Book: Cemetery Boys

 Book: Cemetery Boys

Author: Aiden Thomas

Pages: 350

This is my 70th read for the year

What Amazon says:

Bestowed by the ancient goddess of death, Yadriel and the gifted members of his Latinx community can see spirits: women have the power to heal bodies and souls, while men can release lost spirits to the afterlife.  But Yadriel, a trans boy, has never been able to perform the tasks of the brujas - because he is a brujo.  When his cousin suddenly dies, Yadriel becomes determined to prove himself a real brujo.  With the help of his cousin and best friend Maritza, he performs the ritual himself, and then sets out to find the ghost of his murdered cousin and set it free.  However, the ghost he summons is not his cousin.  It's Julian Diaz, the resident bad boy of his high school, and Julian is not about to go quietly into death.  He's determined to find out what happened and tie off some loose ends before he leaves.  Left with no choice, Yadrield agrees to help Julian, so that they can both get what they want.  But he longer Yadriel spends with Julian, the less he wants to let him leave.

This was a pretty good book.  I liked the characters, and the magic.  I loved the mix of Spanish and English throughout the entire story.  I liked the family traditions.  It is a very important book for its target audience.  But it is YA and lately I just cannot get into that level of book.  Why did I read it?  It came up continuously for a reading challenge, so I read it to tick some boxes and felt that the overall feel of the book was something I would normally read.  But I am tired of reading about immature teenagers.  I live that every day.  There is so much to like about this for the target audience and I see the draw.  Because it wasn't for me does not mean that it isn't a good book.  So I cannot give it a low rating.  

Stars: 4