Cemetery Boys

“Brujx didn’t need to see a spirit to know one was nearby. The men and women in their community could sense it, like a chill in the air or an itch at the back of their mind. It was one of their inherent powers, given to them by their Lady. The powers of life and death: the ability to sense illness and injury in the living, and to see and communicate with the dead.”

Thomas uses foreshadowing to hint at the later events of the novel. Later, the entire brujx community will feel Miguel’s death as a sharp pain, which will catalyze the plot. The brujx’ traditional views of gender roles and stereotypes are also hinted at here with the mention of “inherent powers” imbued into the brujx by Lady Death.

“But the brujx didn’t like forcing a spirit to cross over. As long as the spirits were peaceful and hadn’t turned maligno, the brujos left them alone. But no spirit could stay forever. Eventually, they would become violent, twisted versions of themselves. Being trapped between the land of the living and the land of the dead wore on a spirit, chipping away at their humanity. The parts that made them human eventually faded away until the brujos had no choice but to sever the connection to their tether and release them to the afterlife.”

Though the brujx community has a different relationship with death than non-brujx do, death is still inescapable. Spirits can only linger in the world of the living for a limited amount of time. The mention of a spirit turning “maligno” also foreshadows the fear that Yadriel harbors of Julian becoming violent, and of Tito’s eventual devolution.

“She had many names and iterations—Santa Muerte, la Huesuda, Lady of Shadows, Mictecacihuatl. It depended on the culture and language, but each representation and image came down to the same thing. To be blessed by Lady Death, to have his own portaje and to serve her, was what Yadriel wanted most in the world. He wanted to be like the other brujos, to find lost spirits and help them pass to the afterlife. He wanted to stay up all night on boring graveyard duty. Hell, he’d even spend hours pulling weeds and painting tombs if it meant being accepted by his people as a brujo.”

Lady Death comes in as many iterations and forms as the people who serve her do. Throughout the text, Thomas reiterates that the brujx community is composed of a variety of people from different cultures, races, and ethnicities. In such a seemingly inclusive community, the fact that Yadriel is unable to find belonging is even more tragic.