A review by yeahimreading
Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

adventurous emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

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

4.0

Adventure! Mystery! .. Yearning for a ghost? *checks notes* Yearning for a ghost! This YA Latinx fantasy is fun and also full of emotional moments. Yadriel’s belief in himself and his place in his community is unwavering, so much so that in an attempt to prove himself he summons a ghost!  or, more correctly a spirit (they don’t like to say ghost.) After summoning Julian and being unable to get rid of Julian, Yadriel and his best friend Maritza help him try to find out what happened to him, and they all work together to try to find out what happened to someone in the community. The representation in this book was very thoughtful (discussing the anger and hurt that can accompany being called a “deadname” but never having it on the page.) And one thing about me… I love reading about Xibalba in a book. It is so cool. We always hear about the underworld! WHAT ABOUT XIBALBA!!! You can tell that Thomas took a lot of care in crafting his characters, i really loved the dynamic between Yadriel, Maritza, and Julian. 

What kept this from being 5 stars for me is that the big mystery was pretty easy to decipher pretty early on in the book (i know this is YA AND i’m 29 but still.) also the descriptions seemed to drag on sometimes, and not necessarily related to the plot. It would have been cool to see some more of the epilogue time and end of the book vs some of what happened in the middle of the book.