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A review by screamdogreads
Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas
3.0
"Under the orange lights of the church, he seemed solid enough, though he was the faintest bit transparent compared to the very corporeal garden shears in his hand. Spirits had blurry edges and were a little less vibrant than the world around them."
Cemetery Boys is a fantastical, magical YA novel that's so very culturally rich and is practically overflowing with an indulgent gothic decadence. It's a novel that's so utterly full of heart, it's almost impossible to put down. At times, a light, playful, joyous feel-good palate cleanser, and yet also a soul-shattering, emotionally devastating experience, Cemetery Boys is as much about the ghosts that lurk amongst its pages, as it is a story of acceptance and heartbreak. Mystical, magical, ethereal and compulsively readable, this horror infused tale is a everything great about the YA genre.
So many difficult and hard to navigate topics mingle so harmoniously across this story. Cemetery Boys is one of those special kind of novels, ones that touch on extremely important talking points while also managing to keep the story blissfully happy. Acceptance, self-worth, grief, love, death, familial issues, transphobia, these are all at the forefront of Cemetery Boys, it's a sucker punch to the gut and while it does get serious and bleak at times, its wholesomeness manages to shine through. Ironically, for a book about ghosts, so many of this novel's characters are so alive and so very vivid, and real.
Cemetery Boys is a fantastical, magical YA novel that's so very culturally rich and is practically overflowing with an indulgent gothic decadence. It's a novel that's so utterly full of heart, it's almost impossible to put down. At times, a light, playful, joyous feel-good palate cleanser, and yet also a soul-shattering, emotionally devastating experience, Cemetery Boys is as much about the ghosts that lurk amongst its pages, as it is a story of acceptance and heartbreak. Mystical, magical, ethereal and compulsively readable, this horror infused tale is a everything great about the YA genre.
So many difficult and hard to navigate topics mingle so harmoniously across this story. Cemetery Boys is one of those special kind of novels, ones that touch on extremely important talking points while also managing to keep the story blissfully happy. Acceptance, self-worth, grief, love, death, familial issues, transphobia, these are all at the forefront of Cemetery Boys, it's a sucker punch to the gut and while it does get serious and bleak at times, its wholesomeness manages to shine through. Ironically, for a book about ghosts, so many of this novel's characters are so alive and so very vivid, and real.
"Yadriel let himself stare at Julian. He was so... visceral. He was so real. Even with his blurry edges and chilling touch, he was a force of nature. He was loud, he was stubborn, he was determined, and he was reckless. But, still, he would fade. Yadriel remembered the other night. The thrashing and the pain on Julian's face. The blood seeping through his shirt. His gasps for breath."
It's a hyper immersive experience, packed full of atmospheric bliss. Cemetery Boys is a beautiful book to read, and while it is, of course, a YA novel, it reads just a touch younger than the books I'd typically pick out. However, this didn't impact the enjoyment all too much. Slow burning, extremely slow burning, in fact, is how you'd best describe this novel. It's just such a powerful, heartfelt, amazing story, it's such a lovely novel and a truly astonishing read. It's a really very cute book, a queer romance with ghosts, rather than a supernatural tale of terror.
"The warm afternoon seemed to pass right through Julian. The burning gold light that streaked across the sky and splashed against the walls of buildings didn't touch him. Instead, he was washed in dull blue, the color of dusk."