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raybeansbooks · 5 months

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Valiant Ladies

Valiant Ladies - Fiction – Historical Melissa Grey 2022 by Feiwel and Friends

Valiant Ladies, released in 2022, is a fantastic, historical fixture with queer women as our protagonists. Author Melissa Grey writes of Ana Lezama de Urinza and Eustaquia de Sonza and their latest adventure in their home of “Potosí, in the Spanish Empire's Viceroyalty of Peru” (Goodreads, 2022). On the night Ana’s, “Kiki’s”, engagement to the Viceroy's son is announced, her older brother and heir to the throne is murdered and his death is framed as suicide. Following his death, his beloved goes missing and girls start to show up dead in Potosí, all with mysterious symbols carved into them- same for Kiki’s brother. These two teenagers go forth on an epic adventure to investigate the corruption of their town and deliver justice for those who have been killed and wronged.

Melissa Grey leaves an author’s note in the back of the book giving word on the historical context and inspiration of her story. She states that while our two pain protagonists were real women drinking and swinging swords around in tailored mens’ clothes, her story is a work of fiction. Grey says, “I was tremendously inspired to write of two heroic girls falling in love and fighting the forces of evil” and though she has taken liberties in certain aspects of the characters there are truths to this story including “the death of Eustaquia’s older brother, … the bond shared by these two extraordinary women, and the significance of Potosí in the greater Spanish Empire” (Grey, 2022).

If you love a couple bad ass chicks who are smart and real and don’t have their whole story revolve around finding and falling in love, this is for you. While marked as a YA read for the age of the characters, they are closer to 17 and 18 so there is some more crude language and context clues that suggest more adult themes. However, I wouldn’t call it an adult novel or lewd by any means, it’s just a kick ass historical retelling with queerness and older teen audiences in mind- it’s important to highlight these pieces that bridge the YA and Adult sections of reading. These materials exist but due to marketing and special issues it isn’t always something that has attention. There are folks in the YA realm that deserve more adult stories as well as newer adults who deserve transitional spaces or the representation YA has that adult don't have in the range of the stories and identities that are represented.

When I was reading this story, I really did love the focus on the relationship of the two main leads without the entire focus being romance; the pining was everything. I also had the opportunity to listen to the audio book through Libby (with my local library) while reading and having two women reading the alternating points of views of the main characters was icing on the already delicious cake.

- Ray 12/02/2023

Goodreads. (n.d.). Valiant ladies. Goodreads. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51591630-valiant-ladies?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=DIBJZmZji8&rank=1

Grey, M. (2023). Valiant ladies. Feiwel and Friends.

#book blog #books #literature #ya #fiction #young adult #queer #historical fiction #lantinx #novel #adult fiction #ya to adult fiction #book recommendations #book #recommendation

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qbdatabase · 1 year

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Yasmín Treviño didn’t have much of a freshman year thanks to Hurricane Humphrey, but she’s ready to take sophomore year by storm. That means mastering the marching side of marching band—fast!—so she can outshine her BFF Sofia as top of the flute section, earn first chair, and impress both her future college admission boards and her comfortably unattainable drum major crush Gilberto Reyes.

But Yasmín steps off on the wrong foot when she reports an anonymous gossip Instagram account harassing new band members and accidentally gets the entire low brass section suspended from extracurriculars. With no low brass section, the band is doomed, so Yasmín decides to take things into her own hands, learn to play the tuba, and lead a gaggle of rowdy freshman boys who are just as green to marching and playing as she is. She’ll happily wrestle an ancient school tuba if it means fixing the mess she might have caused.

But when the secret gossip Instagram escalates their campaign of harassment and the end-of-semester band competition grows near, things at school might be too hard to bear. Luckily, the support of Yasmín’s new section—especially new section leader Bloom, a sweet and shy ace boy who might be a better match for her than Gilberto—might just turn things around.

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lettuce-gremlin · 1 year

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Oh second episode of the Grant-chelor is kinda hard to watch now with the news that came with it...

#it's on the dropout socials #but one of the contestants passed away a few months after the episodes were filmed #dropout asked their family how to best honor them though #so they posted a link to the lantinx equality alliance so people could donate in their memory

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gbeckyg · 2 years

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Un año de Treslúce. Today is an overwhelmingly emotional and proud day. A childhood dream come true. Dedicated to the generations before us and the ones who will come after.

Treslúce was created to be a vessel in the beauty space for our Latin community. Inspired by Lantinx cultures in collaboration with Latinx artists from around the 🌎 with a warm invitation to those outside our community to learn more about US! This brand is bigger than me, it’s about WE. 💙

Thankful to my boss lady peers who on this brand with me for all their hard work, guidance & support and to my beautiful mother and baby sister who are my constant reminder to create positive change for young women in every space I walk into. (They trial every one of my products with me 😂)

I’d also like to thank my abuelitos for instilling in me the love, passion and respect for my roots and the value of hard work and dedication. And last but not least to you guys, THANK YOU!! The Treslúce Familia continues to grow & I couldn’t be any more blessed.

#becky g #treslucebeauty

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bllsbailey · 24 days

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Not Sure Democrats Could Be Any More Evil

There is no bottom for Democrats to hit, so if you’ve been waiting for one of them to stand up and express outrage about anything related to any of the damaging policies they push, don’t hold your breath. Murdered Americans at the hands of illegal aliens? Yawn. Random women being punched in the face by thugs and goons on the streets of New York? Whatever. Are Americans unable to fill their gas tanks or afford groceries? Who cares? You morons don’t know how good you’ve got it anyway, ingrates.

That’s the attitude of Democrats, at least, and they mean it. They hate you. Seriously. Hate them back.

Not like you need more evidence or reason, but there was something that happened this week on MSNBC that was particularly illustrative of what’s wrong with Democrats. No, it wasn’t the firing of Ronna McDaniel, though that was bad enough. It was about the border.

We know Democrats don’t give a damn about the border, at least insofar as securing it goes. They love the border so much that they will do nothing to secure it at all, kind of like how they treat voting – the sanctity of it is so important that anything is done to ensure its integrity, no matter how commonsensical or obvious, must be banned. Their policy toward voting and the border makes zero sense, which means they’re not simply “wrong” by accident, they’re wrong by choice – because pushing the wrong thing helps them.

While not giving a damn about the border, MSNBC can’t ignore it. Even the most dedicated Rachel Maddow zombie knows people are flooding across it. So, the left needs to find a way to talk about something that outrages their base about something other than the dead bodies from illegal alien murders or drug overdoses. What did these sociopaths come up with? Abortion.

You might wonder how abortion fits into the border, but that’s only because you’re a sane person. If you really thought about it, you could probably conclude that the issue relates to all the sexual assaults and rapes illegal aliens suffer on the long march north, and you’d be right. But not in the way you think.

In a truly amazing segment, MSNBC expressed outrage not over the cartels and their kidnapping of women they are smuggling and holding them to be repeatedly raped by their fellow “migrants,” nope. It wasn’t about that. Nor was the segment about the horrors women face in third-world cultures like those Democrats are playing international red rover with on our border – no one on the left wants to talk about that, they’d rather whine about a lie like the “wage gap” than cultural rot they’re inviting to overwhelm our neighborhoods and schools.

Nope, MSNBC brought on nepo baby Paola Ramos, daughter of racist Univision “anchor” Jorge Ramos, to lament how illegal alien rape victims have difficulty getting abortion pills once they enter Texas illegally like Border Patrol agents should give it out like gum at an onion-eating contest. Swear to God.

The employment by network of Ramos, someone who couldn’t be more of a prototype of an MSNBC employee if the network had access to all the parts to build their own human – Hispanic, uses “LantinX,” lesbian, worked for Obama and Biden, hardcore left-wing activist – has never stirred controversy the way someone genuinely dangerous like a person who holds opinions different than those of the Democratic Party. No on-air rage-fueled monologues about how casually she and host Jose Diaz-Balart gloss over the sex slavery of women encouraged to run that cartel gauntlet by Joe Biden and his open border, only the outrageous concept of a state being able to decide on its own laws.

Ramos opens her segment on illegal alien women being unable to find abortion pills with, “Well, Jose, as you can imagine, they are horrified. They're traumatized. I spoke to women that had been held by the cartels, some for a week, some for over a month, as they were being sexually abused, but I think, Jose, this is a reflection of a larger problem that we're seeing, right? Where there are migrant women who are stepping into the United States with rape-related pregnancies and as they’re then trying to navigate this complicated legal anti-abortion landscape and so the question that we have is: what does that look like, right? What does post-Roe look like through the eyes of one of those migrants and here's what we found.”

It's unbelievable, but true.

The repeated rape isn’t the problem, the third-world mentality flooding into the country resulting in sexual assaults here in our country isn’t the outrage, it’s the difficulty in finding abortion pills. It’s not the problem itself – hell, Democrats don’t see the rape as a problem, they’re still in a refractory period from a fundraiser celebrating Bill Clinton and Joe Biden, it’s only an inconvenience – the problem is a lack of free abortions.

They’re sick people. They’re evil.

Democrats have their priorities, not a single one of which is American citizens. They want illegals, they need more people dependent on the government, and the current crop is getting restless and flirting with straying. They’re terrified. They’re also worried about their Ponzi scheme of Social Security crashing down around them, lest they import more suckers to force into it.

Have I mentioned how they’re evil? Can you imagine a way in which they could be even more evil? Let’s not allow them to try.

Derek Hunter is the host of a free daily podcast (subscribe!) and author of the book, Outrage, INC., which exposes how liberals use fear and hatred to manipulate the masses, and host of the weekly “Week in F*cking Review” podcast where the news is spoken about the way it deserves to be. Follow him on Twitter at @DerekAHunter.

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xenotwink · 8 months

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I can promise you that nobody has seen the "latinex" people in Star Wars. Because there is no such thing as "latinex". There's Latinos (Latin American men), Latinas (Latin American women), or if you want to be more general, "Latines". "Latinex" is not a thing. It's not even a word. It's a shallow attempt to be "inclusive" that is at cross purposes with the Spanish language (which is inherently gendered) and has been acknowledged as racist by numerous Latines.

Well it would actually be Lantinx so you’re wrong. And it’s been around since the ‘70s. And it’s mostly used by lgbtq people so I’m sure it could make you uncomfortable. And it’s in the dictionary so… it’s literally a word.

Tocar la hierba…

#wowowowowo I can’t believe an asshole anon #anon

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aikoiya · 1 year

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I don't like the use of Lantinx.

Mostly because it makes no since for Spanish pronunciation.

If you want a gender neutral word for it, its more accurate to use Latine.

Also, Latinx sounds dumb, but that's more opinion than anything.

#pronunciation #latine #accuracy

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zvizcain · 1 year

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The Routledge Companion

Chapter Seven

Growing up the media was a huge influence in the decisions my parents would make. We could not go to watch movies because it was difficult for my parents to understand, the radio was strictly spanish, and video games were a strict no. The biggest reason my parents did not want me to play video games were because of the fear that my grades would drop or because they were too violent. Now that I earn and spend my own money, I have been more intrigued by video games like Animal Crossing, Zelda, FortNight, Call of Duty, and more. From my experience playing these games, I have seen a lot more representation on FortNight than any other game and the best thing about fortnight is how easily accessible it is for all backgrounds. That does not erase the fact that there is a lot of improvement to make. My partner on the other hand has had a different experience than me with video games growing up as a Chicano/Latino;

“Growing up I would notice that people who are latinx would have little to no representation in video games. A lot of the time as a kid I would choose characters who looked most like me but the options were limited and weren’t that accurate. I noticed the accuracy for black characters was even worse. Even then there were hardly any main characters in video games who looked like me at all. When it was the case I noticed that when the characters would have negative stereotypes like being gangster/drug dealer any other time I would see little to no representation aside from games where you could customize your own characters and even then like I mentioned earlier the options were fairly limited and not 100% accurate. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I noticed a lot more and overall better representation in video games and it made me and others feel more included regardless if it felt like a minor thing to other people. Nowadays, video games are more inclusive and diverse with their cast and character selection.”

Like my partner mentioned, the Latinx characters were depicted as gangsters and drug dealers the few times they were represented. “Where Latina/os are usually depicted as gang members, knife-wielding thugs, maids or hypersexualized female bodies,” (Cleger, pg. 92). Like mentioned before, there have been a lot more representations in video games. But there has also been more representation in streams and gaming tournaments. The Lantinx gaming community has grown so much and the link below can go in more detail.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/latino-gamers-are-blazing-path-generation-game-designers-rcna35939

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xicanx-creative-xpression · 1 year

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Entry 13

Chapter 33 discusses monsters. Looking at monsters through a Lantinx lens is interesting because monsters are part of Latinx culture - children's stories often include monsters - and also because Latinx people as a group have been demonize and made out to be monsters in American society. While it could sound odd to talk about imagined creatures in such a way, our imaginations shape our perception of the world and therefore our realities. Monsters may be imaginary yet they interact with the physical world in a way that gives real weight to monsters. As beings most often characterized negatively, they serve as a tool of White supremacy in the way that minoritized groups are categorized as monsters. Latinx populations are categorized as corrupt, thieves, untrustworthy - negative characteristics that people associate with monsters. One of the most interesting parts of this chapter to me was the clarification of La Llorona stories. I really found the precolonial story interesting; the Aztec mother goddess Cihuacoal was La Llorona, who cried over the impending invasion of her children (Mexicans) by the White race. I am disappointed that the only rendition of the La Llorona story demonizes the Latina woman. I find it interesting the monster stories that White society creates around Latinx populations, its almost as if they are picking up a history book and saying that what colonizers did to Natives is what the Native's descendants are going to do / doing to the colonizer's descendants. Painting Latinx groups as monsters is rhetorically similar to equating minoritized racial groups as animals. Separating racial minorities from their humanity is an age old tool and I feel like categorizing Latinos as monsters has similar rhetorical intentions and effects as categorizing racial groups as animalistic - how could human rights work if not all humans are seen as human?

Im upset Tumblr is once again not allowing me to upload images, I was able to link the "Bandito" image. The other image I wanted to use is a quote of Donald Trump about Mexicans where he says “They’re (Mexicans) bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

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alienidentities-f22a · 2 years

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RNM Textual Analysis Blog, Lantinx Representation

Historically, Latinx characters in television and film have been stereotyped and portrayed in ways which negatively frame their characters and personalities. Some examples of these stereotypes include the “hot latina” stereotype, as well as the drug-trafficking and illegal immigrant stereotypes that have been much more prevalent in recent discussions, due to the current political climate. These stereotypes negatively impact the Lantinx community by creating stigmas and prejudices about them, which can often lead to violence and aggression towards Lantinx people.

In the CW’s reboot of Roswell, New Mexico, the show runners have put Lantinx characters and issues close to the forefront of their show, with many of the main characters being of hispanic or Latin-American descent. The main example of this is the Ortecho family, with the main protagonist of the show being Liz Ortecho, the oldest daughter in the family. Liz’s father is an illegal immigrant, and his battle against being deported plays a large role in the show as well as Liz’s life and decision making. Despite a high level of representation within the show, the depictions of Lantinx characters and immigrants in Roswell can often conflict between being stereotypical and overplayed, versus progressive.

The most obvious example of this conflict is with Liz’s younger sister Rosa. From the start of the series, Rosa is described by most people in the town as a drunk and drug-abusing girl, who killed two other girls in a car accident. While it is later revealed that Rosa is innocent in terms of killing the other two girls, her drug abuse problems still hold true. In my eyes this is problematic, as one of the main stereotypes that is seen regarding Latinx people, especially immigrants, is that they use or traffic drugs. That being said, the show runners then turn on a dime, as they love to add in small jabs at political figures who promote stricter deportation and border laws, while also adding in storylines, like Liz’s father Arturo almost being deported, which show the struggles of immigrant families.

A second example of this conflicting representation is Noah. Noah is one of the few aliens who survived and escaped the initial crash and overtaking of the military, as he escaped and hid in his pod for years before entering Roswell to be close to Max, Isobel, and Michael. When it is revealed that Noah is an alien, he speaks of his journey from their home planet to earth, comparing the journey and experience in a parallel way to how some people would describe their journey’s as immigrants coming across the southern border, even going as far as to use the term “refugees”, which is the same term used for people coming across the Mexican border. Not to mention that the actor who plays Noah’s character in the show is of Lantin descent, while the actors who play the other three aliens in the show are all white. This portrayal of Noah is conflicting as he is the clear antagonist of season one of the show, committing many horrible acts including the murders of Rosa and the two other girls. This antagonistic description, along with the fact that his character is Latino and a sort of immigrant, creates an antagonistic view of immigrants and refugees, especially those of Latin descent.

In general, it is very positive that the show incorporates so many Latino characters and places them in crucial roles in the film, while also drawing attention to issues within the Latinx community. However, this positive portrayal directly conflicts with the frequent negative stereotypes that are perpetuated by some of the characters in the show.

#Jonesbrackett #textualanalysis

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feywildfancypants · 2 years

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“To my child. In hopes that you will have the words to describe your experience and the heart to listen to the experiences of others.“

This is the dedication to my book Regency. I want to write worlds that are better than the one I’m currently living in. I want to raise my child to believe in a revolutionary future where we listen to the disabled, black, indigenous, lantinx, queer, and trans communities. Where we believe in equity and equality. Where we listen when someone has a different experience than us, rather than shouting loud enough to maintain the status quo.

#USA leadership would have you believe that jokes at our expense are still technically punching up #there are so many communities that have been telling us for DECADES that this is not true #we should be known for our genocide and racism and slavery and homophobia and transphobia #that way at least we could say we weren't erasing the histories of entire communities

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books-secretgetaway · 2 years

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Cemetery Boys Review

Yadriel is a transgender boy who wants nothing more than to prove to his traditional Latinx family that he is a brujo. When he accidentally summons the spirit of Julian Diaz, he has to race against time to release his spirit before Día de los Muertos, but Yadriel quickly learns just how stubborn Julian really is.

Cemetery Boys is a strong representation of what it means to be a trans boy who wants to prove himself to a family that refuses to break from tradition. For the most part, I think it’s a strong story. Even though it faltered at the end, and my rating dipped down a bit, but it didn’t make me hate it. I do wish it was done differently but as it is, I give this a strong 3.7 out of 5. It’s definitely worth the read and should be on everyone’s bookshelf if you enjoy YA fiction filled with magic and the paranormal, but more importantly, endearing characters.

I have been trying to read this book for about a year now and I finally managed to finish it. This is in no way a reflection of the book, but rather myself, who struggled to get any reading done in 2021. I reread the first 50 pages about three times which means it was a strong opening. I usually don’t torture myself so if a book isn’t grabbing my attention, I put it down. I wanted to read it, so I was very willing to read those pages again each time I attempted to finally finish a book. I kept going back to it over and over again, determined to read something. And finally, I got myself to focus and stick with the book, and I’m so glad I did.

Character is the most important thing in a novel for me and I fell in love with Yadriel, Martiza, and Julian. For the most part, there was good pacing, the writing was strong, and it was a really lovely story. The last quarter of the novel was drastically weaker though, and I’ll discuss that in the spoiler portion of the review.

Cemetery Boys centers on a Latinx family and I love the liveliness and the strong familial bonds depicted. Often times when a novel has a large cast of characters, the secondary and tertiary characters feel flat and unrealized. They often lack a substance and feel as if they’re an afterthought. Here, for the most part, I didn't feel like any of the characters were there for the sake of being there. I got a clear sense of the large family Yadriel was a part of without needing to have them running around in every scene. There were some characters I wish we had spent more time with, but the world of Cemetery Boys felt realized and lived in.

This is the first novel about a transgender character that I’ve ever read. It’s not that I actively avoided such a topic, I just simply hadn’t found the right book that spoke to me. I’m drawn more to the fantasy and sci-fi genres than contemporary which is more often the genre that tells transgender stories. When I found Cemetery Boys, I was immediately intrigued by the premise, and I was excited to find a novel about a topic that I know very little about but want to learn more. I have met only a few openly transgender people before, none of whom I knew beyond acquaintance. I am ignorant to a lot of the issues that transgender people go through and I often felt like Yadriel’s family. Though I was speaking more from ignorance than willful refusal to acknowledge one’s gender, reading about Yadriel’s frustration showed me how frustrating and disheartening it can be for the transgender community when people like me slip up and make mistakes.

Novels like this are powerful. They allow people who are like Yadriel to see themselves portrayed and it gives them a character to bond with. It also allows people outside of the trans community to have empathy for trans people. Ignorance hinders progress and the more novels we have about the LGBTQIA+ community, the easier it is to tackle ignorance. I am so glad that I found this novel and that it was even featured on the Barnes & Noble YA Book Club, which is the gorgeous edition that I got. We need to continue highlighting these stories, not only for the youth that this book is largely targeted to, but for adults as well. I have always been an advocate for people to support media that depicts people different from them. We have far too many CIS white men and women in leading roles, and any time these roles deviate, the biggest argument is ‘I can’t relate to this character’. I am not a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, but I relate to Yadriel feeling alone in his school. Obviously not to the extent that he did, but I did struggle with bullying and feeling isolated in middle school and high school so I can empathize. But I also empathized with his struggle that I myself will never face. I don’t have to relate to every aspect of a character to be invested in their story and it seems a lot of people have yet to learn that.

Now, onto spoilers.

I absolutely love the way Yadriel describes Julian, especially as he’s falling in love with him. In the beginning, Julian’s stubbornness threatens to expose Yadriel’s secret and he has to put up with him until he finds Julian’s friends. By the end, Julian’s stubbornness becomes endearing, a trait that Yadriel falls in love with. I think that the progression of their affection for one another is well paced and feels organic. Many times, when you have a story that takes place over just a few days, the romance can feel rushed and unbelievable, but in Cemetery Boys, I can believe it.

“He didn’t see how anyone could get a clean break from Julian once they entered his orbit […] He was a bit of an ass. Headstrong, impulsive, and definitely obnoxious. But Yadriel could see how ferociously he cared about the people who were important to him.”

“He was so…visceral. He was so real. Even with his blurry edges and chilling touch, he was a force of nature. He was loud, he was stubborn, he was determined, and he was reckless.”

One of the things that Yadriel loves about Julian is how confident he is about who he is. When Yadriel assumes that Julian is straight, Julian corrects him instantly, stating that he is actually gay without any hesitation. Yadriel has struggled with his sexuality and gender identity, not having the confidence that he envies in Julian.

“He’d said it so… ’casually’ wasn’t the right word, but maybe ‘easily’ was. Whenever Yadriel came out to anyone, it was always an ordeal that he overthought and dragged out. It was nerve-racking, waiting to see someone’s reaction, whether they would reject him, or even understand what it meant when a trans boy said he was gay. But not for Julian.

He’d said it as almost a challenge. In a way that said he didn’t care what you thought.”

We see Julian rub off on Yadriel as he becomes more and more comfortable with who he is. He gets the courage to use the boy’s restroom at school. This feels like such a small step but is actually a huge leap for Yadriel and I love seeing him become who he truly is.

“But he was a boy, and if this was what they bathrooms were like, then he’d get used to it.”

We see why Julian is so good with helping Yadriel be truer to himself when we finally meet his friends. They are truly a band of ‘misfits’, people who are rejected by everyone else and have formed their own family. We have Luca who was abused and subsequently joined a gang, Rocky who lives in a group home, Flaca, a trans girl who was thrown out of her home, and Omar whose parents were deported. Julian lives with his older brother, Rio, as their mother abandoned them, and their dad was killed in street violence. I appreciate that Thomas touched on other subjects that the Latinx community faces, bringing these kids together in a support system that no one else shows them. When Julian is missing, none of them call the police because of their fear of deportation which is a very real and very terrifying issue that Latinx people face every day. I do wish this, and the other issues facing Julian's friends, were touched on a little bit more since this is such a topical issue and feels like it could really add to the story.

This leads to my biggest problem with the book, the last quarter of the novel. We had been building up the mystery of what happened to Julian and finding his friends, but then we just leave them and don’t see them until a brief moment at the end. I wish we had spent more time with them and bring them in on the search. Luca helps for a brief moment but then is gone as well. I wanted to see more of Yadriel and Flaca interacting as they have that shared trait of being trans. Flaca has more confidence in who she is, using the girl’s restroom without fear, even as she gets in trouble for doing so. I wanted to see some bonding between them. They could be the friends that Yadriel desperately needs, as he seems to really have no one except for his cousin Martiza.

The final day before Yadriel releases Julian takes a sudden turn in tone and all of a sudden, Yadriel is skipping school and stealing Julian and Rio’s’ car. They go to the Halloween bonfire, and all of this adds nothing to the story. It severely weakened the pacing and all the buildup we had been leading to. I also want to know what happened to the whole day. One moment, Yadriel is buying all of Julian’s favorite foods, then they’re stealing the car, then they’re all of a sudden at the bonfire? Where did the day go? This was such a huge waste that could've been much better utilized.

I wish instead they had kept on track with finding Julian’s body. Maybe Yadriel skips school and finds Julian’s friends to get their help. He can still get Julian’s foods for his ofrenda, but the grand theft auto storyline needs to go. I wanted to feel the building tension as they run out of time to find Julian’s body. Maybe one of his friends is in danger of being killed like Julian or goes missing as well and they have to find them. I picked up on Tío Catriz being the villain about halfway through and I absolutely loved the potential of this. You have him being an outsider like Yadriel, as he was born without the powers of a brujo but then he chooses a very dangerous path to be acknowledged by his family. The juxtaposition of this would’ve been incredible but unfortunately, it’s rushed through. The fight between Yadriel and Catriz ends much too soon. It’s resolved almost as quickly as it’s revealed and that really weakened it. I wish that Catriz had shown some more hints to being the bad guy or that we got to see him spiraling into desperation and anger. Maybe he says something that raises Yadriel’s suspicion. His character is definitely the weakest of the cast. He needed more time to be more realized and so we could feel his anger and frustration that would lead him to such a horrid crime. I would’ve liked to see him come unhinged slowly.

I’m not sure how I feel about the end, with Yadriel bringing Julian back to life. I almost wish that Julian had died, and Yadriel released his spirit, so that we have a more unpredictable ending. Another part of me is glad they get to be together because Julian is such an endearing character. Although, I really hated how he was acting in the end. He was almost animalistic in how he held onto Yadriel, not even letting his family help him. It was excessive and eye rolling. I know we have built up Julian to be an incredibly protective person, but this just wasn’t done right to me.

I do love the ending though. Seeing Yadriel be accepted into his family, becoming a brujo with his mom there to see is so wonderful. The final line shows that not everything is resolved with a neat little bow in one day.

“No, it wasn’t the end. It was a better beginning”

But it is progress. His family has made a huge first step in understanding who Yadriel is and accepting him. Yadriel’s father’s speech really moved me and is something that I wish so many more people understood.

“Growth isn’t a deviation from what we’ve done before, but a natural progression to honor all those who make this community strong.”

People are so afraid of growth when it means accepting something they don’t understand. Seeing Yadriel’s incredibly traditional family accepting Yadriel’s identity is a powerful message that I truly hope that one day everyone will achieve. This novel relied on Yadriel proving himself in a literal sense, summoning a spirit which only a brujo could do, but in real life, it isn’t so simple. It is still possible, and stories like this help in educating people about trans people. As we have more and more visibility in media, one day perhaps trans stories will be more accepted and we learn to understand those who identify as a trans person.

I really did enjoy this book despite the dislike I have for the last 80 or so pages. I want to read more stories about trans characters because I have so much to learn. I love that the LGBTQIA+ community is given a stronger voice and that we are starting to listen. Cemetery Boys is a wonderful novel and I loved reading Yadriel’s journey. I know that there are a few other fantasy novels about trans characters, and I will definitely keep my eyes out for them.

#cemetery boys #cemetery boys review #book review #review #ya fiction #reading #aiden thomas #lgbtqia #transgender #lantinx #paranormal #diadelosmuertos #secret getaway

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