Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

Publisher – Swoon Reads

Published – Out Now

Price – £13.99 hardback £6.29 Kindle eBook

Yadriel has summoned a ghost, and now he can't get rid of him. When his traditional Latinx family has problems accepting his true gender, 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 actually Julian Diaz, the school's resident bad boy, 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, Yadriel agrees to help Julian, so that they can both get what they want. But the longer Yadriel spends with Julian, the less he wants to let him leave.

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Coming of age stories are huge part of the genre with a young character finding their place in the world as a wielder of magic, becoming an assassin or perhaps a leader of a rebellion. Finding your p[lace in the world and discovering your inner powers chimes most with us as teens when we find the genre but we still like it as adults – perhaps nice to remember what those times felt like? In the charming Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas a trans male character seeks both acceptance from their community but also their own powers to battle ghosts and in the process, experiences love for the first time.

Yadriel is a young man living in Los Angeles’ Latinx community. His family have for centuries been brujo a group capable of seeing ghosts and when required when they go mad sending them on. Dealing with this is hard enough but Yadriel is also dealing out with coming out recently to his family as a gay trans man both to his family and less than understanding school. Because his father refuses to give Yadriel the rite of passage that male brujos go through Yadriel cannot yet come into his power. But with the aid of his best friend the rebellious Maritza they perform a secret ceremony to the family’s god/patron Lady Death who does give Yadriel a blade endowed with the power to despatch ghosts. Before Yadriel can celebrate though the family is rocked by one of the older Brujo vanishing and they all sense his death and at the same time Yadriel and Maritza meet their first new ghost – a fellow but rebellious high school student named Julian. The family order Yadriel to stay at home and so Yadriel, Maritza and Julian start investigating Julian’s murder finding out someone is trying some very dark magic but also allowing Julian and Yadriel to start to bond and enjoy each other’s company.

This is a charming supernatural romance. The highpoints are the three main characters. Yadriel is kind, shy, unsure and funny – you immediately warm to him and Thomas really helps to show the highs of lows of their life. A family that both cares for him and yet regularly misgenders him and calls him by the wrong name combined with a school that refuses to be understanding and forces him to use the wrong bathroom. With Julian we have someone that looks the teen jock but is also proudly gay, cares for his very diverse group of friends and still dealing with their own family issues. Yadriel and Julian’s time together turns very sweetly to romance even though one is a ghost which is just charming and pulls the story along.

Thomas makes a great use of the culture and history of the Latinx world this family lives in mixing modern life concerns such as the police, people labelling every teen as a gang member and immigration authorities with a world of family traditions, mythology and magic giving the story a lot of depth that will be new to many readers. The theme is that our culture evolves and learns to embrace changes and is stronger for it. The only weakness I felt was the plot of who is behind all of this is very obviously done and very easily resolved. Despite that I had a lot of fun.

A very interesting debut with a lot of heart and joy in the adventure that I think will give readers a great adventure and romance to click with. Promising and will be interesting to see what Thomas does next.