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ems_book_shelf's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
WOW I LOVED THIS BOOK. I was pulled into the story immediately, the pacing was fantastic, the mystery/adventure aspect was so fun to read. I really liked Julian and Yads as characters on their own, but especially together. Their relationship was so cute, and I wasn’t sure how the book was going to end, there were definitely some tears shed, but I’m so so soooo happy with this book
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Deadnaming, Death, Child death, Death of parent, and Kidnapping
Moderate: Classism, Deportation, and Grief
bbelitz's review
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Medical trauma, Racism, Death, Death of parent, Violence, Deadnaming, Grief, Kidnapping, Murder, Gaslighting, Transphobia, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Child death
angelfireeast24's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Blood, Child death, Death of parent, Grief, Violence, and Transphobia
Moderate: Classism, Death, and Deportation
Minor: Racism
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
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 thatwhen Julian said "mi querido" I screamed.
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
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
astralfeline's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
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
5.0
I tried starting this book multiple times throughout the past couple yrs and for some reason was never hooked in the first couple chapters. But I was determined to make it happen this time since I'd heard so many good things about this book and I have to say I wish I'd read it earlier 😭 This is the sweetest story. I love the lgbt (especially trans) rep in this story. I love the characters and how they feel like real people with their own motivations and interests. I loved the added details about Día de Muertos while also adding in the extra magical elements making it a bit more fantasy feeling. The character interactions and relationships amongst each other are so well done. And I think the plot and overall storyline is just perfect. It didn't feel like it dragged at any point, but it wasn't too short either. I loved listening to the audiobook and reading along at the same time so I could see the spelling of any Spanish words or phrases and easily translate them if needed. Also the chemistry and interactions between Julian and Yadriel definitely had me giggling and kicking my feet, it was just so cute. I'm so glad this book had a happy ending because towards the end it definitely had me in tears
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief, Death, and Blood
Minor: Death of parent, Transphobia, and Dysphoria
thebakersbooks's review
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
5/5 stars — a poignant, heart-stopping story culminating in tragedy and joy
When I say I want more representation of marginalized groups in science fiction and fantasy, Cemetery Boys is case in point. Main character Yadriel is a gay, trans, Latinx boy, and the cast includes mostly other people of color, several of whom are also queer. The characters’ ethnicities, religions, genders, and sexualities play into the story, but they’re not all the story’s about. It’s hard to discuss this without seeming dismissive of the need for a range of good representation across genres, but there’s a place for both books that center the real-world struggles and triumphs of marginalization and books where those struggles and triumphs happen alongside ghost stories and magic. But what I appreciated most about Cemetery Boys was that while the difficulties of existing at the crux of several marginalized identities cropped up in the story, the main sources of pain/drama/angst came from fantasy sources that weren’t identity-centered.
Cemetery Boys also drives home a point that critics of fanfiction—and of fanfic writers, both past and current—repeatedly fail to understand. The point is this: it doesn’t matter if you know how the story’s going to turn out; even if you’ve seen it play out similarly a hundred times before and you see where it’s going, the author can deliver that conclusion in an emotionally satisfying way. I don’t know if Aiden Thomas has written fanfic (my money says yes), but even though I guessed the antagonist and some elements of the climax around halfway through the book, the ending contained plenty of surprises in its execution. It’s why we say “trope” isn’t a bad word—tropes exist for a reason, and they don’t always have to be used in surprising ways to bring a story to a brilliant end.
Frankly, the fact that the antagonist and end twist were guessable pretty early in the book might be my only critique of Cemetery Boys. This is one of my favorite books ever, nearly perfect from the standpoints of craft and pure enjoyment value. Like his protagonist, Thomas is trans, gay, and Latinx, so his understanding of the nuance of the ways those identities intersect shines through in Yadriel. Only part of that identity applies to me, but the realness of Yadriel’s moments of joy, pain, and awkwardness were validating—particularly to a younger and more confused version of me. Despite everything this book puts its characters through, it left me feeling hopeful.
So, the story: What starts out as Yadriel’s quest to prove to his family and community that he’s a brujo with all the abilities that implies becomes the perilous search for a killer who’s disappearing young Latinx people—among them, a boy named Julian. When Yadriel’s friend Maritza and Julian’s friend Luca volunteer to help in the search for Julian, things get even more complicated. Friendships form an enduring theme in Cemetery Boys—it’s clear when an author thinks romance is more important than friendship, and that definitely wasn’t the case here. Maritza and Luca are very different kinds of friends (one snarky, one soft) but both are ride or die when the safety of their loved ones is at stake. Similarly, family is both a source of strength and conflict in the story, but it’s never pushed aside by the writing or framed as second to *relationship drama* or anything else.
In fact, the romance in Cemetery Boys is, for all its angst and potential for tragedy, not a huge part of the book. In parts where it was the focus, I never found it overpowering compared to other plot events. Also, I thought the romantic relationship did a great job of avoiding insta-love territory. Yadriel initially finds Julian inconvenient and annoying and only slowly decides that he’s attractive. It takes even longer before any kind of rapport develops between them and that turns into romance. (Although, as romantic gestures go, scribbling out your crush’s deadname in his yearbook and writing his real name over it is up there.)
Thomas’ knack for creating real-feeling characters and gradually picking them apart leads to some absolutely gutting moments. Even though you can see the heartbreak coming, that doesn’t make it hurt any less when it actually happens! And I mean that as a compliment. Characterization may be one of the author’s strong suits, but certainly not the only one. The book is full of stunningly descriptive imagery, especially describing angry teenagers, churches, and Día de Muertos details like sugar skulls and marigolds. Although—or maybe because —it makes time to show detail and build elaborate character relationships, the pacing never lags in the second act, nor does anything feel rushed in the third. The emotional beats fall where they should, embellished by brutally raw dialogue and more of that gorgeous descriptive prose.
Let’s talk about gender-affirming worldbuilding for a second. The magic system in Cemetery Boys is described as being built around a gender binary: brujas heal living people who suffer; brujos guide spirits who are lost. The magic itself correctly identifies Yadriel as male, so when he tries to perform a female-only ability, it backfires, whereas the male-only one works. (Also, the binary-ness turns out to be partially a product of Yadriel as a narrator with a narrow scope of history: as Julian later points out, there must have been nonbinary brujx and others who didn’t conform to the narrow binary system in the past.) On this subject, the brujx’ knives or rosaries are used to indicate things about their characters—the style, whether they’re adorned with extra charms, etc., which is the kind of fun yet functional worldbuilding I love to see. Finally, I’d be remiss not to mention how the world and its magic are based on various Latinx cultures. I’m not Latinx, so I’m sure I missed some of the references/details, but I enjoyed the way traditions from various places mixed during Día de Muertos and among the brujx in general. And I liked how if there was a long or complex passage in Spanish, it's translated into English, but individual words—even those that weren’t obvious cognates, like sobrino—weren’t translated. People can Google that stuff if they don't know it and can't infer the meaning!
Random good parts that may not all make sense out of context but that I would be remiss not to point out
- an immediate, first-chapter indication that Yadriel is trans (I think he mentions his binder or something) without spelling it out super obviously
- the MC is a SHORT trans boy! Yadriel bemoans that he’s only “a little over five feet”
- “His dead name slipped from her mouth,” instead of actually using the old name is an excellent way of dealing with trans names.
- Julian’s intro is really cool! Definitely one of the most unique ways to introduce a love interest I’ve ever read.
- so nice that Julian, despite being introduced as an archetypical ‘bad boy,’ accepts that Yadriel is trans without any big deal, and thinks it’s messed up that others don’t treat Yadriel (in his own words) like a “real boy.
- “My tacos!” - Julian, finding moldy food on the ground.
- Tito, the spirit gardener who tended flowers all his life and continues to grow them in death—especially flowers for Día de los Muertas, which are his pride and joy.
- Maritza’s family’s pitbulls, Michelangelo and Donatello
- cempasúchil! Every instance where they were described sounded so pretty.
- the romance: “How could he possibly recover from falling for Julian Diaz?” and “Yadriel would happily let himself be consumed by Julian’s fire.”
- an actual non-forced, naturally incorporated meme: “I’ve been—dude, stop screaming—”
This book ripped my heart out and glued it back together wrong way out. That is to say: I give it my highest recommendation, particularly to young people likely to relate to Yadriel and/or Julian. The writing is stellar, the audiobook narration is excellent, and the overall package is absolutely worth your time. (I’d like to mention here that Avi Roque, a trans Latinx narrator, was a great choice for the storytelling and really made the characters come alive. This was apparently their first audiobook narration, too!)
Content notes: death of a loved one; repeated mention of death, dying, and grief; graphic depiction of death on-page; mention of shooting and stabbing; gangs; parental/familial abuse; youth homelessness; transphobia including misgendering and mentioned deadnaming, police profiling based on race
When I say I want more representation of marginalized groups in science fiction and fantasy, Cemetery Boys is case in point. Main character Yadriel is a gay, trans, Latinx boy, and the cast includes mostly other people of color, several of whom are also queer. The characters’ ethnicities, religions, genders, and sexualities play into the story, but they’re not all the story’s about. It’s hard to discuss this without seeming dismissive of the need for a range of good representation across genres, but there’s a place for both books that center the real-world struggles and triumphs of marginalization and books where those struggles and triumphs happen alongside ghost stories and magic. But what I appreciated most about Cemetery Boys was that while the difficulties of existing at the crux of several marginalized identities cropped up in the story, the main sources of pain/drama/angst came from fantasy sources that weren’t identity-centered.
Cemetery Boys also drives home a point that critics of fanfiction—and of fanfic writers, both past and current—repeatedly fail to understand. The point is this: it doesn’t matter if you know how the story’s going to turn out; even if you’ve seen it play out similarly a hundred times before and you see where it’s going, the author can deliver that conclusion in an emotionally satisfying way. I don’t know if Aiden Thomas has written fanfic (my money says yes), but even though I guessed the antagonist and some elements of the climax around halfway through the book, the ending contained plenty of surprises in its execution. It’s why we say “trope” isn’t a bad word—tropes exist for a reason, and they don’t always have to be used in surprising ways to bring a story to a brilliant end.
Frankly, the fact that the antagonist and end twist were guessable pretty early in the book might be my only critique of Cemetery Boys. This is one of my favorite books ever, nearly perfect from the standpoints of craft and pure enjoyment value. Like his protagonist, Thomas is trans, gay, and Latinx, so his understanding of the nuance of the ways those identities intersect shines through in Yadriel. Only part of that identity applies to me, but the realness of Yadriel’s moments of joy, pain, and awkwardness were validating—particularly to a younger and more confused version of me. Despite everything this book puts its characters through, it left me feeling hopeful.
So, the story: What starts out as Yadriel’s quest to prove to his family and community that he’s a brujo with all the abilities that implies becomes the perilous search for a killer who’s disappearing young Latinx people—among them, a boy named Julian. When Yadriel’s friend Maritza and Julian’s friend Luca volunteer to help in the search for Julian, things get even more complicated. Friendships form an enduring theme in Cemetery Boys—it’s clear when an author thinks romance is more important than friendship, and that definitely wasn’t the case here. Maritza and Luca are very different kinds of friends (one snarky, one soft) but both are ride or die when the safety of their loved ones is at stake. Similarly, family is both a source of strength and conflict in the story, but it’s never pushed aside by the writing or framed as second to *relationship drama* or anything else.
In fact, the romance in Cemetery Boys is, for all its angst and potential for tragedy, not a huge part of the book. In parts where it was the focus, I never found it overpowering compared to other plot events. Also, I thought the romantic relationship did a great job of avoiding insta-love territory. Yadriel initially finds Julian inconvenient and annoying and only slowly decides that he’s attractive. It takes even longer before any kind of rapport develops between them and that turns into romance. (Although, as romantic gestures go, scribbling out your crush’s deadname in his yearbook and writing his real name over it is up there.)
Thomas’ knack for creating real-feeling characters and gradually picking them apart leads to some absolutely gutting moments. Even though you can see the heartbreak coming, that doesn’t make it hurt any less when it actually happens! And I mean that as a compliment. Characterization may be one of the author’s strong suits, but certainly not the only one. The book is full of stunningly descriptive imagery, especially describing angry teenagers, churches, and Día de Muertos details like sugar skulls and marigolds. Although—or maybe because —it makes time to show detail and build elaborate character relationships, the pacing never lags in the second act, nor does anything feel rushed in the third. The emotional beats fall where they should, embellished by brutally raw dialogue and more of that gorgeous descriptive prose.
Let’s talk about gender-affirming worldbuilding for a second. The magic system in Cemetery Boys is described as being built around a gender binary: brujas heal living people who suffer; brujos guide spirits who are lost. The magic itself correctly identifies Yadriel as male, so when he tries to perform a female-only ability, it backfires, whereas the male-only one works. (Also, the binary-ness turns out to be partially a product of Yadriel as a narrator with a narrow scope of history: as Julian later points out, there must have been nonbinary brujx and others who didn’t conform to the narrow binary system in the past.) On this subject, the brujx’ knives or rosaries are used to indicate things about their characters—the style, whether they’re adorned with extra charms, etc., which is the kind of fun yet functional worldbuilding I love to see. Finally, I’d be remiss not to mention how the world and its magic are based on various Latinx cultures. I’m not Latinx, so I’m sure I missed some of the references/details, but I enjoyed the way traditions from various places mixed during Día de Muertos and among the brujx in general. And I liked how if there was a long or complex passage in Spanish, it's translated into English, but individual words—even those that weren’t obvious cognates, like sobrino—weren’t translated. People can Google that stuff if they don't know it and can't infer the meaning!
Random good parts that may not all make sense out of context but that I would be remiss not to point out
- an immediate, first-chapter indication that Yadriel is trans (I think he mentions his binder or something) without spelling it out super obviously
- the MC is a SHORT trans boy! Yadriel bemoans that he’s only “a little over five feet”
- “His dead name slipped from her mouth,” instead of actually using the old name is an excellent way of dealing with trans names.
- Julian’s intro is really cool! Definitely one of the most unique ways to introduce a love interest I’ve ever read.
- so nice that Julian, despite being introduced as an archetypical ‘bad boy,’ accepts that Yadriel is trans without any big deal, and thinks it’s messed up that others don’t treat Yadriel (in his own words) like a “real boy.
- “My tacos!” - Julian, finding moldy food on the ground.
- Tito, the spirit gardener who tended flowers all his life and continues to grow them in death—especially flowers for Día de los Muertas, which are his pride and joy.
- Maritza’s family’s pitbulls, Michelangelo and Donatello
- cempasúchil! Every instance where they were described sounded so pretty.
- the romance: “How could he possibly recover from falling for Julian Diaz?” and “Yadriel would happily let himself be consumed by Julian’s fire.”
- an actual non-forced, naturally incorporated meme: “I’ve been—dude, stop screaming—”
This book ripped my heart out and glued it back together wrong way out. That is to say: I give it my highest recommendation, particularly to young people likely to relate to Yadriel and/or Julian. The writing is stellar, the audiobook narration is excellent, and the overall package is absolutely worth your time. (I’d like to mention here that Avi Roque, a trans Latinx narrator, was a great choice for the storytelling and really made the characters come alive. This was apparently their first audiobook narration, too!)
Content notes: death of a loved one; repeated mention of death, dying, and grief; graphic depiction of death on-page; mention of shooting and stabbing; gangs; parental/familial abuse; youth homelessness; transphobia including misgendering and mentioned deadnaming, police profiling based on race
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Transphobia and Racism
Minor: Gun violence, Police brutality, and Grief
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!
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!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood
Moderate: Deportation, Transphobia, Child death, Death, and Grief
Minor: Classism, Mental illness, Deadnaming, and Car accident
heartprint's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
5 stars - i say with tears streaking down my face.
this book felt like a squeeze of a hand. a friendship bracelet. a lighthouse beacon. my heart has leapt, fallen and been soothed all throughout this story. my grief has ebbed and flowed in the in-betweens of this story. yadriel and julian's story melted into my heart. where do i even begin with this? i ended up caring so deeply about the characters here in such a short amount of time. i read this outside and started hysterically sobbing at the 86% mark because i cared and i dreaded finishing this book. i feared finishing it.
what a story. i suppose it's time for me to make a cup of tea.
this book felt like a squeeze of a hand. a friendship bracelet. a lighthouse beacon. my heart has leapt, fallen and been soothed all throughout this story. my grief has ebbed and flowed in the in-betweens of this story. yadriel and julian's story melted into my heart. where do i even begin with this? i ended up caring so deeply about the characters here in such a short amount of time. i read this outside and started hysterically sobbing at the 86% mark because i cared and i dreaded finishing this book. i feared finishing it.
what a story. i suppose it's time for me to make a cup of tea.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief and Death
Minor: Deadnaming
psitstorrie's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
The premise and characters are fantastic. The pacing is very inconsistent though. It starts off so, so slow, but right at the end it is full steam ahead, with little built in between. I enjoyed the book a lot though, and it was really nice seeing the family dynamics play out how they did. It’s fun and dark at the same time
Content Warnings
Graphic: Dysphoria, Death, Abandonment, Murder, Transphobia, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Deadnaming, Grief, and Death of parent
Minor: Animal death and Car accident