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A review by thepetitepunk
Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender
5.0
I'm glad I judged this book by it's cover because Felix Ever After turned out to be my new favorite book. Am I allowed to say this is my favorite book of the month when it's the first book I finished this month...at 6am on June 2nd?
Felix Love is a trans, queer, black 17 year old art student in New York. Although it's Felix's dream to get into Brown University, he's not sure he's good enough to get into such a selective school, especially with his talented enemy Declan competing for a spot at the same college and a full-ride scholarship. And if that's not enough pressure for Felix to deal with, he also has to deal with transphobic anonymous messages through Instagram, a dad who hasn't yet referred to Felix as Felix, and an unsuspecting love triangle. At the heart of Felix Ever After are beautiful themes of identity discovery, friendship, love, and support.
The characters were truly a refreshing break from traditional YA fiction character tropes. Everyone was so real, so developed, that I felt like I knew the characters. Furthermore, there was tremendous diversity regarding race, class, sexuality, gender identity, and living situations. Each character was so complex and intriguing. The plot, which I'll just sum up as Felix tries to catfish a suspected transphobe while being completely oblivious to who really loves him and also there's lots of identity questioning, may not sound too thrilling, but it Kacen Callender did a great job of not wanting to put this book down. Something new was discovered every chapter, but it never felt like too much or too little. The writing was beautiful, the conversations were beautiful, the images were beautiful The support? The friendship? The direct mentioning of the intersection of gender, sexuality, race, and class? It was all so beautiful.
I was incredibly impressed with Felix Ever After. This is definitely a book I would read again.
Felix Love is a trans, queer, black 17 year old art student in New York. Although it's Felix's dream to get into Brown University, he's not sure he's good enough to get into such a selective school, especially with his talented enemy Declan competing for a spot at the same college and a full-ride scholarship. And if that's not enough pressure for Felix to deal with, he also has to deal with transphobic anonymous messages through Instagram, a dad who hasn't yet referred to Felix as Felix, and an unsuspecting love triangle. At the heart of Felix Ever After are beautiful themes of identity discovery, friendship, love, and support.
The characters were truly a refreshing break from traditional YA fiction character tropes. Everyone was so real, so developed, that I felt like I knew the characters. Furthermore, there was tremendous diversity regarding race, class, sexuality, gender identity, and living situations. Each character was so complex and intriguing. The plot, which I'll just sum up as Felix tries to catfish a suspected transphobe while being completely oblivious to who really loves him and also there's lots of identity questioning, may not sound too thrilling, but it Kacen Callender did a great job of not wanting to put this book down. Something new was discovered every chapter, but it never felt like too much or too little. The writing was beautiful, the conversations were beautiful, the images were beautiful The support? The friendship? The direct mentioning of the intersection of gender, sexuality, race, and class? It was all so beautiful.
I was incredibly impressed with Felix Ever After. This is definitely a book I would read again.