I listened to both Aiden Thomas´ books recently. After loving Cemetery Boys, I thought I would write a review for both, since I expected to love both! I then listened to Lost in the Never Woods, and things took a different turn..
Title: Cemetery Boys.
Author: Aiden Thomas.
Format: Audiobook.
Publisher: Swoon Reads.
Page count: 352.
Release day: September 1st 2020.
Genre: YA, fantasy.
Rating: 5 stars.
Rating:
Characters: 9/10
Atmosphere: 10/10
Writing: 9/10
Plot: 8/10
Intrigue: 9/10
Logic: 9/10
Enjoyment: 10/10
Average: 9.14
My thoughts:
So many have already read and loved this book, but I just really wanted to join the club! This book is absolutely amazing! And I really recommend the audiobook!
We follow Yadriel, who is trying to ‘proof’ to his family that as a trans boy he can be a brujo. So he is going to perform a ritual that is needed to become a brujo. Of course this does not go exactly as planned. So he has to solve this, but in the meantime he and his family are also trying to figure out who murdered his cousin.
I loved our main character Yadriel, but also the side characters, Julian and Maritza! Also there is this one characters, Luca, he was the cutest! They are all so lovable! I love how loyal they all were to their friends and family!
I also loved the setting of this book. I really enjoyed reading about the brujo’s (I don’t think this is the proper plural?), not something I’ve read often, so loved learning about it!
Tbh, some parts of the story were quite predictable, but I still loved the characters and the writing so much that I did not care very much! (but as you can see it was the weakest part according to my CAWPILE rating!)
Every time I started listening to this one I just could not stop!
If, for some reason, you’ve yet to pick this one up, I really encourage you to do this! And if you’re into audiobooks, please listen to it! If I’m correct this was the debut of the narrator, I really hope they will do more!
Title: Lost in the Never Woods.
Author: Aiden Thomas.
Format: Audiobook.
Publisher: Swoon Reads.
Page count: 384.
Release day: March 23rd 2021.
Genre: YA, fantasy.
Rating: 2 stars.
Rating:
Characters: 3/10
Atmosphere: 5/10
Writing: 7/10
Plot: 4/10
Intrigue: 3/10
Logic: 4/10
Enjoyment: 4/10
Average: 4,29
My thoughts:
I was really excited for this book, since I do not read many Peter Pan retellings, and this one sounded great! I then ended up loving Cemetery Boys, so I saw no reason for not liking this one. Unfortunately I really didn´t enjoy this one 🙁
I think this story just really felt flat for me, there was not really any moment were I was fully invested in the story or very excited to continue on..
Wendy was really clueless in this book. It happens more often that the main character in clueless, since weird things are happening, but in this case it was just really annoying. She kept making really stupid decisions, and she was a really bad friend.. Also was not a big fan of Peter, although I did like his ageing! Since that is a bit of a different take on the story. The romance between them felt a bit forced and quite awkward to me.. I did like that the shadow was considered the villain in this story!
The plot was so slow.. I barely felt like anything happened, and every time something did happen it was over within seconds..! This also resulted in me not really wanting to pick up this audiobook, idk why I didn’t just stop listening to it..
What I did like! I really liked the dark setting of the woods, really gave dark fairy tale vibes! I also did really like Aiden Thomas’ writing! Which makes me want to pick up his next release (Percy Jackson meets the Hunger Games?! I’m very curious!)
The narration of this audiobook is really good! So if you want to read this I do recommend the audiobook!
Fun fact: Lost in the Never Woods was actually Aiden’s first book, but his publisher loved Cemetery Boys so much that they decided to make that his debut! That context helped me a bit with the book because I didn’t love it as much as CB… but the issues I had of uneven pacing are very much a debut thing. I’m sorry the book didn’t work for you, though!
Actually that makes sense!
I’m hoping I will love his third book like Cemetery Boys!
It’s always a shame when an author’s second book doesn’t live up to their first! I’ve had this happen multiple times.
Yeah it really is.. I hope the third one is better though!
I felt the same way with Lost in the Never Woods. I loved Cemetery Boys, so maybe my expectations were too high. I’ll still try Aiden’s next book to see if I like it more.
Yeah I really hope I like his next book 🙂