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Book Review: Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

cover art for Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas ( Bookshop.org  |  Amazon.com )

Swoon Reads, 2020

ISBN-13 : 978-1250250469

Available:  Hardcover, Kindle edition, audiobook

 

Yadriel is a Latinx trans boy whose community lives in the cemetery and serves Lady Death. When they are fifteen, boys are presented to Lady Death for a blessing to become a brujo and receive a portaje, a dagger that allows them to draw blood to direct their magic so they can cut the ties between spirits and this world to send them to the afterlife before they become malevolent. At the same age, girls who go through the ceremony and receive the blessing become brujas and are presented with a rosary as their portaje, that allows them to heal using blood.  As a trans boy, Yadriel did not go through the girls’ ceremony as he was expected to do, but was not allowed to go through the boys’ ceremony to become a brujo because the community does not accept that he is a boy. Impatient to prove himself, Yadriel secretly goes through the ceremony to become a brujo.

When his cousin Miguel goes missing and is suspected dead, Yadriel searches for him in an old church on the cemetery property. Finding a necklace with a medallion, Yadriel makes a guess that it might be a way to summon Miguel’s spirit. Instead, he accidentally summons a teenage troublemaker from his high school, Julian, who refuses to move on to the afterlife until he knows if his friends are okay. Yadriel has to resolve things quickly and quietly, before his father finds out and Dia de los Muertos begins. There is something much more sinister and terrifying going on than the limited blood magic practiced by the brujx community.

Thomas interweaves issues and messages related to and positive representations of trans, gay, and lesbian characters in general and specifically in Latinx communities. Lady Death and the mythology of Yadriel’s community is not limited to one nationality– immigrants from many countries in the Latinx diaspora participate, and issues related to immigration (like whether the individuals are documented) curtail the options of the members in seeking help from the police, and this is all well-integrated into a unique storyline. There’s also a sweet love story of the kind that LGBTQ+ teens deserve to see more of. The only disorienting moment is near the end when there is a sudden switch in point of view from Yadriel to Julian, but that’s a minor quibble in a high-quality story that can sweep you out of the everyday with its magic. Highly recommended.

 

Contains: Violence, blood, attempted murder

 

Posted on November 29, 2020 by , Reply

Book Review: The Graces by Laure Eve

cover for The Graces by Laure Eve

The Graces by Laure Eve (  Bookshop.org |  Amazon.com )

Amulet Books, 2016

ISBN-13 : 978-1419721236

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook

The narrator of The Graces is new to town, and ready to shed her old identity, including her name. The centers of attention at her school are the Graces, seventeen-year-old twins Thalia and Fenrin, and their younger sister, Summer. The Grace family has been entwined in the town’s history for generations, and there are rumors of witchcraft that surround them. They are a close-knit family that rarely let anyone into their circle, but, renaming herself River, she finds herself welcomed in. River herself is very closed off and rarely volunteers information about her life or family– she is always thinking about whether she has said or done the “right thing” to be accepted by the Graces, who she believes have a magical key to helping her solve her problems.

River, Summer, and a group of girls from school attempt to cast a love spell, which River secretly focuses on Fenrin. Developing a close friendship with Summer, who is her own age, River also attempts to create situations that will give her and Fenrin the opportunity for close contact, but these are always interrupted, and finally end in tragedy.

It’s easy to read the first part of this book and see the narrator as merely anxious, needy, and maybe a little manipulative, a wishful thinker swept up by a glamorous and mysterious family. The second part gives us a look under the surface of it all, and there’s where it starts getting disturbing, as there are some very unsettling powers that come to the fore.

There is a lot of suspension of disbelief required to buy into this book, but Eve keeps things erratic enough, with her unreliable narrator, and enough gaps between the real and unreal to keep a reader going. A couple of things are real flaws, though. The book uses a trope I loathe, of the “always absent but overprotective parents,” and the plot had some big holes in it that made the actions of certain characters very confusing, and led to an ending that was only partly satisfactory (there is a sequel, so hopefully some of that will be resolved in it). None of the characters are especially likable, but there’s enough intrigue and “fairy tale” atmosphere to appeal to a certain kind of teenage girl. Recommended.

 

 

 

Posted on September 22, 2020 by , Reply

Book Review: Killing November by Adriana Mather

cover of Killing November by Adriana Mather

Killing November by Adriana Mather (  Bookshop.org | Amazon.com  )

Ember, 2020

ISBN-13 : 978-0525579113

Available: Library binding, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook.

 

November Adley was told she was being sent to boarding school for her own safety, but on her arrival, she discovers it is full of intrigues she knows nothing about but is expected to rise to the challenge and survive deceptions, strategies, and attempts on her life from both students and teachers. The classes are like nothing she’s ever had to take before: knife throwing, poisons, deception, and tree climbing, among others. Deadly midnight challenges lead to shifting allegiances, every word and action has the potential to put her life at risk… and, while everyone assumes she knows exactly what’s going on, she has no idea why her father would send her to this school (I also question why her father would send her to a school filled with enemies she knows nothing about for safety. It would be a spoiler to reveal what she has in common with the other students, and that doesn’t make me question his judgment less).

November does have some survival skills she learned from her parents, mostly as games: she’s not unfamiliar with knife-throwing or tree climbing, she is good at observation and memorization, and she’s learned to think outside the box (her parents have kept a LOT of family secrets, and uncovering these is essential to her understanding of events and relationships at the school). But she has never learned to disguise her emotions or hide the truth, a disadvantage in the dangerous games of the school. She has to earn the trust of her prickly roommate, Layla, and decide whether she can trust Layla’s brother Ashai, an expert in deception, to survive.

Killing November rockets along from start to finish, and even the most unbelievable aspects of the story get caught up in the rush. It is the first in a series, and with November scrambling to figure out what’s going on, whose loyalties she can depend on, and who she is supposed to be, trapped in the claustrophobic boarding school environment, it is a really fun read. With much of this settled in the second book, while there’s still plenty of action, it’s less engaging. Both Killing November and its sequel, Hunting November, are enjoyable thrillers that have the potential to appeal to teen lovers of action, murder, mystery, and romance. Recommended.

 

 

Posted on September 14, 2020 by , Reply
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