Cemetery Boys by Aidan Thomas

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Aiden Thomas’s debut paranormal YA novel was one of the most anticipated novels of 2020, and for good reason. Teenaged Yadriel’s summoned a ghost, but it’s not the one he meant to call and now he doesn’t know what to do with it. Yadriel has long felt in his heart that he’s a brujo, and as such should be able to summon spirits. Unfortunately for Yadriel, his traditional Latinx family doesn’t accept that he’s a man and expects him to develop the healing magic of a bruja instead. To prove to them all that he knows who he is, Yadriel and his best friend Maritza sneak out one evening to summon the ghost of a murdered cousin and set it free. If he can manage this, he’s sure the family will finally acknowledge him for who he is.

The spirits do indeed recognize Yadriel as the brujo he knew he was, but it’s not his cousin that comes through, it’s another ghost: Julian Diaz. Julian is a boy from Yadriel’s school who doesn’t remember how he died and absolutely isn’t ready to move on.  Left with little choice, Yadriel agrees to help Julian figure out what happened, but the more time he spends with Julian, the less he wants to say goodbye to this bad-boy (bad-ghost?) he’s coming to care about.

This is a queer slow-burn teenage romance that also blends high fantasy and rich Latinx culture to create a captivating backdrop to what is ultimately the story of a young man trying to reconcile where he sees himself in his community with where his community expects him to be.  But far from feeling forced, as sometimes family identity and gender identity topics can be in teen novels, the characters that move through Thomas’s landscape are refreshingly real, reflect the modern world we all are trying to navigate, and probe into heavier subjects with grace and nuance. The romance is just a touch angst-y, but it’s also warm and gentle. Yadriel is endearing, and Maritza is the best sort of friend and sidekick—the one who will say what everyone is thinking—making them a hilarious duo as they scramble to solve the problem they’ve created in the two days leading up to Día de Muertos. Julian is—well—a ghost. But even he is ultimately charming in his own way.

An excellent intersection of culture, fantasy, magic, love, belonging, and the visibility of diverse identity—all the plot threads of this novel ultimately collide in a high-stakes reveal that is very satisfying as well.  I loved this book and have been recommending it to everyone.