Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

81 reviews

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

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.

sunsorbit's review against another edition

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

4.0

This book also heavily features ghosts/spirits, and passingly mentions possession. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Transphobia, Blood, Grief, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Violence, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Medical content, and Murder

Minor: Child death, Homophobia, Car accident, Deportation, and Deadnaming

thebookpaiges's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Transphobia, Violence, Homophobia, and Blood

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Deadnaming, and Death of parent

Minor: Outing and Medical content

saltylane's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective 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

4.75

Great story, though the first quarter of the book was a bit rough to get through because it hit very close to home. I’m glad I stuck it out till the end, though. I really enjoyed spending time with the characters. I did predict the “twist” at the very beginning, but that didn’t make getting to that part any less enjoyable. 

I just wish all three of the main cast of characters got equal character development—or at least it wasn’t written like the third character didn’t exist when the other two were interacting or something else was going on. I feel like that would have made the characters seem more real and present within the story. 

The story was a little predictable at times, but it also had some surprises. Either way, it only got a little “boring” when there was more interiority than action happening. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Violence, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, Mental illness, and Cursing

Minor: Medical trauma, Transphobia, Outing, Kidnapping, Deadnaming, Gun violence, Vomit, Panic attacks/disorders, Classism, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Deportation, Racism, Cursing, Car accident, and Alcohol

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

erenrinren's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted mysterious 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? Yes

4.75

Cemetery Boys was an absolute treat to read. I loved all the characters and their interactions with each other. Yadriel as the main character was perfect choice and I enjoyed how his trans identity was incorporated with the traditions of the brujx. I liked the sense of secrecy around the mystery and it made sense why things were kept from the adults in the story for so long. It was great having a character use and mention wearing a binder!

Julian and Yadriel had such a great dynamic and it was enjoyable to see their relationship progress throughout the novel. I loved how we slowly learned about Julian throughout the novel too, while Yadriel was more of the type to wear everything on his sleeve. Maritza was lovely and her interactions with everyone were great. The characters' goals were clear, the plot was fun even though it was dealing with heavy stuff like death, as well as what it means to grieve/remember someone.

Throughout this novel there was a sense of almost sadness at the prospect of relationship between Julian and Yadriel, as they can't really be together as spirit and human.

But that ending though! I am so glad Yadriel had his hero moment and him and Julian can be together!

I have never read a novel about the traditions incorporated within such as Día de los Muertos, and it did not take me long to get familiarized with the importance of these traditions in this novel as well to real people around the world.

I would recommend this novel to anyone who is open-minded and loves to read about different cultures in young adult literature.

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Content Warnings

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

Minor: Cultural appropriation, Medical content, and Car accident

penofpossibilities's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful mysterious relaxing

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

3.5

Ngl I teared up at the end /pos

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Self harm, Murder, and Transphobia

Moderate: Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, and Dysphoria

Minor: Deadnaming

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: Blood and Transphobia

Moderate: Murder, Sexism, Grief, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Medical content, Deadnaming, and Deportation