Cemetery Boys

Overview

Yadriel wants one thing from his family's line of brujx: to be recognized as a brujo, not a bruja, and to be trusted with the rites that come with it. When the adults around him hesitate, he decides to prove himself by performing the ritual on his own terms, aiming to summon his recently deceased cousin so the spirit can be properly released.

The ritual doesn't go as planned. Instead of his cousin, Yadriel summons Julian Diaz, a classmate whose death was sudden and whose unfinished business refuses to let him rest easy. The two form an uneasy alliance, Yadriel needing to complete his original task before a deadline tied to his family's traditions, Julian determined to understand how he died and to say goodbye to the people he left behind.

What follows is part mystery, part ghost story, and part coming-of-age narrative, as the pair navigate cemetery grounds, family expectation, and a growing bond neither of them anticipated.

Identity, Grief, and Inherited Tradition

The novel sits at an intersection of cultural specificity and universal adolescent struggle. Yadriel's story is rooted in Latin brujx tradition and the rituals surrounding death and memory, but his central conflict, being told his identity disqualifies him from a role he knows he's suited for, resonates as a broader story about being underestimated by the people meant to protect you. The book treats his transition as a settled fact of who he is rather than a plot twist to be revealed, letting the narrative tension come instead from familial recognition and self-determination.

Grief runs alongside that thread throughout, as both Yadriel and Julian are shaped by loss, one mourning a cousin, the other unable to let go of his own life. The book pairs supernatural mystery with warmth and humor, and its blend of cultural tradition, queer identity, and genre storytelling has been noted as distinctive within young adult fiction, contributing to its wide readership and its position on numerous library and award lists since publication.

Why Cemetery Boys Has Been Challenged

A recurring line in formal objections is that the book normalizes gender transition for young readers by presenting Yadriel's identity without framing it as something requiring adult intervention or correction. Some parents and board members reviewing the title have argued that a protagonist's transness should not be depicted as incidental to the plot, contending that its matter-of-fact treatment amounts to promotion of a viewpoint rather than storytelling. Related objections point to the romantic relationship that develops between Yadriel and Julian, characterizing same-sex attraction and affection between teen characters as inappropriate for school libraries regardless of context. Other challenges fold the book into broader efforts to remove titles featuring LGBTQ+ protagonists from shelves accessible to younger students, sometimes citing general concerns about age-appropriateness without pointing to specific passages. Across the 5 states and 9 districts where this title has been formally challenged in this catalog, the objections center less on graphic content than on the presence and normalization of transgender and queer identity itself.