Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

104 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

hannahbailey's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

Sadly I really struggled with this. The writing was very juvenile/wattpad-like in the sense that the prose was incredibly clunky and the secondary characters were underdeveloped. There were lots of filler chapters which really dragged and then conflict was resolved unrealistically quickly over a couple of pages. The plot didn’t seem well thought out and I was confused by the quick ‘twist’ and ending. Characters would mysteriously disappear during a scene only to save the day a few pages later with no explanation - there were lots of moments when I thought ‘wait, weren’t you here the whole time’?? The immaturity of the dialogue made this book feel more middle-grade to me, however I can see why it’s aimed at an older audience because of the graphic/heavy themes. Overall, I’m just surprised this got through the editing stages given how under-edited it feels 😔

TW: transphobia, death, death of parent, murder, violence, knife crime, blood, animal death, gore

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Deadnaming, Grief, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Animal death, Sexism, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Misogyny, and Transphobia

_nutella52's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-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? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deportation, Dysphoria, Deadnaming, Grief, Racism, Transphobia, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Homophobia, and Outing

Moderate: Drug use, Gore, Blood, Body horror, Alcohol, and Car accident

Minor: Cultural appropriation and Animal death

tinyjude's review against another edition

adventurous emotional lighthearted 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

4.5

So happy to exist in a time when these queer books exist and celebrate the lives of trans people from different cultures. I loved Yadriel and Julian's relationship, Maritza and Yadriel's friendship, the love and care put into making the story, characters and the representation and appreciation of their culture.

Younger me would have loved this even more 😭 it was healing to read specially in such an uncertain and terrifying time for trans lives and lgbt+ folks in general

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Death, Grief, Murder, and Transphobia

Minor: Kidnapping, Animal cruelty, Blood, Car accident, Homophobia, Deportation, Animal death, and Dysphoria

purplepickle's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Dysphoria, Transphobia, Alcohol, Blood, Cursing, and Deportation

Minor: Animal death, Deadnaming, and Injury/Injury detail

tangleroot_eli's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad fast-paced

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

I spent the whole epilogue of this book crying. Then I just laid there staring at the sky, not really thinking anything, just... being. This is a beautiful book, and I'm so, so glad to have read it.

And, you know, at first "everyone lives" felt like a pulled punch of an ending. Surely, in a book literally about priestexes of death, someone has to die for everything to work out. But the more I think about it, the more I realize that, no. Thomas chose the exact right ending. In a world where queer and trans characters, especially those who are also people of the global majority, die more often than they live, and where, let's face it, real life isn't working out much better for queer and trans people, a book where the queer characters not only live but triumph and flourish and show the cishets a thing or two? Yeah. That's exactly the ending this book needed.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Deadnaming, Animal death, Dysphoria, and Medical content

Minor: Body shaming and Fatphobia

ellacole03's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted 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

4.25

I really enjoyed a look at the trans community through the lens of Spanish culture. With its culture being rooted in tradition, I like how the dad realized that transition and adaptability will keep the roots of the tradition thriving. I am not of Hispanic descent, but I really enjoyed the references to Dia de las Muertos and the casual use of Spanish, because it taught me some stuff that I don't think I even realized. I was a little confused about what a portaje was for the longest, but after I got that it was a dagger, it made more sense.

I also enjoyed the fact that Julian was, in fact, alive and the uncle was corrupted,

but I had 2 key things I loved about this book. I loved Yadriel and Maritza's relationship and I loved how

Julian felt Spanish was an intimate thing for him, then spoke it with Yadriel. Their relationship burned at just the right pace to not feel unrealistic.

The only thing that kind of put me off was the beginning was kind of slow, but I understand that it was because it needed to set up the situation and explain what all the terms were. Overall, really good read!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Murder, Death of parent, and Death

Minor: Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Deadnaming, Animal death, Deportation, Transphobia, Blood, Car accident, and Dysphoria

immovabletype's review against another edition

emotional hopeful 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Dysphoria, Medical content, Transphobia, and Deadnaming

Minor: Child death, Cultural appropriation, Classism, Animal death, and Deportation

bashsbooks's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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? No

5.0

OMG I love this book! Yadriel & Julian are such great characters, loveable without being too perfect. Julian especially is an ideal bad-boy-softie character that I just adore. I also deeply enjoyed the amount of Spanish in this book (I feel like I learned some new words) and the drawing on Latin culture for the paranormal fantasy aspects. Bonus points for things not being completely hunky-dory for Yadriel as a trans person, but also for the narrative not being bogged down with only his struggles.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death, Cursing, Transphobia, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Deportation, Racism, Xenophobia, and Classism

Minor: Animal death, Gun violence, Medical content, Alcohol, and Deadnaming

-The religious bigotry is in the context of a fantasy religion wherein there is a strict gender binary that has to be followed. Functionally, it mirrors real-world religious bigotry, but it does not draw on one specifically.

lochanreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense 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

4.0

Cemetery Boys is a thrilling and emotional adventure. It has elements of paranormal romance in an urban fantasy setting. Yadriel is a strong main character that struggles to fit into his community of brujx (healers and guardians of deceased spirits) as a Latino gay trans boy. The story starts with a lot of momentum that immediately pulls you in and the characterisation was excellently executed. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Transphobia, Death, Deadnaming, Blood, and Death of parent