Reviews tagging 'Hate crime'

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

5 reviews

theirgracegrace's review

emotional inspiring 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? Yes

4.5

An astounding book with no shortage of heart-wrenching teen drama. Yadriel is a brujo, one of the male members of a necromantic tradition stretching back to pre-colonial Central America. He is also transgender and accidentally falls in love with the first spirit he raises, Julian. With the backdrop of a mysterious death in the brujo community and the possibility that Julian's death is linked, I literally burned the midnight oil to read the end of this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Transphobia, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Medical content, Cursing, Grief, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Murder, Sexism, Stalking, Misogyny, Bullying, Confinement, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, Outing, Torture, Violence, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Racism, Body shaming, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Suicide, Animal cruelty, Car accident, Deadnaming, Deportation, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Colonisation, Alcohol, and Vomit

recycled_personalities's review

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective sad 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

Genuinely such a good read. It was really comforting queer representation and that definitely made me happy. It’s a LITTLE slow at the very beginning but please don’t make the mistake of giving up on it! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Gore, Abandonment, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Cursing, Deadnaming, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Homophobia, Dysphoria, Gaslighting, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Outing, Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Transphobia, Violence, and Xenophobia

deadpoetsam's review

adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death, Dysphoria, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Death of parent, Grief, Racism, Deadnaming, Murder, and Transphobia

Minor: Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Hate crime, Alcohol, Child death, Homophobia, Medical content, and Emotional abuse

cherie_mishu's review

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-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

4.0

“You don't need anyone's permission to be you, Yads.”

Rating

Overall: 4/5
Characters: 5/5
Setting: 4/5
Writing: 3.5/5
Plot and Themes: 3/5


Content and trigger warnings:
↷Blood magic (referenced), Character abuse, Deadnaming of a trans character, Death, Gender dysphoria, Homophobia, Misgendering of a trans character, Transphobia

review

I really enjoyed the relationships between all the characters, especially Yads and Jules' relationship and how it formed. However I do believe the overall plot was kind of... obvious, as in it would obviously end up being someone close to them that end up hurting them. But the whole storyline throughout the chapters is what kept me going, wanting to learn more abut the characters, how relationships formed and what exactly would happen! I found the book to be a average paced read at least and didn't rush myself to get through. I definitely would love to talk about the characters, I believe the culture and characters are really what made this book stand out.

Conclusion

Pros: really enjoyed seeing the difference in culture and how they view lgbt folks
Cons: overall ending didn't give much of a surprise or suspense
Overall 4/5 stars

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Religious bigotry, Bullying, Child abuse, Transphobia, Deadnaming, Dysphoria, Child death, Racism, and Hate crime

bencaroline's review

dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Death of parent, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, and Transphobia

Minor: Kidnapping, Medical content, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Trafficking, Xenophobia, and Deadnaming

"Terminal illness" is a good approximation for the magical condition of this world where one can temporarily continue 'living' as a ghost-type spirit. Treated extremely compassionately in the text. I am editing this after looking at the other content warnings; I would contend that the transphobia in this book is moderate at most. To me (a trans person), this is first and foremost a book about trans joy--no that that would negate extreme transphobia, but to me the depictions of trans acceptance and euphoria are WAY more present in the book than the negative bits, and I want to say that. There are no graphic depictions of transphobic violence, and iirc only brief descriptions of familial rejection or bigotry; Yadriel's family/community has a lot of latent transphobia, BUT, they seem to be working towards embracing his identity.