Antonia Bernardin

My 58th read of the year was Cemetery Boys by Aidan Thomas. I’ve wanted to read this for ages, so I was really excited to finally get to it!

A brief summary

Yadriel is part of a community of Brujx, witches and wizards of LatinX descent who are the appointed guardians of their local cemetery’s. Yadriel is a trans boy, looking to be accepted in his community in the roles of the Brujo’s, who patrol the cemetery and lay the spirits who go ‘maligno’ to rest. His community has (mostly) adapted to his new name and pro-nouns but they are struggling to accept him as a Brujo, believing their God will not allow Yadriel’s the Brujo powers but instead he will get the Bruja powers.

So he decides to go through the ritual which connects them to their magic alone, in order to prove he is a Brujo. He is successful but the moment where he can finally show his community that he belongs, his cousin Miguel is drastically injured. In the search for Miguel, Yadriel comes across a necklace in an abandoned church, which he uses to summon the spirit connected to the necklace. The spirit he summons is the energetic, enigmatic Julian, who refuses to be banished. So now Yadriel has to wait to prove his status as a Brujo until he can help Julian cross over, but the more time he spends with him, the more Yadriel begins to dread the moment he must let him go.

My thoughts

I really enjoyed this book! I loved how the story intertwined the LatinX culture with the supernatural, especially in the moments where characters would slip into Spanish (as they would naturally in conversation), which the author left largely untranslated. Yadriel’s journey as a character, plus his journey in becoming more comfortable being open about his trans identity and setting boundaries with people is very well done. And, although I am CIS straight woman, how this element was approached felt very well done and sensitive to me (my opinion could, of course, be wrong as I don’t exist within that space and I’d be so interested in discussing it if you feel differently!).

I did see the ending where the cause of all the problems was revealed coming a mile off but I don’t think that’s a bad thing, I just think it was well foreshadowed, or hinted at.

I thought the romance was very cute and I enjoyed the other relationships with family and friends that Yadriel and Julian had.

In short, definitely a popular book that lives up to they hype.