Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

14 reviews

fromjuliereads's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny hopeful mysterious 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

4.0

I really enjoyed this book! I loved the Spanish and the Latin culture and holidays brought into the story. It was so amazing to read. And I really liked the characters! I will admit that I saw the twist coming, it was kind of predictable. But that didn't take away from my enjoyment at all. Perfect read for the autumn season, especially October and Día de los Muertos. 

Definitely check the trigger warnings though!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, Racism, Torture, Transphobia, and Violence

Minor: Alcohol, Body shaming, Car accident, and Gun violence

The deadname isn't printed, but there is mention of deadname being used. Definitely some blatant transphobia on the pages as well.

emily_mh's review against another edition

emotional hopeful slow-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

4.0

This book definitely shone in how real the characters and their relationships with one another felt, as well as how rich and descriptive the writing was, especially when it came to showing Latinx religion and culture. However, for about 60-70% of this book I wasn't really looking forward to picking it back up when I put it down for the day. I think this was because the pacing of this portion of the book was VERY slow (due in part to repeating information), and in the beginning it was quite info-dumpy. For this reason, I was looking at giving this a 3.5 stars but the ending really got to me.

While the initial conflict of the ending felt anticlimactic,

the resurrection conflict totally gripped me

. The ending also had me completely taken by Yadriel and Julian's relationship and how fiercely they loved each other. Finally, I found the epilogue really moving. These three elements cemented this book as a 4 star. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Transphobia, and Blood

Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, Deadnaming, Racism, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Body shaming, Animal death, Cursing, Alcohol, Drug use, Abandonment, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Car accident, Body horror, Vomit, Ableism, and Medical content

readerette's review against another edition

emotional informative medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The first half of the book was only appealing for me personally in its emotional descriptions of the life of a trans person and the details about Latinx culture. A significant amount of the mystery and overall plot was predictable, but it still ended up surprising me a bit in the details, and the second half of the book paced much better for my taste. It wasn't always clear to me what the "rules" of the magic were

such as how Maritza healed Yadriel without animal blood, why Julian had a 'seizure' the night before the one at the Bahlam ceremony, or why Julian could so easily hold a shirt for such a long time when he had to work hard to touch other things that same day

but overall that didn't detract too much from the story.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood and Death

Minor: Body shaming, Cursing, Deadnaming, Grief, Racism, Transphobia, and Violence

kkpwnall's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Gore, Grief, and Transphobia

Moderate: Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Homophobia, Emotional abuse, and Body shaming