#cemetery reviews

[cemeteryreviews]

Cemetery Reviews #2 - Campo Santo

Campo Santo is the old cemetery of Zapatoca. It's quite small, and people are no longer buried there. Even so, what you see there is very special. There's a mausoleum, and although there are few tomb inscriptions, the ones that remain are quite old. I saw one from 1819, a death one year before independence. There is also a tomb of a German fugitive who lived a semi-feudal and lavish lifestyle in the 19th century.

Although his colonization and trade projects failed and his life ended in ruin, he has a tomb enclosed in its own fence. The guy also has a street named after him. Even if the foreigners who come here don't end up doing much, it's still cool to remember them because it's curious that they pass through here. The chapel is very small and only has a few benches, but the tombs, already piled up among themselves, are covered with grass, moss, and the trees surround the site. To get there, you can also climb a street with long stairs, and from the end, you can see the town from above. In a way, it's like you have to climb a little closer to heaven to see the site.

For these reasons, the bits of history, the curious characters, and the location, I found it to be a very beautiful place with a very fulfilling atmosphere.

8/10

[veeveetheheretic]

another rousing weekly recap of my work.

[softness-and-shattering]

Two mini reviews, partly brought to you by tumblr autosaving - Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas. I wasn't sure what to expect; I really liked The Sunbearer Trials (Ive not yet read the sequel), and DNF'd Lost In The Never Woods because it was the wrong type and intensity of dark and spooky for me at the time. Cemetery Boys is a freaking delight. Maybe my least favourite part was the villain reveal, it made sense but either it wasnt foreshadowed enough or I just wanted better for that character? idk. But this isnt primarily a plot book, its a romance, and its a story about community and acceptance, and figuring out how you fit into the world when you're not the shape you're expected to be. And it did really well with both those aspects. I also appreciate that with so many stories, real and fictional, about people who have to leave their communities to find themselves, I appreciate a story of someone who never once thinks maybe I need to leave, and instead forges on to create space for himself in his community and his heritage. That's not everyone's story and thats totally fine. Our experiences are diverse and we deserve diverse stories. Its all good. As for the romance, its really believable. Its quite an opposites-attract situation, from Julian's aggressive queerness and non-issue with Yadriel's transness making his albeit and unexpected presence a breath of fresh air to Yadriel, to their growing understanding of each other's lives and admiration for the strength of each others convictions. (When Julian is upset about his friends and Yadriel nevertheless pauses to set that boundary about ghost-safety, that was hot.). And the ghost aspect! (this is not a mini review anymore lol). I was not really sure how that was going to go, and then cheering for them, and then wondering what the heck they were gonna do about ongoing ghost-itude and the finiteness of that situation, and actually I really liked how it went. The romance and how they push each other and grow to understand each other is fun, romantic, sexy, heartfelt. Remarkably sexy given that one of them is a ghost who cant be touched. (Spoilers for a sec - the scene on the car where Yadriel reaches for Julian's jacket to pull him closer and there's nothing there to grab? Oh that feels like grief.) The book is quite a bit about grief. Missing parents, missing support networks, missing opportunities to be yourself and be accepted. Its about a guy who can communicate with ghosts and its set around Dia de Meurtos, there's grief themes.

I also really love Maritza, showing off another aspect of (gender) non-conformity, that its not only trans people who have trouble fitting fairly strict defined roles. (Julian's friends do so similarly). Almost all the Spanish I picked up from context, but how Julian refers to Yadriel at the end I knew I had to look up that word specifically and oh my heart. Overall really enjoyed. probably 9/10 second, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off. I havent read the books/comics, I have seen the movie. This show....for at least the first half I had no idea what the rules of the universe were or what exactly was going on or what themes exactly were being explored. I was definitely entertained though. The last few episodes manage to make sense of the first few and deliver on those themes in ways I quite liked. I liked that Ramona is the "manic pixie dream girl" and then almost immediately gets upstaged for that role by Envy Addams. I normally am annoyed at stories in which some boring guy "gets" the manic pixie dream girl and certainly doesn't appreciate her - you know the kind who goes on reddit and complains that she wont stop talking about slugs or decorates their whole house in anime? And I know scott pilgrim is a comment on that trope. I like how its about scott but its not really about scott. Largely its about Ramona and her friends (and her exes). And the others recognise that scott isnt so great, or so smart, and also that if Ramona likes him thats cool. He can be a "lovable idiot" and shes not automatically making a mistake with him. If they're happy they're happy. (and of course the ways that *could* go wrong, but arent destined to). Plus the music is fun, the visuals are bright and pretty. It might lean overstimulating for some people, I had to stop and think about my spoon levels between episodes. Thats what I got for today. Two very different fun stories I recommend like 8-9/10, not perfect but a damn good ride.

[visplay]

Chris: Cemetery Man is an R-rated French comedy / horror not unlike Evil Dead about a graveyard attendant and his coworker who have problems with animated bodies, better than most, Watch: On Subscription Service.

Richie: This movie was too weird for me, I just couldn’t really get into, it’s a curiosity so Watch: When Free.

[daizine2008]

Cemetery boys

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 🌟

[thenefilim]

Review - Seven Cemeteries (2024)

It's an action horror/comedy take on The Magnificent Seven as Danny Trejo raises his old crew from the dead to take on the cartels,

https://www.voicesfromthebalcony.com/2024/10/18/seven-cemeteries-2024-review/

[sophiesbookishthings]

June Reads 🌈

Hi! I've got a little preface before this month's list. Every June I like to try to exclusively read books with LGBTQ+ rep. I do tend to kind of do that throughout the year anyway since I'm queer (biromantic asexual and nonbinary) and that's just the type of books I naturally seek out. But in June I make a point of it and try to read books where they are specifically the main character. It's also preferable if the author is also LGBTQ+ in some way. I believe representation in the media is extremely important and I like to support that whenever I can. Anyway, buckle up, this one is gonna be long.

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

This book has 3(!) asian bisexual polyamorous main characters by an asian nonbinary queer author. This book was like if ancient China met Pacific Rim, then make it queer and feminist. I was not in love with the first part of this book. The main character was (understandably) out for revenge but didn't seem to really think through her plans well. She was also really mean. It did make sense for the character at the time, though and it made sense, since she really didn't think she would live long enough to have further plans or for it to matter that she was mean. It was just a bit frustrating to read. She did have character development throughout the book and did ultimately turn her anger specifically back toward the oppressive government. I loved watching each dynamic of the romance develop throughout the book. I think it was really well done, and the three characters fit really well together. It was also a great contrast to the harrowing dark nature of the rest of the plot. Then the ending! The ending was such a great payoff from the rest of the book. The twist was foreshadowed so well, and I did pick up on it a bit. I knew something was up with the "aliens." The second book is supposed to be out later this year, I believe, and I can't wait to read it.

4.75/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨️

Leather and Lark by Brynn Weaver

Okay, this one isn't lgbt. Oops. I had it preordered and had to read it immediately. I do think I liked the first book in the series a bit more, but this one was still fun. It was kinda enemies to lovers and had a marriage of convenience. The fmc basically did arts and crafts with her victims (who were typically child abusers/molesters), and the mmc was a professional crime coverer. I really liked how hard the mmc worked throughout the book to be forgiven for things that happened when the 2 mcs first met and the gradual reveal of why it was so bad for the fmc in the first place. I'm excited to read the next book because I feel like the two main characters are going to be super interesting.

4.25/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨️

Edgedancer by Brandon Sanderson

.....Okay, I did another non-lgbt one. But it's Sanderson, and it's a novella okay. I don't really have much to say about this one except that Wyndle deserves financial compensation or something. That poor spren is going through it. I'm really intrigued to see how Lift is going to deal with being a Radiant and interacting with the others in Oathbringer after this book, though. I think she's gonna add a lot more chaos, and it's gonna be fun. Oh, and I still love Szeth, and someone needs to help him. I know he's a notorious assassin, but he is the saddest, wettest, most pathetic guy, and he's having a whole existential crisis.

4.25/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨️

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

This one was really good. I've had it on my shelf for a while. I get why everyone was talking about it a few years ago (when I should've read it lol oops). The main character is a gay transgender Latino (same as the author) boy whose family can summon spirits and heal. Powers which are unfortunately traditionally gender based. Through the book, he tries to prove to his family that he belongs with the men of the family while also helping a spirit he kinda accidentally raised. I really loved Julian, and the eventual relationship between him and Yadriel was really sweet. I listened to this one on audio, and I have to mention that I loved Avi Roque as the narrator. They did a great job. Then there were two twists at the end, one I saw coming, and one I didn't. The one I didn't see coming was really neat and made a lot of sense considering there is supposed to be a sequel.

4/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Loveless by Alice Oseman

I tried to read this book at least twice before I finally got through the whole thing. I had to get it in audiobook cause that is my trick to getting through books that are hard for me to get through for whatever reason. And it absolutely wasn't because I didn't like it. It was the exact opposite. Alice Oseman never fails to make me cry when she writes aro/ace characters. She herself is aro/ace, I believe, and the way she writes her aro/ace characters is the closest I think I've ever read/seen in media to my own experience. This book felt too much like looking into a mirror, and that made me have A Lot of Feelings. Even trying to read it this time was tough, and it took me a while. Georgia's experience navigating through the transition between college and high school felt a lot like mine. Though, her college experience ultimately went significantly better. Her desire for connections felt a lot like mine. Though she did achieve that in a way, I very much did not. I loved the various representation in this book. Sunil was a particular favorite of mine. And i loved that they were Shakespeare theatre kids. Very much like me lol. Ultimately, I really loved the conclusion that friendships can be just as important and fulfilling as romantic or sexual relationships.

4/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

I liked this book a lot. I love a good morally gray woman who won't apologize for her questionable choices. I also love a good queer period piece. And this book is mostly set in old Hollywood which fascinates me because of the contrast of how glamorous it looks versus how much of a nightmare it actually was for anyone who wasn't a straight cis white male in a position of power. There was also a really sweet found family element in this book, and I'm always a sucker for that. It also had an interesting narrative structure, which I enjoyed, because it was framed as an interview. So this book really checked a lot of boxes for me.

4.75/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨️

The Emperor and the Endless Palace by Justinian Huang

I really liked the premise of this book. Two men meet in ancient China, fall in love, and meet over and over again throughout various lifetimes. The endless palace concept intrigued me as well. Unfortunately, the execution fell flat for me. I wanted this to be a love story, and I think it was supposed to be, but it felt like more of a lust story. And there's nothing wrong with that, but it felt weird to me when it was framed as a love story and then barely delivered. It didn't feel like the two protagonists actually got time to get to know each other and fall in love before they were declaring that they were in love, especially in the lives they live after the first. And this declaration happened later in the book as well. There was very little romantic development. It would have been more interesting to me if they had to make the effort to fall in love in each life, but it never seemed like they did. Even in the first lifetime, it seemed like their love was orchestrated. It also never explained why they were reincarnating. I think the jade thing was supposed to be the reason, but it wasn't explained well at all. And, considering the title, I thought the endless palace would come into play a bit more. It didn't. It was mentioned briefly that the palace was seemingly endless, and that was about it. Ultimately, the ending failed to pull the whole story together like I hoped it would. I basically got 0 emotional effect from this. I felt like basically nothing happened and that there were so many loose ends that were just left unexplained. And if you do choose to read this tw for sexual assault/coercion.

The First Bright Thing by J. R. Dawson

2.5/5 ⭐️⭐️✨️

When We Lost Our Heads by Heather O'Neill

This book was weird. But I kinda loved it, I think. The two girls the story centers on, Marie Antoine and Sadie Arnett, are based on Marie Antoinette and the Marquis de Sade (which is directly referenced in the book and it made me laugh). It follows them through years of both their friendship and rivalry and how Maire's privilege and Sadie's libertinism impact their relationship (both platonic and romantic). It has very heavy themes of 19th-century feminism which can seem very harsh at times when read through a lense of modern feminism, but I do think it was ultimately executed well. It also had themes of classism and the privileges that come with being in the highest upper class and how that can affect ones beliefs. It's also very queer. I was a little worried about the way it was queer at first because it seemed pretty heavy on hating men but i think that was very much due to the time period and the extreme amount of priveledge men had in the lives these women were living in. This book also had a few twists that, even though I picked up on a little early, still made me gasp when it was revealed. And every character in this book is flawed and kinda awful in some way, which was part of what made it such a fascinating book to me. Like I said, I love morally questionable women.

5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I kept seeing and almost picking this book up at the bookstore until I finally just got it on audio from the library. This book had found family and a magic circus. But it also had a pretty prevalent theme of the effects of an abusive relationship that kinda caught me off guard because that wasn't necessarily stated in the description of this book. It was actually one of the strongest elements of this book, I thought, so it seems odd to me that it wasn't one of the main points of the description. Then there is a plot point in which they try to stop WWII. I think this book could have been just as good or even better if that had been excluded because it didn't really seem to go anywhere. But also upon reflection, I believe the point of it was to show that even though terrible things may happen in the future you can't necessarily change them and have to live in and make the most of the present. And I kind of love that as a concept. I really liked the relationship between the ringmaster and her wife. They were really sweet and another one of the strongest parts of the book as well as the friendship between them and their other friend who helps them run the circus. I think I still have more thoughts about this book, but this is already long, and I'm not coherent enough to articulate them lol

3.75/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨️

[thechaoticreader]

🌞July Reading WrapUp🌞

Stats

Total Read: 4

Average Rating: 4.5⭐️

Most Read Genre: Horror

Most Read Format: Physical Book

DNF Count: N/A

Books

Title: Cemetery Boys

Author: Aiden Thomas

Genre: Y/A Paranormal Queer Romance

Format: Physical Book (Library)

Rating: 5⭐️

Start Date: June 17

End Date: July 3

Title: Mr. Harrigan’s Phone

Author: Stephen King

Genre: Short Horror

Format: Physical Book

Rating: 4.5⭐️

Start Date: July 23

End Date: July 23

Title: The Life Of Chuck

Author: Stephen King

Genre: Short Horror

Format: Physical Book

Rating: 4.5⭐️

Start date: July 26

End date: July 26

Title: Maeve Fly

Author: CJ Leede

Genre: Horror/Slasher

Format: Physical Book

Rating: 4⭐️

Start date: July 29

End date: July 31

PS. I’m counting each short story in an anthology as its own separate book!

[dreamygunjan]

Thursday Murder Club Moodboard

[travelingviabooks]

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Genre: fiction, fantasy, lgbtqia+, romance, young adult

Country: USA

Review:

I liked this book. All of the characters were loveable and well written. I liked the story overall. But for some reason, I didn’t fall in love with this book the way that I wanted to. Maybe because I found myself predicting everything that was happening. I’m really not sure because this is honestly a great book. I liked everything about it and I will be reading the sequel.

Would I recommend this book?: Yes

[cemeteryreviews]

Cemetery Reviews #7 – San Gil Old Cemetery

The old San Gil Cemetery is quite fascinating, but not for the reasons you might initially expect. It's a spacious cemetery with lots of greenery and a beautiful giant tree. The interesting thing is that, due to urbanization projects around it, the cemetery no longer has space to expand, and the terrain is somewhat hilly. People opened another cemetery on the way to the airport and this one has been left alone, somewhat.

Like the Zapatoca Cemetery, the graves in the back are somewhat forgotten, with many broken tombstones now covered in grass. What I found incredible was discovering the morgue right next to it, also forgotten and untouched, perfectly intact. There was even a changing room, and both spaces are filled with dust and wasp nests. I thought that was pretty cool. There was also a wall that covered a door, which now looks like a sealed entrance to the underworld. Some tombstones were repurposed for the surroundings of the chapel and the pathway, which I found hysterical! Neither the names nor the dates were erased, but the tombstones now have a new use. There are also two empty graves, already dug but without any caskets and with the dirt piled beside them. At the far end, there’s a mysterious room whose purpose I couldn’t figure out. The roof is already overgrown with plants, and everything else inside has been abandoned. I peeked in, and it looks like a garbage room. There are several seating areas where you can hear the cicadas when the sun comes out.

Although the old San Gil Cemetery shares the maintenance challenges of other cemeteries, like Bogotá's Central Cemetery, I found this one much more pleasant, genuine, and fascinating.

9/10

[ink-bunny-blue]

Review: The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

So, I'd like to introduce you to one of my favourite books ever written:

"In an abandoned mansion at the heart of Barcelona, a young man, David Martin, makes his living by writing sensationalist novels under a pseudonym. The survivor of a troubled childhood, he has taken refuge in the world of books and spends his nights spinning baroque tales about the city’s underworld. But perhaps his dark imaginings are not as strange as they seem, for in a locked room deep within the house lie photographs and letters hinting at the mysterious death of the previous owner. Like a slow poison, the history of the place seeps into his bones as he struggles with an impossible love. Close to despair, David receives a letter from a reclusive French editor, Andreas Corelli, who makes him the offer of a lifetime. He is to write a book unlike anything that has ever existed — a book with the power to change hearts and minds. In return, he will receive a fortune, and perhaps more. But as David begins the work, he realizes that there is a connection between his haunting book and the shadows that surround his home."

-(Blurb taken from Goodreads)

Note, this is the second book in the Cemetery Of Forgotten Books series, but it works perfectly fine as a standalone. I will review the first instalment, The Shadow Of The Wind, later.

Like much of Zafón's writing, this book has everything you could wish for in a gothic novel: a writing style so heavy with atmosphere, a setting that seems to take the role of a living being, characters so complexly woven from both light and darkness. But at its heart, The Angel's Game is a love-letter to writers and storytellers. A bulk of the book follows the characters working on their various projects, exploring the highs and lows all writers go through in their creative journeys. There are many little references and inside jokes that fellow writers would certainly appreciate (such as Isabella's subplot, where she finds increasingly drastic ways to procrastinate and ends up writing practically nothing throughout the novel). So if you're a writer, or simply love stories about artists, I would recommend it a lot. (And now I desperately want to own a typewriter.)

The characters were one of the main things that shone brightly in this book, as every single one of them felt so real to me. Even though the protagonist David is a very cynical person, he was definitely loveable with his macabre, deadpan sense of humour and whimsical imagination. And despite being a pessimist, he has a very hopeful streak, which he refers to as his "Great Expectations" after the Dickens novel. Corelli, as well, was a brilliant antagonist, and Zafón did an amazing job at constructing a character who was undeniably creepy in every way.

The prose is exactly as I love prose to be: immersive and lyrical, yet it never bores you by being purple. I will always be sad that I will never be able to experience the book in its original Spanish, but Lucia Graves' translation is gorgeous nonetheless.

I definitely wouldn't call this a light read, as the story's main mystery is complex and surreal, leaving a lot of readers baffled (judging by the reviews I've read). I actually had to read it twice before I understood what this book was actually trying to say, and once I did, I decided it was my favourite book I'd ever read.

(Spoiler review below)

......

David Martin is by far one of the best unreliable narrators I have ever encountered in fiction, and it becomes clear as the book goes on that his perception of the world is vastly different the one the other characters are living in. You will begin to see contradictions, plot-holes, and inconsistencies, which the narrator notices too, yet he tries his hardest to convince the reader they are not there. That his story is correct. That his madness is the reality. Even when he encounters a huge reality check close to the book's climax, and the elaborate conspiracy he's constructed is completely torn down, he still retreats further into his delusion and blames the other characters for not being able to see his truth.

Yet his story is so convincing because of how tightly he holds onto it, and on my first time reading, I completely believed him. People always like to hate on "it was all a dream/hallucination" type narratives (and I see why. They are seldom used well), yet this book sets up and executes it so perfectly, from the well-grounded beginning all the way to the epilogue where poor David is living in a complete state of psychosis (which is explored further in the rest of the series). The Angel's Game was never a story about a Faustian pact with the devil, a haunted house, and a mysterious cursed book. Its the story of an artist trying as hard as he can to hold onto reality as his life is slowly consumed by mental illness. And I will always be in awe at how masterfully Carlos Ruiz Zafón was able to hide so much tragedy within a supernatural mystery novel.

[veeveetheheretic]

reupload of my weekly recap for this week because of errors in the previous upload. 🫣

[mysticalmidget]

Book Review: Cemetery Boys

I recently read this book and I loved it with all my heart. Cemetery Boys is about Yadriel, a 16 year old trans, Lantix boy. His community doesn't accept him as who he is and refuses to acknowledge him as a brujo. Yadriel decides that if they won't acknowledge them for who he is, he'll make them. He summons a hot spirit boy thinking it might be his cousin. Now he's is stuck with the spirit trying to fulfill its wishes while also trying to solve the mysterious murder of his cousin.

This book was so good! I love it with all my heart and as soon as i finished reading it I went out and bought it. Yadriel was such a relatable character for me (because I'm also a trans FtM:) and the romance between him and Julian was ADORABLE. I definitely would recommend this book.

[reviewsthatburn]

If I Have to Be Comped

Usually, comp titles are unhelpful approximations of what other book is popular, whether or not it has anything to do with the book being pitched by comps. Not this time. IF I HAVE TO BE HAUNTED by Miranda Sun is so perfectly CEMETERY BOYS x LEGENDBORN, that I want to somehow congratulate whoever picked them as comps.

Generational magic

Complicated family relationships, differentiating from parents without hating them

Helping an infuriating (ghost) boy

Sudden magic powers

Stop arguing and kiss already

It's really good!

[poppletonink]

BOOK REVIEW: Cemetery Boys - Aiden Thomas

★★★★★ - 5 stars

"No, it wasn't the end. It was a better beginning."

Yadriel lives in a cemetery. Yadriel's family can summon ghosts. When his cousin goes missing, he sees it as an opportunity to prove himself a real brujo to his family (who are struggling to accept his gender identity) by summoning his ghost. However, the ghost Yadriel summons is most certainly not his cousin, and now he can't get rid of him. Julian Diaz, his school's resident bad boy, is back in ghost form and he is certainly not going to go quietly. With pretty much no choice in the matter, Yadriel agrees to help Julian tie up loose ends and find out what happened to him. Yet, with every second of time Julian and Yadriel spend together, they come closer to each other, and Yadriel finds himself not wanting Julian to leave.

This book was absolutely soul-shattering and beautiful. It reinforces within your mind the fact that you should just be yourself (I nearly cried when Julian said, "You don’t need anyone’s permission to be you, Yads"). If I'm being honest I couldn't put it down - I finished it within the space of two days.

Yadriel's story is touching, as he struggles with being accepted as a transgender boy and a brujo, feeling like an outcast in his own family. He worries more so about everyone else than himself and is sleep deprived as a result, and even through it all he fights for the people he cares about. Maritza is really relatable for me, she's a bubbly person who loves and cares about her friends and family but is also so incredibly stubborn and set in her ways. She's a vegan who refuses to put her ethics aside for tradition's sake and she's a feminist who will not stand for women being stereotyped as weak. Then there's Julian - Julian who refuses to leave Earth until he can make sure his friends (who in reality are his found family) are okay. Julian who even though he is dead is so alive and full of energy all of the time, who brings out a side in Yadriel that he didn't even know existed.

While I love the characters immensely, what I love most is the relationship between Julian and Yadriel. Their romance story is slow burn, but in a beautiful way in which you see them each do things that make you expect them to get together soon only for them not to get together for another 100 pages (like Julian scribbling out Yadriel's deadname in the yearbook as a prime example). They are one of my new OTPs, I absolutely love them together.

Overall, I can only say that Cemetery Boys is beautifully written, the characters are wonderful and the plot will have a definite chokehold on you.