Book Review: Cemetery Boys

Cemetery Boys

by: Heather Brewer

General Information:

Title: Cemetery Boys

Author: Heather Brewer

Copyright date: 2015

Genre: YA, contemperary/ "scary"

Pages: 288

Price: $14.35

ISBN: 9780062307880

Synopsis: When Stephen is forced to move back to the nowhere town where his father grew up, he’s already sure he’s not going to like it. Spencer, Michigan, is like a town straight out of a Hitchcock movie, with old-fashioned people who see things only in black-and-white. But things start looking up when Stephen meets the mysterious twins Cara and Devon. They’re total punks–hardly the kind of people Stephen’s dad wants him hanging out with–but they’re a breath of fresh air in this backward town. The only problem is, Cara and Devon don’t always get along, and as Stephen forms a friendship with the charismatic Devon and something more with the troubled Cara, he starts to feel like he’s getting caught in the middle of a conflict he doesn’t fully understand. And as Devon’s group of friends, who hang out in a cemetery they call The Playground, get up to increasingly reckless activities to pass the summer days, Stephen worries he may be in over his head. Stephen’s fears prove well-founded when he learns of Spencer’s dark past. It seems the poor factory town has a history of “bad times,” and many of the town’s oldest residents attribute the bad times to creatures right out of an urban legend. The legend goes that the only way the town will prosper again is if someone makes a sacrifice to these nightmarish creatures. And while Stephen isn’t one to believe in old stories, it seems Devon and his gang might put a lot of faith in them. Maybe even enough to kill for them. Now, Stephen has to decide what he believes, where his allegiances lie, and who will really be his friend in the end.

Cover: I think the cover is very pretty! I thought the font was mysterious and strange - just like the book! The colors are super pretty and it really makes me want to pick it up but it gave the book some huge expectations!

Theme: Maybe there was something in there but I guess in my head there was no theme - there was nothing I took away from this. 

 

Point of View: Single point - Stephen

Intended audience: YA- written for a younger audience

 

Author Style: Heather Brewer is not one of the best authors out there. She is extremely repetitive, and never used any big words. There were so many times when she would be describing something and use so much detail but the reader didn't care about those details; but when she got to an intense part there were hardly any details. Throughout the entire book she wrote down to you.

Characters: None of the characters really stood out to me. There personalities were somewhat well written but I still can not see what they look like in my mind. Stephen was the main character but not memorable at all! He seemed ignorant and very indecisive. The other two characters that had to do with the story were Cara and Devon. Cara kind of reminded me of Han from Frozen. She was really stupid and ditzy up until the end when I just hated her more. Devon was so full of himself. He is the kind of guy I never liked. Almost everything they did or said was extremely predictable!

Plot: When I first started this book it was so good. I couldn't put it down but as it progressed I hated it more and more. I had heard some reviews before I started reading it that had said it was creepy and twisted but I think we were reading two different books. It was really predictable. Of course since it was a young adult book there had to have love in it but it was so poorly written. Everything that had to do with love was so very corny! I think I would have liked this book a lot more if there was no love interest. The only other problem I didn't like with the plot was that the ending happened about 20 times. It seemed like something good would happen then another bad thing, then something good and yet again kept repeating itself. 

Setting: It was in Spencer; a really tiny town. Of course in the USA.

My Opinion: There is so much I can say about this book. I hated this book. Of course everyone reads a book differently but I couldn't stand this book. One of the worst parts in this book is the love crap because it was extremely corny and inappropriate. 

There were many times when I would be reading one scene but then a page later they would be somewhere else entirely with no details. I didn't like the way she described things either. Or how she tried making a lot of different types of characters (esp the gangsta cashier). 

It felt like there were so many pages when if you took everything she repeated out of it then it would be cut down by at least half! It wasn't the worst book I read but there were a lot of times when I would put the book down because I just didn't want to read it. The only thing that got me through the book was knowing I had to finish it because I was reading it with my cousin! Over all, this book is not the worst out there but its pretty bad in my eyes. If there is a second I will not be reading it, I will not be spending money on it or telling anyone to read it!

Score:

Would you recommend this book?   no

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