Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

74 reviews

purplepickle's review

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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Murder

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

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

moniipeters's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense 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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Transphobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, and Deportation

bashsbooks's review

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.

---

Content Warnings

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

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

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

-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.

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. 

---

Content Warnings

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

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

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

tisya's review

emotional hopeful lighthearted slow-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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Blood

Moderate: Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Racism, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Death of parent, and Dysphoria

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.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Transphobia, Blood, and Dysphoria

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

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

roadesntoades's review

adventurous dark emotional funny tense 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

Never has there a book that left like such a true reflection of queer youth in Latin communities. If people don’t like this book, they are not people I’d like to know.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Incest, Transphobia, Blood, Medical trauma, and Death of parent

Moderate: Child death, Deadnaming, Homophobia, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Chronic illness, Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Outing

journey2's review

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.

---

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

phoebemurtagh's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Murder

Minor: Cursing, Deadnaming, Kidnapping, Car accident, and Fire/Fire injury

philippmk's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

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

4.0

To be honest, this book took me a while to get into. The ghost-romance was strange in the beginning, but the more time we spent with Yadriel and Julian, the more invested I was in their relationship and understood why they would fall for each other.
I also enjoyed the way this book used magic, with only a small amount of spells available to the brujx that are easy to understand for the reader and connect to the main theme of the book. It's only slightly frustrating that the extend to which ghosts can become physical is a little unclear, e.g. they will take the stairs or sit in a moving car like a living person, but also casually walk through other objects.
The best friend character I found absolutely annoying throughout the book. Although it was interesting to include some elements that feel more contemporary such as veganism into this fantasy world, her only other purpose seemed to yell "YADS!" every few pages.

This, unfortunately, extends to the climax of the book. The final, yet really only confrontation with the antagonist would've been a lot stronger if it had just been Yadriel against his uncle. It would've also felt stronger had we gotten more than just a brief appearances of Yadriel's uncle. Even though I had a feeling it was going to be him when we entered the cave, there really was no indication that he could be so cold-blooded.
And while there was a lot of yelling throughout the climax, both the goddess' dialogue and her followers' attitude seemed strangely casual to her appearance.

 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Self harm, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Deadnaming, Death of parent, and Alcohol