Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

37 reviews

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

annathechaoticreader's review

adventurous dark emotional funny 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? It's complicated

5.0

Cemetery Boys found me at exactly the right moment and I’m in love. It’s a great romance but more than that it’s a fantastic exploration of colonialism, tradition and queer identities within a complex immigrant community/family. I laughed, I cried, I gasped, I audibly yelled ”wait…WHAT?!”while reading. The best Y/A book I’ve ever read and a new edition to my Favourite Books of All Time list. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Deadnaming, Death, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Homophobia, Racism, Police brutality, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, Colonisation, Classism, and Deportation

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Deadnaming, Racism, Xenophobia, Medical trauma, and Death of parent

Minor: Homophobia, Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Classism, and Deportation

jess_is_currentlyreading's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful mysterious 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

4.0

I enjoyed almost everything about this book. Even though I figured out the mystery by like 40% i was still interested in finishing the book and watching these characters develop. I liked the culture both fictional and real-world and the descriptions of everything were amazing! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Transphobia

Main character is trans and his fears of experiencing transphobia could be triggering, though nothing explicitly happens to him for being trans.

turquoisebell's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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? No

5.0

So pretty! I've never seen this type of magic system before, but I love it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body horror, and Deadnaming

roksyreads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring 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

3.5

It's taken me a long time to read this. I have tried 3 times previously, but never got more than a few chapters in. This time, I was determined to finish. Although it didn't captivate me immediately, this book has a great cast of characters, and centres around a trans coming of age story. Yadriel, a trans queer young man, and a collecti9n of diverse Latinx and queer secondary characters are well-developed, engaging, and relatable - faults and all. The romance sub-plot is super cute, and the focus on friendship and both personal/communal growth make for a strong character-focused story. I enjoyed the cultural immersion and vicarious experience, however the details didn't always fit comfortably into the narrative. Personally, I would also have enjoyed more suspense/mystery; the direction and identity of the big-bad was obvious very early on, which did somewhat diminish my enjoyment. Overall, an impressive debut which I believe should be on all urban fantasy reading lists.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Blood, and Death of parent

Minor: Body horror, Child death, Deadnaming, Transphobia, and Outing

merah's review

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious relaxing sad tense 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

the writing is absolutely incredible. 
I felt every single emotion while reading this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Racism, Suicide, Transphobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Dysphoria, and Deportation

Minor: Cancer, Confinement, Deadnaming, Terminal illness, Vomit, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, and Classism

loads of knives, blades, cuts and stabbings

braveprincess11's review against another edition

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? It's complicated

5.0

Aidan Thomas has become an instant-buy author for me after this. I can’t believe this was his debut novel!

It’s beautifully written, has a diverse cast of characters, the representation is incredible… and the story! The story is so gripping; I fell in love with Yadriel and his family from the moment they were introduced. His relationship with Maritza is so heartwarming and beautiful. Watching Yadriel and Julian’s friendship grow throughout the book, and seeing Julian’s relationship with his friends… 

I can’t wait to see what else Aidan Thomas comes out with; Sunbearer Trials has officially skyrocketed up my tbr 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Body horror

Minor: Deadnaming, Transphobia, Kidnapping, and Car accident

hannahbailey's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

Sadly I really struggled with this. The writing was very juvenile/wattpad-like in the sense that the prose was incredibly clunky and the secondary characters were underdeveloped. There were lots of filler chapters which really dragged and then conflict was resolved unrealistically quickly over a couple of pages. The plot didn’t seem well thought out and I was confused by the quick ‘twist’ and ending. Characters would mysteriously disappear during a scene only to save the day a few pages later with no explanation - there were lots of moments when I thought ‘wait, weren’t you here the whole time’?? The immaturity of the dialogue made this book feel more middle-grade to me, however I can see why it’s aimed at an older audience because of the graphic/heavy themes. Overall, I’m just surprised this got through the editing stages given how under-edited it feels 😔

TW: transphobia, death, death of parent, murder, violence, knife crime, blood, animal death, gore

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Deadnaming, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

_nutella52's review

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-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? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Homophobia, Racism, Transphobia, Grief, Death of parent, Outing, Dysphoria, and Deportation

Moderate: Body horror, Drug use, Gore, Blood, Car accident, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal death and Cultural appropriation