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A review by mspilesofpaper
Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas
adventurous
emotional
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? It's complicated
3.0
Cemetery Boys is a YA novel that blends romance, heritage/belonging, rich culture and family traditions with a touch of magic. While it is a beautiful story and I loved how it handled trans representation and acceptance, I have to say that I'm simply not the target group for the book. I'm in my mid 30s and the book clearly aims at a younger target group.
Yadriel is a 16-year-old gay Latinx trans boy who tries to get his family to accept him as a boy - and as a brujo - by performing the coming-of-age ritual that his family had denied him for over a year. Lady Death, their patron, accepts him as a brujo, giving him powers to bind spirits but also to release them. Soon after, Yadriel, and his cousin, discover that his older cousin Miguel has suddenly and inexplicably died but neither spirit nor body can be found anywhere. Yadriel's plan is easy: find Miguel's body, release the spirit to the afterlife, and prove to his family that he is a true brujo - and a boy. Unfortunately, the plan doesn't go as planned when Yadriel summons Julian's spirit and binds him to an amulet. It even goes further off the rails when Yadriel starts to fall in love with Julian while both are trying to figure out: What happened to Julian? Who killed Miguel?
By now, I can say that Aiden Thomas is one of the few authors where the queer main characters do not fall into the typical issue of "Either they are fully accepted by everyone or are completely shunned by everyone". Instead, Yadriel's family claims that they accept him as a boy but always throw out comments like "stay here with the rest of the women" or "my little girl", which cause immense pain in Yadriel and show that his family doesn't accept him as he is. (Which, in this case, is mostly based on gendered traditions where female family members can heal wounds, and tend to work as doctors/nurses/... and are generally left behind or stay in the kitchen to cook, while the male family members take over the more "masculine" tasks such as protection, releasing spirits, ...) In addition, to Yadriel's struggles to be accepted, the book features also Yadriel's female cousin Maritza, who is accepted as bruja but still struggles to find her place in the community as a vegan (since all the spells require animal blood). And Julian, the loveable ghost, might be considered as a bad boy and troublemaker who is openly gay, but the reader learns quickly that there's more to him than just the typical bad boy visage. He's extremely loyal and his struggles also deal with belonging; less because of his sexuality but more because of the family situation.
The main downside of the book, for me, is the romance because it happens out of nowhere and is very strong at the end, which I found odd. But then, it might be understandable for teenagers. (I never went through the fierce first love phase as a teen, so I can't really connect or compare it.) This just brings me back to the main point: I am too old for the book. I think I would have given it 4 ⭐ or even 5 ⭐ if I would have been 15 - 21 years. The other downside is that the book is very predictable in terms of what is going to happen, who is the villain, ... but it is common with a lot of YA books. The predictability and the wrong target group were also my main issues with Aiden's other book The Sunbearer Trails.
Yadriel is a 16-year-old gay Latinx trans boy who tries to get his family to accept him as a boy - and as a brujo - by performing the coming-of-age ritual that his family had denied him for over a year. Lady Death, their patron, accepts him as a brujo, giving him powers to bind spirits but also to release them. Soon after, Yadriel, and his cousin, discover that his older cousin Miguel has suddenly and inexplicably died but neither spirit nor body can be found anywhere. Yadriel's plan is easy: find Miguel's body, release the spirit to the afterlife, and prove to his family that he is a true brujo - and a boy. Unfortunately, the plan doesn't go as planned when Yadriel summons Julian's spirit and binds him to an amulet. It even goes further off the rails when Yadriel starts to fall in love with Julian while both are trying to figure out: What happened to Julian? Who killed Miguel?
By now, I can say that Aiden Thomas is one of the few authors where the queer main characters do not fall into the typical issue of "Either they are fully accepted by everyone or are completely shunned by everyone". Instead, Yadriel's family claims that they accept him as a boy but always throw out comments like "stay here with the rest of the women" or "my little girl", which cause immense pain in Yadriel and show that his family doesn't accept him as he is. (Which, in this case, is mostly based on gendered traditions where female family members can heal wounds, and tend to work as doctors/nurses/... and are generally left behind or stay in the kitchen to cook, while the male family members take over the more "masculine" tasks such as protection, releasing spirits, ...) In addition, to Yadriel's struggles to be accepted, the book features also Yadriel's female cousin Maritza, who is accepted as bruja but still struggles to find her place in the community as a vegan (since all the spells require animal blood). And Julian, the loveable ghost, might be considered as a bad boy and troublemaker who is openly gay, but the reader learns quickly that there's more to him than just the typical bad boy visage. He's extremely loyal and his struggles also deal with belonging; less because of his sexuality but more because of the family situation.
The main downside of the book, for me, is the romance because it happens out of nowhere and is very strong at the end, which I found odd. But then, it might be understandable for teenagers. (I never went through the fierce first love phase as a teen, so I can't really connect or compare it.) This just brings me back to the main point: I am too old for the book. I think I would have given it 4 ⭐ or even 5 ⭐ if I would have been 15 - 21 years. The other downside is that the book is very predictable in terms of what is going to happen, who is the villain, ... but it is common with a lot of YA books. The predictability and the wrong target group were also my main issues with Aiden's other book The Sunbearer Trails.