Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

8 reviews

birdieex's review

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted sad 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

5.0

I cannot begin to explain how many tears I shed from this book! Our main character is a gay, trans, Latino boy. The rep is absolutely incredible. The language and culture interwoven is beautiful. I found myself using an online translator for some words and phrases simply to get the direct meaning, but the author makes it possible to use context clues to figure it out if you don't speak Spanish and sometimes straight up tells you in text.

I fell in love with Yadriel and Julian a soon as they appeared on the page and I highlighted so many quotes the made me laugh. The characters are so strong and I was so absorbed in the world that I had trouble wanting to put the book down.

As a trans adult who was that trans teen fighting for their identity to be seen, that aspect affected me deeply. It was hard to see Yadriel's struggle since I related so much, but it was so beautifully written.

One of my favorite books by far! Can't wait to read more!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Dysphoria, Abandonment, Blood, Child abuse, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Outing, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Death of parent, Grief, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Deportation, Police brutality, Violence, Animal cruelty, Kidnapping, Alcohol, and Cursing

Minor: Cultural appropriation, Car accident, Sexism, Mental illness, and Misogyny

Women are discouraged from a certain job in the community.

offthecarousel_'s review

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring 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? It's complicated

5.0

 I loved this a lot!!

This LGBT coming-of-age story was extremely compelling and had a good ratio of mystery mixed with character development. The romance felt gradual and believable (what feels like a rarity for stories with MCs in high school) and was very cute.

A great book for trans representation and I believe both of the main characters are neurodivergent as well (anxiety and ADHD). I'm excited for the sequel.

I described Yadriel and Julian to my friends as "an anxious grumpy/reckless sunshine vibe." They're so fun! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Deportation, Transphobia, Child death, Death, and Grief

Minor: Classism, Mental illness, Deadnaming, and Car accident

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

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

a_libra_library's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Deportation, Deadnaming, Panic attacks/disorders, Animal death, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Death of parent, Death, Abandonment, Homophobia, Blood, Body horror, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Racism, Religious bigotry, and Violence

victoriapatella's review

emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Transphobia

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, and Violence

Minor: Car accident, Child abuse, Cultural appropriation, Deadnaming, and Racism

fromjuliereads's review

adventurous dark funny hopeful mysterious 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

4.0

I really enjoyed this book! I loved the Spanish and the Latin culture and holidays brought into the story. It was so amazing to read. And I really liked the characters! I will admit that I saw the twist coming, it was kind of predictable. But that didn't take away from my enjoyment at all. Perfect read for the autumn season, especially October and Día de los Muertos. 

Definitely check the trigger warnings though!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, Racism, Torture, Transphobia, and Violence

Minor: Alcohol, Body shaming, Car accident, and Gun violence

The deadname isn't printed, but there is mention of deadname being used. Definitely some blatant transphobia on the pages as well.

sssssss's review

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 🥺😭😭. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Violence

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

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

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.