The Paranormal Romance trend of the mid 2010s may have died down, but it never quite went away. Cemetery Boys was a delightful recent addition to the genre, eschewing many of the more stickier parts of the subgenre in favor of something refreshing and heartfelt, instead of being another drop of water in the vast ocean of edgy immortal love interests.
Read if Looking For: sweet romances, light mystery elements, transmasc latinx rep
Avoid if Looking For: surprising twists, action scenes, lots of magic
Elevator Pitch:
Yadriel is a Brujo, or at least, he wants to be. He’s got the skills for it, but his family insists that he is in fact a she, and doesn’t belong in that part of the business. When he summons the ghost of Julian Diaz, he’s stuck with a more inconvenient companion than he could have hoped for, since Julian wants to get to the bottom of his own death. It doesn’t hurt that he’s cute, even as a ghost.
What Worked for Me
Oftentimes romances leave me frustrated for the first third, as characters tend to have abrasive personalities, plot devices masquerading as character flaws (or poor mockeries of mental health challenges) and a vaguely annoying narrative style. Like most of the best, Cemetery Boys avoids this. Both Yadriel and Julian are mellow, realistic, and fun to follow. They definitely have their struggles and challenges, but they feel like real people, instead of fridge-magnet art made out of random words squished together. Yadriel’s fight to get his parents to accept his identity in particular was well written, dynamic, and engaging. It helped that the romance was spooled out slowly, giving us time to get to know them as individuals worthy of the time it takes to read about them.
When it does develop, the romance isn’t as dramatic as people normally go for. The things keeping them apart are worked naturally into the story. And while the book never quite goes all in on romance tropes, there was enough there to satisfy an avid romance lover like myself.
What Didn’t Work for Me
This book is written for teenage audiences in mind. As such, it lacks some of the things I personally enjoy in romances. But this is less a downside and more a matter of preference, so it didn’t bug me.
In Conclusion: A sweet teenage romance with a ghost and a brujo. A little bit of mystery, a little bit of coming of age, and a whole lotta heart.
- Characters – 4
- Worldbuilding – 4
- Craft – 4
- Themes – 3
- Enjoyment – 4
Marked for Plot 