Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

70 reviews

sapphic_alpaca's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Violence, Death, Gore, Body horror, Cursing, Blood, Dysphoria, Transphobia, Grief, Misogyny, and Sexism

Moderate: Racism, Xenophobia, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Deadnaming

Minor: Homophobia, Abandonment, Fire/Fire injury, Classism, Deportation, and Sexual content

rieviolet's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

3.5

I listened to the audiobook version so this is going to colour my review/rating a bit, because I'm still trying to get used to this medium of reading, and my mind doesn't always cooperate and tends to wander a lot.

I felt like the beginning and the end of the story were stronger and more memorable, whereas the middle part was a bit slow and, to be honest, I remember very little of what happened, it all kind of blurred together.

I really liked the representation of the trans experience thorugh the character of Yadriel. We got to see the big and more evident aspects of it, but also the little and everyday details. 

I appreciated the cultural elements, as well as their more fantastical re-imagination; though I think maybe at times the author verged into overexplanation. I also liked the interspersed sentences and expressions in Spanish.

I wasn't quite sold at the beginning on the romance but, as the story progressed, it got better and I'm not ashamed to say that

when Julian said "mi querido"

I screamed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Racism, and Transphobia

Moderate: Death of parent, Sexism, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Kidnapping, Gore, Child death, Religious bigotry, Murder, Dysphoria, Child abuse, Deadnaming, and Violence

Minor: Abandonment, Drug use, Cultural appropriation, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Bullying, Classism, Deportation, Homophobia, Animal cruelty, Self harm, and Torture

laurenmiller100's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny medium-paced

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

3.25

The book is incredibly YA in the writing style and with the characters. But I just finished Sharp Objects so I might just be extra jarred. In many ways this reminds me of legendborn. My biggest complaint is that at the end

I knew that it was the uncle. I could also see the jaguar claws/forbidden ritual coming. I admit that I’m glad that they found a way to save Julian. But each of the characters dying and then screaming for each other really messed with the seriousness of the situation. It sort of felt like everyone needed their moment. Also, every time they talked about “outing” Julian as dead I gagged a bit.

Ending a bit predictable. The romance and teenage highjinks sort of slowed down the plot. The hints to the mystery were more so given to the characters by happenstance rather than through their own actions which made the plot feel slow.

• Characters 5
• Atmosphere/Setting 7
• Writing Style 4
• Plot 5
• Intrigue 6
• Logic/Relationships 6
• Enjoyment 7

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia

Moderate: Deadnaming, Gore, and Violence

ageckocalledachilles's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Gore, Transphobia, Violence, Kidnapping, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Death, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Homophobia, Outing, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Racism, Lesbophobia, Kidnapping, Police brutality, Medical content, and Classism

meheehee's review

adventurous funny 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Cursing, Murder, Transphobia, Death of parent, and Death

Minor: Deportation, Deadnaming, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, and Medical content

madamenovelist's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Death, Grief, Death of parent, Gore, Murder, Medical trauma, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Transphobia, Ableism, and Cursing

mnerd63's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious slow-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Blood, and Violence

Moderate: Transphobia

styxx's review

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Blood, Death, Grief, Murder, Violence, Kidnapping, Deadnaming, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

ktv's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

I was kinda bored in the middle. It was very tell and not show for a lot of it too. Overall enjoyable tho. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gore, and Transphobia

luly_sc's review

adventurous emotional hopeful 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? No

4.25

 I had been wanting to read this book for SO long and I'm very happy to finally get there.

I think this is a good first novel from the author and there are a lot of great things that make it a very entertaining and captivating read, but there are also some very clear times in which I feel a tighter editing was needed. 

As a Latina, I find that the lore and the worldbuilding are very well crafted. I don't share all of the same cultural traditions that were used as basis but I can recognize most and I think there was a very interesting job of crafting a vivid world and a very genuine fantasy dynamic. There are tons of YA books out there, some incredibly popular, with worlds that are very superficial but this one feels like it came from a place of love and it's appreciated. 

The characters are super loveable and they really are what made me the most excited to keep reading. They move the story along  and, even if sometimes are frustrating (they're teens, after all), you can sense where they come from and you root for them to be ok. I also appreciate so much the inclusion of found family within this world, because Latine culture in media tends to be more focused on blood families, so the inclusion of Julian's (I've been pronouncing it as Julián, I’m not sure that was the intent) friends is greatly appreciated. 

Spanish-wise, it's mostly good. There is the very consistent discourse of the x vs the e for gender neutrality in "informal" Spanish (hopefully formal at some point). We Spanish speakers prefer the e and English speaking Latine descendants who live elsewhere tend to use the x, which is what this book uses. The discourse is bigger than one novel can be responsible for, so I will just put a pin on that. There was only one phrase that I found rather strange as it was worded (nearing the end, in a pretty crucial moment), but other than that, Spanish was well used and had some pronunciation spellings that I appreciated (like the use of vivaporú). 

My biggest issues with the book were things that a tighter editing job would have probably reduced. 

The exposition was handled in a rather info-dumping way, with a very heavy hand on crucial elements of the “plot twist”, which made several key elements very obvious from the very start (I could predict the antagonist, weapon, motive and part of the solution incredibly early on). This isn’t in itself a problem if the story makes it worth the while for a reader who gets it so soon, but it was used as a “surprise” when it wasn’t really one. This could have been avoided by either 1) having a better spread of information, 2) not laying the important clues so obviously, 3) revealing these things earlier or 4) making it less about the surprise and more about how we get there. 

But the way in which the narrative was constructed was a bit erratic in how it moved the characters along. The characters are amazing and their interactions are all enjoyable, but how they went about it felt somewhat forced and sometimes unnecessary. There was sometimes more about how they got from point A to point B and less about what they actually did there. A lot of going from home to school to Maritza’s house, getting in, getting out, with those actions never really changing. 

That time could have been spent in things that gave us more of the characters, rather than having Yadriel waste pages convincing Julian to go to school with him, even though we start the book with Yadriel breaking rules. 

All in all, I appreciated this book immensely and it was 100% worth the wait for me. I’m happy to hear there will be more from this world and characters, I am definitely wanting to see them again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, and Transphobia

Minor: Violence