Blog Tour: Guest Post: Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

If you’ve been following me on social media you will know how much I love Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas. I am so excited to be bringing you Aiden’s guest post on favorite Latinx YA books! All my favorites in one place!

Cemetery Boys

Yadriel has summoned a ghost, and now he can’t get rid of him.

When his traditional Latinx family has problems accepting his 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 up 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

Guest Post

When I was growing up, I thought there wasn’t a place for me within publishing. I never saw Latinx characters in books, let alone ones that were queer, and certainly not trans. Luckily, times have definitely changed! While there’s still a huge need for more diverse stories in the world, finally having books that reflected parts of my identity is what made me think I could finally write a book like “Cemetery Boys”, and people would want to read it.

Latinx books by Latinx writers are so important and have been life-changing for me! Here are some of my current favorites:

LABYRINTH LOST by Zoraida Cordova

“Labyrinth Lost” is about a bruja named Alex who tries to get rid of her own magic, but accidentally makes her whole family vanish instead! Reading this first book from The Brooklyn Brujas series was the first time I ever saw my culture reflected in a book. It has a queer main character AND features Latinx-based magic! It showed me that our stories and mythos CAN and SHOULD be told. Zoraida’s books are a big reason why “Cemetery Boys” exists today. She’s a brilliant fantasy writer and the final book in The Brooklyn Brujas series releases on 9/1/20!

EACH OF US A DESERT by Mark Oshiro

This book doesn’t come out until 9/15/20, but I was gifted with an ARC of “Each of Us a Desert” and I am madly in love with it! It’s about a girl named Xochitl who is a cuentista of her village. She takes the “stories” of the wrongdoings of people in her village, then goes to the desert and releases them to Solis in order to free them. It’s a story about forgiveness, overcoming fear, and love. Mark Oshiro is an absolute poet! Their writing is gorgeous, lyrical and incredibly romantic.

MISS METEOR by Tehlor Kay Mejia and Anna-Marie Mclemore

This is another book I had the pleasure of reading early! “Miss Meteor” is about Lita Perez and Chicky Quintanilla, two used-to-be best friends who have joined forces to win the local beauty pageant. This book has incredible messages about loving yourself, finding yourself, and the importance of friendship. On top of all that, it has a wide cast of queer characters! Tehlor and Anna-Marie really outdid themself with this book and you should absolutely get your hands on it releases on 9/22/20!

Pick Up Cemetery Boys!

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About the Author

Aiden Thomas is a YA author with an MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College. Originally from Oakland, California, they now make their home in Portland, OR. As a queer, trans Latinx, Aiden advocates strongly for diverse representation in all media. Aiden’s special talents include: quoting The Office, Harry Potter trivia, Jenga, finishing sentences with “is my FAVORITE”, and killing spiders. Aiden is notorious for not being able to guess the endings of books and movies, and organizes their bookshelves by color.

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