Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

107 reviews

purplepickle's review

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful 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: Death, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Cursing, Transphobia, Blood, Alcohol, Dysphoria, and Deportation

Minor: Animal death, Deadnaming, and Injury/Injury detail

tangleroot_eli's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad fast-paced

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

I spent the whole epilogue of this book crying. Then I just laid there staring at the sky, not really thinking anything, just... being. This is a beautiful book, and I'm so, so glad to have read it.

And, you know, at first "everyone lives" felt like a pulled punch of an ending. Surely, in a book literally about priestexes of death, someone has to die for everything to work out. But the more I think about it, the more I realize that, no. Thomas chose the exact right ending. In a world where queer and trans characters, especially those who are also people of the global majority, die more often than they live, and where, let's face it, real life isn't working out much better for queer and trans people, a book where the queer characters not only live but triumph and flourish and show the cishets a thing or two? Yeah. That's exactly the ending this book needed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Transphobia, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Deadnaming, Medical content, and Dysphoria

Minor: Body shaming and Fatphobia

ellacole03's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted 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

4.25

I really enjoyed a look at the trans community through the lens of Spanish culture. With its culture being rooted in tradition, I like how the dad realized that transition and adaptability will keep the roots of the tradition thriving. I am not of Hispanic descent, but I really enjoyed the references to Dia de las Muertos and the casual use of Spanish, because it taught me some stuff that I don't think I even realized. I was a little confused about what a portaje was for the longest, but after I got that it was a dagger, it made more sense.

I also enjoyed the fact that Julian was, in fact, alive and the uncle was corrupted,

but I had 2 key things I loved about this book. I loved Yadriel and Maritza's relationship and I loved how

Julian felt Spanish was an intimate thing for him, then spoke it with Yadriel. Their relationship burned at just the right pace to not feel unrealistic.

The only thing that kind of put me off was the beginning was kind of slow, but I understand that it was because it needed to set up the situation and explain what all the terms were. Overall, really good read!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Murder, and Abandonment

Minor: Animal death, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Transphobia, Blood, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Dysphoria, and Deportation

immovabletype's review

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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Deadnaming, Transphobia, Medical content, and Dysphoria

Minor: Animal death, Child death, Cultural appropriation, Classism, and Deportation

bashsbooks's review

adventurous emotional 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? No

5.0

OMG I love this book! Yadriel & Julian are such great characters, loveable without being too perfect. Julian especially is an ideal bad-boy-softie character that I just adore. I also deeply enjoyed the amount of Spanish in this book (I feel like I learned some new words) and the drawing on Latin culture for the paranormal fantasy aspects. Bonus points for things not being completely hunky-dory for Yadriel as a trans person, but also for the narrative not being bogged down with only his struggles.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Transphobia, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Racism, Xenophobia, Classism, and Deportation

Minor: Animal death, Deadnaming, Gun violence, Medical content, and Alcohol

-The religious bigotry is in the context of a fantasy religion wherein there is a strict gender binary that has to be followed. Functionally, it mirrors real-world religious bigotry, but it does not draw on one specifically.

lochanreads's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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? No

4.0

Cemetery Boys is a thrilling and emotional adventure. It has elements of paranormal romance in an urban fantasy setting. Yadriel is a strong main character that struggles to fit into his community of brujx (healers and guardians of deceased spirits) as a Latino gay trans boy. The story starts with a lot of momentum that immediately pulls you in and the characterisation was excellently executed. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Deadnaming, Death, Transphobia, Blood, and Death of parent

letheaster's review

adventurous emotional hopeful 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? Yes

4.0

This was such a good book, I was holding back tears in the epilogue, I think Aiden Thomas is an instabuy for me now. I got so emotionally attached to all the characters and I really felt I was in there in the story. This was just an excellent experience.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Transphobia, and Blood

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

Minor: Animal death

crumbofcare's review

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious 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? No

5.0

"Growth isn’t a deviation from what we’ve done before, but a natural progression to honor all those who make this community strong." 

Why did I let this book sit on my shelves for 6 months before starting it? I'm so mad at past-Carrie because it was incredible. This was a beautiful YA story. Every time Yadriel was misgendered I was ready to throw hands. 😡 Seeing him go through this journey was fantastic. I laughed, I cried, and I got mad at fictional characters... but I also cheered so hard for other fictional characters. This was everything I wanted from a paranormal YA.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Sexism, Transphobia, Violence, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Deadnaming, Fatphobia, and Deportation

cosmic_blooms's review

adventurous mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Racism, and Deportation

kaziaroo's review against another edition

emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

I was shocked when I read the acknowledgements at the end and found that the author wasn't originally going to write about a trans character and Latinx culture, because those, and the bold, loveable characters, are what really make this book stand out. Otherwise, the writing was a bit repetitive (there's lots of "Yadriel didn't know how to respond" and "Julian tilted his head") and the main mystery was very obvious, but the characters and the depictions of the different facets of their culture and how the characters each relate to the culture are special. It just goes to show that plot isn't everything.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Transphobia, Blood, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Cursing, Violence, Medical content, Death of parent, Murder, Outing, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Physical abuse, Xenophobia, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, and Deportation