Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

Yadriel's family don't understand him. Tradition is important in the brujx community, and Yadriel - born a girl, knows he's a boy - challenges everything they believe in.  He's determined to prove himself as a brujo - and at first things seem to go well. At first...

What a fabulous story. Going in, I knew basically only that brujo/bruja means witch and that Dia De Muertos is the Day of the Dead. This story wraps a rich mythology around it all and makes it fascinating. I'd love to know how much of this is real mythology and how much was added for this novel.

It reads very smoothly, too; I was halfway through before I knew it, and I wanted to keep going and read more of it. The villain became obvious about halfway through despite not revealing themselves until the very end, and the surrounding characters were brilliant. I think I liked Rio the best, but they're all so good it's hard to pick one.

I very much enjoyed this, and I hope that Aidan either continues it or writes more novels in the future.

A trans boy determined to prove his gender to his traditional Latinx family summons a ghost who refuses to leave in this Own Voices LGBT paranormal YA novel, described as "Groundbreaking" by Entertainment Weekly.

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.