A review by luly_sc
Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

adventurous emotional hopeful fast-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

4.25

 I had been wanting to read this book for SO long and I'm very happy to finally get there.

I think this is a good first novel from the author and there are a lot of great things that make it a very entertaining and captivating read, but there are also some very clear times in which I feel a tighter editing was needed. 

As a Latina, I find that the lore and the worldbuilding are very well crafted. I don't share all of the same cultural traditions that were used as basis but I can recognize most and I think there was a very interesting job of crafting a vivid world and a very genuine fantasy dynamic. There are tons of YA books out there, some incredibly popular, with worlds that are very superficial but this one feels like it came from a place of love and it's appreciated. 

The characters are super loveable and they really are what made me the most excited to keep reading. They move the story along  and, even if sometimes are frustrating (they're teens, after all), you can sense where they come from and you root for them to be ok. I also appreciate so much the inclusion of found family within this world, because Latine culture in media tends to be more focused on blood families, so the inclusion of Julian's (I've been pronouncing it as Julián, I’m not sure that was the intent) friends is greatly appreciated. 

Spanish-wise, it's mostly good. There is the very consistent discourse of the x vs the e for gender neutrality in "informal" Spanish (hopefully formal at some point). We Spanish speakers prefer the e and English speaking Latine descendants who live elsewhere tend to use the x, which is what this book uses. The discourse is bigger than one novel can be responsible for, so I will just put a pin on that. There was only one phrase that I found rather strange as it was worded (nearing the end, in a pretty crucial moment), but other than that, Spanish was well used and had some pronunciation spellings that I appreciated (like the use of vivaporú). 

My biggest issues with the book were things that a tighter editing job would have probably reduced. 

The exposition was handled in a rather info-dumping way, with a very heavy hand on crucial elements of the “plot twist”, which made several key elements very obvious from the very start (I could predict the antagonist, weapon, motive and part of the solution incredibly early on). This isn’t in itself a problem if the story makes it worth the while for a reader who gets it so soon, but it was used as a “surprise” when it wasn’t really one. This could have been avoided by either 1) having a better spread of information, 2) not laying the important clues so obviously, 3) revealing these things earlier or 4) making it less about the surprise and more about how we get there. 

But the way in which the narrative was constructed was a bit erratic in how it moved the characters along. The characters are amazing and their interactions are all enjoyable, but how they went about it felt somewhat forced and sometimes unnecessary. There was sometimes more about how they got from point A to point B and less about what they actually did there. A lot of going from home to school to Maritza’s house, getting in, getting out, with those actions never really changing. 

That time could have been spent in things that gave us more of the characters, rather than having Yadriel waste pages convincing Julian to go to school with him, even though we start the book with Yadriel breaking rules. 

All in all, I appreciated this book immensely and it was 100% worth the wait for me. I’m happy to hear there will be more from this world and characters, I am definitely wanting to see them again. 
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