The Cemetery Boys Book Tag [CC] | Pucksandpaperbacks

What’s up, friends? Welcome back to another video. Today, I have the Cemetery Boys Book Tag created by Adri from perpetualpages. They tagged me in this, they created this. It’s amazing. I haven’t gotten to talk about Cemetery Boys on my channel yet. For the release of Cemetery Boys in September, I had a whole video planned out where I was going to pair it with a song from one of my favorite bands, Grayscale in my second video in my series I started this year where I pair songs from a band with books.

00:32 - This first video is “Pairing One Direction Songs with Books” so that will be up above. But, let’s get into the tag. I am so excited to talk about Cemetery Boys. It’s one of my favorite books of the year! It’s amazing. So, let’s just get started. I wanted to stop this video to tell you to inform yourself about what’s going on in Nigeria with the #EndSars movement to stop police brutality in Nigeria. A fellow booktuber, Noria who lives in Nigeria, had to relive her trauma to educate us on the horrific things the police and government are doing to their people and the peaceful protesters.

01:07 - I will link Noria’s live stream with The Black Prose Club down below as well as ways to help Nigeria and the #EndSars movement. The first question is Yadriel: a book that is underhyped and exceeded your expectations. For this, I have to go with one of my favorite books that I read this year and I ended up reading it in August. And this is, The Pretty One: On Life, Disability, Pop Culture and Other Reasons to Fall in Love with Me by Keah Brown. I would classify it as a memoir. She talks about her childhood and just living with cerebral palsy.

01:39 - But, something I really enjoyed was her talking about pop culture. She ends up talking all about how Paramore basically saved her life and I could relate to that a lot because I was a big Paramore stan in high school. I loved Paramore so much and the fact that she had the same experience really resonated with me. She also talks about how disability is poorly represented and how it creates an ableist culture. And I just loved this! Please read it. It’s so good.

02:09 - And it definitely exceeded my expectations because I really wasn’t sure how much I was going to enjoy it. But, I love it and it’s one of my favorite books. The next question is Julian and Julian is my ride or die. If you’ve read the book, Julian is amazing! I love him so much. He made me laugh so hard and I just loved him so much. For this question, it’s one book that doesn’t stick to one genre. This question was hard for me because I only stick to one genre. I read Contemporary and mainly Contemporary. This is Snapdragon by Kat Leyh. This is about a girl, Snap and she befriends the town witch, Jacks. And it has a lot of queer elements. There is a trans girl side character and I just love the way that she transitioned because it was so subtle.

02:56 - I really love subtle transness in books and I really enjoyed this one. I’m recommending it for this prompt because it does have a witch and so, that would be classified as paranormal, I think? Since there is a witch, there’s also magic that comes with that. So, it’s a fantastical book. And there is also Contemporary elements and it’s a graphic novel. There’s a lotta stuff going on in this book and I highly recommend it. Next is Martiza, who is Yadriel’s cousin. And for this, it’s to pick a book that helped you or got you through a tough time.

03:31 - And I have to go with All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson. I have talked about this very openly on my channel, but this year has been just a grieving process for me. I do have a whole Instagram post where I talk about this. So, go over to my Instagram to see more, I guess? This book talks a lot about grief. And at the peak of my grieving process, I read this and I had to put it down so many times because it was just very hard to read.

03:59 - And it just helped so much to feel like someone else is going through the same thing as me because I was the only one that was going through it. I’ve been grieving a lot this year over the passing of one of my favorite creators, Corey La Barrie and this book talks all about grief. There is like a whole chapter and it made me sob. This book is a memoir about being a queer, Black, non-binary person and there is a chapter where the author talks all about grief as they are in the grieving process and as I read that at the peak of my grieving process, it really helped me and really resonated with me. And the fact that George knew someone who was named Corey really did not help whatsoever.

04:41 - But, the grieving process is written in a way that really resonated with me. So, I will say that this book did get me through a tough time. If you saw my Read-O-Rama vlog in May, I did document me going through the grieving process which was a choice So, I think if you did watch that you’ll understand more. Rest in Peace, Corey La Barrie, and go and read this book if you are also someone that likes to read about grief because I think it was really well done in this book. Next is Quinces and this is to pick your favorite coming of age story and I actually have two for this.

05:17 - But, first I have to go with George by Alex Gino. This is all about a trans girl named Melissa in 5th grade and she is coming to terms with being trans and it is her coming out story. I just love this book so much and I highly recommend it to anyone. I’m also going to say Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World by Ashley Herring Blake. This is all about a girl named Ivy who is coming to terms with her liking girls. I really enjoyed that. It was really good.

05:45 - I just love all of the middle grade “Coming of Age” stories that are also coming out stories. I think they’re really great. Next is Dia de Muertos and this is to pick a backlist book that you wish you could bring back and hype up again. On my channel, I constantly hype up backlist books. So, I feel like this is nothing new to me. But, I do want to go with I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver because I feel like I have not talked about this book in a long time and I really enjoy this one.

06:12 - I Wish You All the Best is a YA Contemporary about a non-binary teen, Ben who gets kicked out of their house when they come out as non-binary and they go and live with their estranged sister. This book really resonated with me and I feel like I didn’t talk about it enough and I wish that it would be read more. I feel like I’ve seen the hype dying down. If you haven’t read this yet, I highly recommend it. It’s really good. Mason does have another book coming out next year called The Ghosts We Keep and I am so excited for that one as well.

06:42 - Next is Pan de Muerto and this is a book you wish you could give or gift to your family members. I have to go with Stay Gold by Tobly McSmith, just because this is a book that really resonated with me. If you want to get to know me especially as a trans person to read this book because I’ve gone through a lot of the similar things that Pony has. I just felt very represented in this book. I understand it’s not for everyone, but I really, really enjoyed it and it helped me a lot to finally see myself represented in the 26 years I’ve been alive.

07:14 - So, I would gift this to my family members to just better understand me. Just because I feel like this is my life story. That I feel like if my family members read this, they would be able to better understand me. Next is Tether: a book you feel most connected to and I know I just said Stay Gold. But, Felix Ever After is another one. I really enjoyed this because Felix talks about not being trans enough.

07:38 - Felix talks all about labels and about how you don’t have to come out at a certain time and how being a little older and coming out is okay. And I really enjoyed that because I came to terms with my transness a lot later in life. That it was nice to feel this through like an 18 year old character. Even though for me, that’s not very late. But, there is always the argument of how trans people know at birth and they know as kids and that isn’t the case for many people because you don’t have the words, or you just don’t understand until later in life. And that’s why I really enjoy Felix Ever After.

08:18 - (laughing) Is it fair to recommend Cemetery Boys in the Cemetery Boys Book Tag? The next question is Portaje: A book that was passed on to you. I don’t really have one for this so I’m just gonna go with Cemetery Boys just because I got the ARC of this. So, it was technically passed down to me from the publisher. So, thank you to the publisher for that! Cemetery Boys, go and read it if you haven’t. Next is Wet Binder and if you know the scene, you know the scene. I resonated with that scene so much and every time I’m in that situation, I just think about Yadriel. It’s a - It’s a great time. But this is to pick a book that you’re “stuck” on and I have to go with Full Disclosure by Camryn Garrett. I love this book. I read it this year and it’s amazing. It is about a girl who has HIV and she was born with it. It is also about her directing the production of RENT at her high school. I just loved this. It was so great and I have not stopped thinking about it and I would love to re-read it.

09:20 - And the last question is, Purrcasso, who is Yadriel’s cat and what a name! I love me a good pun. So, thank you Aiden for the good pun. This is a book that you just love and I need to talk about this because I need everyone to read it. I have to go with Bingo Love: Volume 1 by Tee Franklin. This is such a great graphic novel. This is about two older Black women who get into a relationship and it is about their queerness and I just really enjoy this. I feel like it’s very underhyped and I just wish everyone would read it because it’s so good and I need more.

09:54 - So, please read it so that I can get a second volume. So, that is it for the Cemetery Boys Book Tag. I am so glad that I finally did this. (Beep) What’s up, friends? Apparently the recording ended up just cutting off at the outro. So, here is the outro. Thank you all for watching. Thank you to Adri for tagging me and creating this tag. Go and read Cemetery Boys for clear skin. I am going to tag Brody, Sage, and Sarah to do this tag.

10:20 - As of right now, Cemetery Boys is in the Goodreads Choice Awards. So, go and vote for it! Aiden deserves that. Aiden deserves it all. If you’re new here, feel free to subscribe and I also have a Patreon if you’d like to support me there. This month I have posted two videos to my Patreon. It’s only a dollar to become a Paperback Pal. The two videos were Pumpkin Carving and then I did the Finally Fall Book Tag while I made some pumpkin muffins! So, I have fun content over there. Definitely support me if you can and I understand if you can’t. Supporting me by subscribing and watching my videos is all I can ask. I hope you’re all having a great day and I will see you on Saturday, on Halloween, for my Halloween related video. Bye! (music playing) .