Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

279 reviews

tallnecked_pancakeface's review

adventurous emotional tense fast-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Deadnaming, Transphobia, Blood, Grief, and Outing

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Deportation

genevieve5's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Transphobia, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Deadnaming, Violence, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Child abuse

dmrains's review

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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? No

5.0

I loved every second of reading this book! I was excited that I called *part* of the ending, but was still struck by the twist! Excellent use of foreshadowing. Incredibly realistic characters and development of stakes & tension, ESPECIALLY for a debut novel!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Death, Transphobia, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Deportation

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Homophobia, Car accident, and Alcohol

Brief mention/discussion of gang activity, dismissal of "Street kids"

lifeinsherds's review

emotional funny inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

I really loved Cemetery Boys. The setting, the main characters and the heartache of loss and coming of age in a family that doesn't understand you. The only reason I'm not giving this book 5 stars is because I think it wraps up the main mystery WAY too quickly.

I'm happy to say this is not a story where the LGBTQ+ characters end up dead. EVERYBODY LIVES.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Transphobia, Abandonment, and Deportation

Minor: Deadnaming, Medical content, and Dysphoria

stwriter92's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

(Review coming)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

antijeffbozo_love2read's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Deadnaming, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, Dysphoria, and Deportation

Minor: Deadnaming, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Car accident, Death of parent, Outing, Cultural appropriation, Injury/Injury detail, and Deportation

liaer's review

emotional funny mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

I liked this book overall. I felt like Julian and Yadriel's relationship was really sweet, of a bit rushed. I wish the Maritza was more involved in the later third of the book. It kind of felt like she fell off without any explanation.

I feel a little conflicted on Catriz being the villain. This is because he was the only one (except for this mom) who wholeheartedly supported Yadriel's transition. Although, I did think was an interesting allegory of how even cis men are denied manhood based on normative gender roles.

Overall, I liked it. I thought the relationship was cute and the mystery was just mysterious enough to keep me going. I think my biggest complaint is that I wish the side characters were more well developed (especially

Julian's friends)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Car accident and Deportation

sadie_g's review

adventurous emotional funny medium-paced

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

4.5

I'd had this book for a while and just never read it and I'm so glad I finally did! It was so good, I loved the relationships and friendships and how deep they all were. You could tell that these characters were truly found family to each other. 

The story itself was fun and the mystery had me intrigued the whole time. I'm very happy with how the book ended, even though I suspected it would end this way. I do wish the reveal at the end was a bit longer but otherwise, this book was great. 

Has great representation and believable characters. The setting was so cool, and I liked the magical elements of this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Transphobia, and Blood

Moderate: Deadnaming, Violence, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Car accident

swimmingwolf59's review

adventurous emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

I really loved the world building in this book, it was an extremely cool setting!! I also enjoyed the mystery aspect of the book, and I'm happy that I was able to figure it out 😄 I also love Julian, my sweet child 🥹 But I didn't vibe with the main character very much and the pacing of the book was a bit slow for my taste. This is just a personal thing too, but I prefer when world building is slowly unfurled as the book goes on, so the info dump at the beginning of this book was a bit much for my tastes. Still an enjoyable read though!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Deadnaming, Gun violence, Racism, Transphobia, Car accident, and Deportation

glen3's review

adventurous dark emotional funny 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Blood, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Death, Racism, Violence, Murder, Outing, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Body horror, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Homophobia, Police brutality, Car accident, Classism, and Deportation