it was partly written in spanish, a language i understand! if i had not been able to understand it i don’t think i would have  enjoyed it as much. It did make it a tiny bit hard to read, switching between languages. Maybe if i didn’t know spanish i could have skipped over those parts with no problem. Obviously, the LGBTQ+ representation was brilliant and unlike anything i’ve ever read (especially the trans representation) as well as the representation of the Latinx culture. I learnt more about the day of the dead festival and was charmed by the decorations, the mouth watering descriptions of food and the attitudes towards the day. Blending in fantasy, my favourite genre also made it a very fun read for me. The characters were well written, especially at the start. I read this within 24 hours from 1-2 March 2022. I did guess that

the jaguar knives would have a role in the twist, because they were a seemingly insignificant detail that was mentioned in depth twice. however i had no idea it would be tío catriz (he seemed sooo nice!!) or that the sacrifices would be miguel and julian.

. I was left wondering at some plot holes, such as, if only the one family was gifted with the power to see the dead, why could the whole family see it and not just the ones who weren’t married in? I did read this fast so maybe I missed something. I was hooked though, and I felt pain when Yadriel did, particularly when he faced transphobic comments and also in chapters 22/23. The ending was good, but to me i found it strange how the epilogue was literally just an hour after the ending -

both boys were up and running without pain an hour after they had been dead. the ending felt a bit rushed

. On the whole it was a great book and I want to read more like it!! And I want to read more from Aiden Thomas!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Abandonment, Blood, Violence, Deadnaming, Child abuse, Murder, Transphobia, Cursing, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cultural appropriation, Bullying, Car accident, Racism, Medical content, Alcohol, Gun violence, Child death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Physical abuse, and Xenophobia