A review by magicalghoul
Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

 
Ok, so. 

What I liked: Wonderful characters, all the love, detail and care put into depicting the latinx diaspora and their traditions, how it built into that for the brujx lore and worldbuilding, THE YEARNING OF IT ALL, and… have I said the characters?

It being an own voices book it's not like I was expecting walking latinx stereotypes, but the fact it went above and beyond in Julian's characterization as a brown boy that everyone reads as a hopeless troublemaker because of his neurodiversity (he has adhd, I can see) was something I especially loved.

What I didn't like: Ever since the first clues were dropped I was Really hoping it wasn't going to do what it eventually did— 
I'm not a fan of outliers being represented as extremists that go through methods considered less ethical to even the ground with those that were born into their abilities/status while the system that's ostracized them in the first place is not put in question.  I know the book criticizes the transphobia and gender roles in the brujx community and I'm content with what it did in that regard, but the fact that the question of the treatment of magicless folks born into the brujx community (which is was what caused the main conflict in the first place) was left pretty much only addressed in a couple of lines leaves much to be desired. Yadriel has magic and he's eventually recognized by his family. It seems like we shouldn't care about the other marginalized members of the community.
 
 
Aside from that, wonderful read. I'll carry these characters with me for a long time.
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