Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

123 reviews

shugentobler's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny informative mysterious sad tense 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? No

4.75

This book was beautiful and rich and delectable, and a perfect spooky, not too scary read. I absolutely adored the narrator and will be reading books by this author and from this narrator again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore

Moderate: Death and Death of parent

Minor: Racism

swimmingwolf59's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I really loved the world building in this book, it was an extremely cool setting!! I also enjoyed the mystery aspect of the book, and I'm happy that I was able to figure it out 😄 I also love Julian, my sweet child 🥹 But I didn't vibe with the main character very much and the pacing of the book was a bit slow for my taste. This is just a personal thing too, but I prefer when world building is slowly unfurled as the book goes on, so the info dump at the beginning of this book was a bit much for my tastes. Still an enjoyable read though!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Deadnaming, Gun violence, Racism, Transphobia, Car accident, and Deportation

glen3's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Blood, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Death, Racism, Violence, Murder, Outing, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Body horror, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Homophobia, Police brutality, Car accident, Classism, and Deportation

mariie_al's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

4.5

Wow, that was such an amazing read! The premise was so intriguing and I loved the world that was created as well as all the real cultural aspects that made it feel very well-rounded.
I loved the characters so much, they all felt different and interesting in their own ways. Yadriel is such a good trans rep, i loved the fact that his identity was of major importance to the story while not being all it relied on. 
Julian’s subtle ADHD traits mixed up with the really obvious ones was such a nice touch as well, made it feel really real. 
They felt really good together as well and I loved seeing their relationship evolve. 
I would say the 4,5 instead of a 5 is because of the ending, that felt very rushed and sudden, and also not as well written as the other parts of the book especially in the fight scene. 
That was the only minor hiccup I had with this book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Racism, Transphobia, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Deportation

Minor: Deadnaming

bookishperseus's review against another edition

emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Lesbophobia, Outing, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, and Deportation

Minor: Child abuse, Deadnaming, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, and Deportation

annathechaoticreader's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

Cemetery Boys found me at exactly the right moment and I’m in love. It’s a great romance but more than that it’s a fantastic exploration of colonialism, tradition and queer identities within a complex immigrant community/family. I laughed, I cried, I gasped, I audibly yelled ”wait…WHAT?!”while reading. The best Y/A book I’ve ever read and a new edition to my Favourite Books of All Time list. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Deadnaming, Death, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Homophobia, Racism, Police brutality, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, Colonisation, Classism, and Deportation

nikia4's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

I figured out the plot twist less than halfway thru the book and there were some things that felt like maybe lazy writing to me, but I honestly loved the characters, the romance, and the worldbuilding so much that this was still a really lovely read. I really enjoyed it. I think I may be older than the target age group for this book too and it would be a great book for younger kids/teenagers to read.

The things that confused me:
1. Why/how was Julian still briefly alive at the end pre Yadriel’s sacrifice when the others were all dead aside from it being a plot device for Yadriel to be able to talk to him… Also how did he have a spirit if he was still alive the whole time?? How did he survive while bleeding out for 3 days??
2. Those daggers needed to be in a triple locked safe and tracked at all times bro. Wdym it was in a box in some grandma’s storage??? it makes no sense that it was That easy to steal and that they were being that casual about it being lost

Aside from that tho i felt like there could have been more development towards the final twist in the second half, it kind of felt like there was no plot progress for a while until suddenly at midnight on Dia de Los Muertos. It slso made me sad that the uncle was the villain, even tho i could tell he was being set up for it bc he was just too perfect and nice/the daggers gave power and he didn’t have much. I didn’t love that the trope was that the one guy without power was the villain and I would have preferred if it was like a false flag and people turned on the Tio and then it turned out they were wrong. It would have done more for the narrative of broader inclusion. It felt like Yadriel’s arc was him being accepted because he evolved to fit perfectly into the binary, and I wish it had been a nicer message loll. But this book is definitely for people younger than me and I can see why a simple narrative of belonging like this would be important.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia and Murder

Moderate: Self harm, Violence, and Blood

Minor: Animal cruelty and Racism

amy_in_the_city's review against another edition

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

4.5

This was such an interesting premise, and I loved Yadriel! I'm not sure how I felt about Julian. While I liked how playful he was and how he protected those he loved, his anger issues were concerning. The scene where he

got upset threw a skateboard around his friends

felt like a red flag. I did appreciate that Yadriel set firm boundaries and told Julian that his violent outburst was unacceptable and wouldn't be tolerated again, but I would have felt better if we got some indication afterwards that Julian was working on his anger management skills.

The plot was very predictable. I guessed who the villain would be as soon as they appeared and by 10% into the book I had already guessed the villain's plan.

I still really enjoyed the book because I liked the side characters, Yadriel's character journey, and the main relationship overall.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Deadnaming, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Deportation

Minor: Body shaming, Child death, Hate crime, Racism, Car accident, and Classism

hexagonal_flowers's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Transphobia, and Death of parent

Minor: Deadnaming, Racism, Torture, Violence, Car accident, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

corsetedfeminist's review against another edition

emotional hopeful lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

My only complaint about this book is that there isn’t a series with 35 books coming after it. 
This book manages to be extremely gay and extremely Latinx, all at once, in an explosion of culture and magic that I couldn’t help but fall in love with. 
The story is unpredictable and heartfelt all at the same time- I literally squealed at one particular plot point. 
It also deals with very well with what it’s like to not be a straight, cisgendered person in a culture and religion that is strongly gendered, with the realistic amount of resultant angst and a heartwarming conclusion. 
The romance is literally perfect, featuring what I can only describe as the human embodiment of a pitbull (looks imposing, but is actually just a hyper squish) and sensitive but stubborn main character who I immediately loved. 
The girl best friend is probably one of my favorite sidekicks of all time- tiny pink haired girl with two massive pitbulls and a long suffering mom friend vibe only defeated by her love for mischief. 
In short, I have no idea why this book isn’t more popular than it is- it’s a perfect YA book, both for lots of Latinx representation and for the queer representation.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Minor: Deportation