Reviews with content warning for Physical abuse - Cemetery Boys

On the one hand, the whole murder mystery was incredibly predictable, with grandma asking whether anyone has seen the plot device multiple times and there only being one person who has an obvious motif for using said plot device.
On the other hand I love these characters and they have all my uwus, so. 4 stars. A good time.

Content Warnings

lunarlibra's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I absolutely fell in love with the characters, there were multiple times i had to put the book down and run around my living room before coming back to it.
I felt so seen in Yadriel's anxious tendencies, but the bigger surprise for me was recognizing the struggles i had as a teenager with ADHD reflected in Julian. Full of energy and quick to anger, just like I was at that age!
The trans representation meant a lot to me. There are details of some struggles but also a lot of love and support! And reading about the ups and downs Yadriel has with his Latinx family felt like coming home.
It took me a few chapters to get sucked in, but once I did I couldn't put it down!

Content Warnings

nibs's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I loved this book. I was swept up into Yadriel's world and I just loved the representation so much. Having a gay trans protagonist, actually written by a trans person, was so relatable for me.
Some aspects of the writing itself could have done with more editing, but ultimately words are just a vessel for the story and the story itself was really engaging. The characters were all really multi-dimensional, and were challenging eachothers ideas of eachother and beliefs.

Content Warnings

sssssss's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

this book! this book... it’s so amazing, to start off with. I read it for the first time a few weeks ago and since then have already started my reread of it. I don’t even know how to put into words my love of this book. just please read it, you will not regret it (but check out the content warnings first!)

also the line, « no, none of us deserved julian diaz » 😭😭😭

also to add, the characters are so well-developed and each of them feel so real. even the side characters feel like they have their own distinct personality and the main characters were well fleshed-out. the fears, wants and thoughts of these characters also are so realistic to their personalities. i just love this book 🥺😭😭.

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Blood

Moderate: Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexism, and Transphobia

Minor: Deadnaming, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Xenophobia

The suicidal thoughts spolier is for something Julian says early on in reference to how his brother is probably glad that he is gone. This isn’t necessarily an explicit suicidal thought but it’s the kind of thinking a lot of suicidal people can have. Additionally, it is mentioned at one point that the two parents of a dead/missing character go to the police to report them missing but the police begin to question them and it is mentioned the police wanted to deport them (they are latinx, I don’t remember their exact ethnicity/(ies). One of the reasons put for this was that they spoke very little english, and the police often respond to this with the xenophobic and racist reaction of wanting to deport them. The characters do not end up getting deported, luckily. At the end (cult tw) and major spoilers for the end of the book (scroll down to see a less detailed/spoilery tw of this)

there is a mention of the characters who were found alive in the old church having been part of a cult ritual as a police explanation. this could be triggering to some readers. additionally, while it is not necessarily a cult, there was a ritual used by a character that was going to kill 4 people. these people were found in time and the character performing the ritual dies instead, but this could also be triggering to some readers.

(cult mention) At the end, there are mentions of a cult in order to explain to people why something significant happened in the book. There are also mentions of a cult ritual. (minor spoilers)

There are an additional few scenes of a ritual taking place, although this ritual is not necessarily a cult ritual. One character dies, but the other characters end up okay.(injuries + stabbing mention)There are mentions of blood and stabbing, and a scene where a character gets a major stab wound. This character ends up okay.

Also mentioned parental abuse, though not explicitly shown. These mentions do not happen a ton but this book doesn’t shy away from being real, so just for a warning. At one point, (animal abuse slightly, but not done purposefully) it is mentioned how the failed healing of a cat caused the cat to be harmed forever. the cat is not in pain but their leg is mutilated. also a warning for slightly unsafe binder use. of course all binder are different but make sure to look up the safety measures for using a binder if you do use one, as this book had some points of the mc sometimes misusing it. there are some mentions of the binder causing them to feel in pain when they are running or something similar, but they are brief. finally, there are a few brief instances of deadnaming. we see yadriel’s hurt reaction and know his thoughts and feelings on it, and this could be triggering. yadriel’s dead name is never spelled-outhowever, so the dead-naming is handled gracefully.

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