aprildiamond's reviews
144 reviews

guys you gotta read this book

I say that as a reader who is not super interested in romance, and no matter if you are or not, this book will. work. for. you.

The magic of Cemetery Boys is that it goes for so many things at the same time and is really good at getting all of them. You want rep? The whole cast is latine, the protagonist Yadriel is a trans boy and the main romance is gay. How about social issues? Cemetery Boys discusses family acceptance, homelessness, deportation and more in a way that fits well with the story. And of course, for my fellow fantasy-loving readers, the plot focuses on ghosts, brujx, magic, and mythology.

Cemetery Boys is a love story, but it's also a story about being accepted, about different kinds of families, and about owning your identity, and that's why I think it's so important that everyone reads this book. (It's also a story where I almost got jump-scared by a malevolent spirit, so yea it also has that side of things)

And the characters are so great! The main trio is incredibly fun and I love them. Yadriel is a ball of anxiety but also he's super selfless and just a great person to read about. Julien is the most chaotic mf to exist ever and we love him for that. Maritza is a sarcastic queen and drops some of the most banger lines in the book. She is also THE BEST wingwoman ever and no, this is not up for debate. me and her are literally the same person

The plot and the romance develop side by side, integrated with each other, so as you're trying to figure out murders you can also raise your eyebrows at Yadriel pretending he feels nothing for the ghost he accidentally summoned...


Anyway I enjoyed myself reading this book and I think you guys will too. so definitely check it out because you will not regret it :)

Will I ever stop thinking books are going to be light, fun reads and ending up getting clotheslined by them when they turn out to be a lot darker? The answer is... I doubt it. But that's fine, because it does truly add to the experience.

This is classified as MG but I would put it somewhere between upper MG/lower YA because even though the characters are 14ish, the way it's written and how the themes are explored are more YA-leaning.

Okay so now onto the book itself. This is one of those reads that seem really really good while I'm reading, but afterwards I look back and think "yeah that was good but not spectacular." There's no specific reason for that; I liked Simon (omg 490 pages in that ebook and he did not catch 1 single break), the plot was very high-stakes, and the dark atmosphere/the world itself were honestly incredible. I just... I don't know. I didn't connect with the book as a whole, and that's okay. It was still a fun read.

I do want to point out the writing itself. This book dealt with a lot of ideas and feelings that would ordinarily be super hard to describe (mostly because they don't exist and are different than just describing the setting or rules of a fantasy world), but the author did a really great job of it.

Final note is that I did cry over a specific part of this at 5 am so I will be counting that as another achievement for this book

stop making me Feel Things,,,, plz,,,

hmm. this vaguely confused me for a number of reasons.

for a good part of this the mc Elizabeth was written into the annoying "not like other girls" trap. this book, there's another girl named Elana at Winterhouse. Elizabeth is suspicious of her and unwilling to include her in things, despite Elana being friendly (if a little bizarre sometimes), all because... she's pretty and likes talking to people? this wasn't the weird part, in fact i thought it was setting up for Elizabeth's character development to be "don't judge people on first appearances" or something. i thought Elana was going to turn out to be a normal girl, albeit one with a strange family member.

instead, Elizabeth ends up being right about Elana, even though the literal basis for her suspicion was absolutely nothing at first. that just seemed weird to me. and then even though Elizabeth ultimately decides that she thinks Elana is a good person, her previous judgements are... never mentioned again? not even to be refuted. again, it just seemed strange to have all that setup and then never go back to it.

for both books in the series so far, Elizabeth has been struggling with temptations to join the "evil" side. i like this plot point for the most part; i think it adds more drama and nuance. but at some point in the book, the main message of the other side goes from "you should be powerful so that people can't take advantage of you" to "i don't want to get along with poor people" and i was like HUH??? where did that even come from?? at that point it was no longer relatable. as a reader, i didn't understand the value of the entire temptation plot anymore bc seriously what kind of lame recruitment message is that?

other minor confusing things:

why couldn't Elizabeth have used her power to also heal Elana???? i think that would definitely fall under the "good side" umbrella, and would even be a way of taking out Gracella's influence, but nope. didn't happen. Elana deserves justice tbh.

and why were the adults giving the most useless advice this book? there was this whole thing about not getting angry when other people are jerks to you. to an extent, i understand, especially in the context of earlier chapters. but then when Freddy is like "yeah i wouldn't mind if the guy that beat me up so badly i had to go to the doctor suddenly aged up 40 years" they tell him to be charitable... like no?? 1) what he said wasn't even that bad 2) he was assaulted, so as far as i'm concerned he's allowed to be pretty angry about that.

anyway that was a journey so we'll see what happens in the last book

other than maybe like. 2 minor things this very definitely satisfied my heist-obsessed self
(and just in time for shadow and bone season 1)

also i can't say this enough. i love inej

full RTC!!

AHH I LOVE THIS BOOK

This story is so beautifully written. The descriptions of the underworld as well as Mexico in the 1920s are colorful and gorgeous and detailed and it's the best thing ever. Not to mention that you can SEE the rich culture that the book is based on throughout the whole experience.

The characters? So good. I love Casiopea and her desire to experience life and to be free. Her character brings a humanity to the book even with the gods and supernatural elements. Also, I really enjoyed seeing her find her independence and her inner strength over the course of the story (yay character development).

Speaking of character development, Hun-Kame is also a great example. Arguably he goes through the most change over the course of the novel, but what I love about it is that it feels so natural. If you compare his later character to how he was in the beginning, there's an extreme difference, but while you're reading it's hard to notice.

The antagonists also bring this book full circle. I think it was a great decision to show that while they were bad people/gods and not easily forgiven by Casiopea and Hun-Kame, they still had the potential to change for the better.

Last but DEFINITELY not least, the plot. At the beginning what seemed like a story similar to Cinderella distanced itself and became a whole new thing. I love stories based on mythology (big Rick Riordan fan) and the Maya mythology did not disappoint. The plot kept me hooked the whole time, and that's always a good sign. Even though the ending was a tad bittersweet the overall work was incredible.

10/10 would recommend :)

This Reconstruction-era alternate history horror novel quickly became one of my favorites. The premise of Dread Nation sounded kinda wild and not really my type, with the undead rising in the midst of the Civil War, but it was executed so well that I ended up loving it.

There's a lot of fantastic social commentary about the racial politics of the time period, and I thought it was fascinating how that was integrated with the changed history. For example, how the racist, God-fearing white men have explanations for the rise of the undead that feel very realistic to the type of people they are.

Most of all, it's so easy to root for the main characters. Jane is such a smart and capable protag, with a powerful character arc, and I loved seeing the story through her eyes and her humor. Kate was an instant favorite as well, at first because I thought her rivalry with Jane was entertaining, and later on because everything I learned about her made me love her more. Her being canonically aroace made me Feel Things!!! And every single line of hers in chapter 31 could have been taken straight from my brain!! I did not expect the rep but I'm so happy about it :))
(also Jane being bi!! love to see it)

I need the sequel and Soon

A bit cliche sometimes. But there were things I liked and things I didn't.

First up, this book was a normal length but it seemed so long? I felt like there were so many pages of just characters walking or traveling somewhere. Traveling to the palace, Alina running away from the palace, her and Mal walking for days, etc. And the part where Alina was at the Little Palace WAS SO LONG. I did not care that much about what the rich attractive magical people were doing because most of them were lame.

There was a little bit of the "oh she's special" in the fact that she's the ONLY ONE EVER to have this super special Sun Summoner power. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but why is she the only one? Does this work through genetics? Maybe this gets answered later on in the series, I don't know.

As I mentioned earlier, sometimes this book finds itself in YA cliches. Like, the whole thing with the Darkling and Alina just didn't sit right. This may have been because it wasn't relatable or because the Darkling was gambling his entire plan on Alina being straight. I know that's a weird thing to say, but wouldn't an immortal evil dude have a more foolproof plan than seduction? Things like that just seemed like, "oh let's put in this YA trope" instead of realistic ideas.

On the flip side, I found Genya to be a really interesting character and she kind of made the Little Palace parts more bearable. Most of the time, I liked Alina well enough (sometimes she was irritating or shallow tho), and the plot was decent.

By far the best thing was the worldbuilding. I was so impressed. The author does a great job of creating this universe and all its rules and customs. Looking forward to more of that in following books.

So did I like the book? Yeah, for the most part. Will I finish the series? Yes. Would I read this book again? No. It felt too long, and I wouldn't sit through it again just to read the good parts.

I don't usually read romance*

*this statement does not apply to pride and prejudice, ever

rtc soon i'm just tired of typing