Cemetery Boys

Aiden Thomas
Completed 10/31/2025, Reviewed 10/31/2025
4 stars

This was a very sweet story.  It features a trans teen boy from a Latinx community where the women can heal people, and the men can release earthbound spirits to the afterlife.  As a trans boy, the main character wants to prove that he can perform the tasks of the brujos, but his father, one of the community’s leaders, won’t let him.  Immersed in mystical Latinx magical culture, this story of identity and belonging was one of the most heartwarming stories I’ve ever read.  However, I had trouble getting pulled into the story until the last one hundred pages, even as the relationship with the main character and the spirit of a gay teen boy develops. I’m not sure why, because I loved the protagonist, his best friend, the love interest, and the development of the other characters.  There’s also a murder mystery amidst all this, but I still found it hard to get into.  Despite my inability to connect with the story, I think this book may well end up a contemporary classic of YA transgender and Latinx experience.

Yadriel wants to prove himself a brujo, a male witch.  He and his best friend Maritza, a bruja with a strong, non-traditional approach, secretly perform the ritual that affirms him as a brujo.  His first task is to summon the soul of a missing and presumed dead cousin Miguel.  Instead, he summons a gay teen named Julian.  Horrified at their mistake, he tries to cut the tether to what’s keeping Julian on Earth, but it doesn’t work.  Julian convinces the pair to not release him until he can make sure his friends are okay.  Over the next few days, Yadriel and Julian slowly become close.  As they help him with his bucket list, they find out that other kids besides Miguel and Julian went missing and no one has leads.  But Julian’s spirit must be released before he becomes violent and mindless.   Yadriel knows what he must do but now doesn’t want Julian to leave.

Yadriel is a great main character.  He’s a typical teen trying so hard to be loved by his family and appreciated by his peers.  But of course, as a trans kid, he has self-doubts and a negative self-image.  His supportive mom died a few years back and his father doesn’t understand.  He has an uncle, Tio Catriz who understands not fitting in because he did not inherit the magic of the family.  He provides Yadriel with the support his father and older brother do not give.  Yadriel tries his damnedest to prove he’s a brujo.  When he summons Julian instead of Miguel, his self-doubt returns.  However, Julian provides him with subtle support, affirming him as a boy.  Maritza is also great as the sassy friend who doesn’t take nonsense from anyone.  Despite being a bruja, she won’t use animal blood for rituals and covers for Yadriel as he helps Julian in the few days they give him before trying to sever his tether.  She also sees the obvious that Yadriel and Julian are falling for each other, despite Yadz’s denials.

Julian is a tough character to like initially.  He’s the bad boy of the neighborhood, mostly because of a quick temper and general misunderstanding by most people, including his brother Rio.  Julian and Rio had a big fight before Julian disappeared, and Rio believes Julian ran away from home.  On the other hand, he was not in a gang and didn’t do drugs, but hung out with a small group of other teens on the margins of the community.  They were his chosen family.  As the story progressed, I found myself loving Julian almost as much as Yadriel.  I thought the rest of the characters were well developed.  Thomas does a great job of making them multi-dimensional, infused with the Latinx culture of East LA.   

Despite all these positives, something kept me from becoming completely enmeshed in the story.  It just seemed lacking through the first two-thirds.  Maybe it was the teen dialogue, or perhaps the lack of urgency with finding the missing kids.  That’s why I give this book four stars instead of five.  I think that a teen reader would find this book terrific.  It captures the trans and gay experiences accurately and presents lovable characters.  It deals with other issues, including homelessness and immigrant deportation.  The last hundred pages kept me reading late into the night.  I just wish the first part did as well.