Felix Ever After

by Kacen Callender, Kacen Callender

hardcover, 368 pages

Published May 5, 2020 by Balzer + Bray.

ISBN:: 978-0-06-282025-9

(17 reviews)

From Stonewall and Lambda Award–winning author Kacen Callender comes a revelatory YA novel about a transgender teen grappling with identity and self-discovery while falling in love for the first time.

Felix Love has never been in love—and, yes, he’s painfully aware of the irony. He desperately wants to know what it’s like and why it seems so easy for everyone but him to find someone. What’s worse is that, even though he is proud of his identity, Felix also secretly fears that he’s one marginalization too many—Black, queer, and transgender—to ever get his own happily-ever-after.

When an anonymous student begins sending him transphobic messages—after publicly posting Felix’s deadname alongside images of him before he transitioned—Felix comes up with a plan for revenge. What he didn’t count on: his catfish scenario landing him in a quasi–love triangle....

But as he navigates his complicated feelings, Felix begins a journey of questioning and …

But as he navigates his complicated feelings, Felix begins a journey of questioning and self-discovery that helps redefine his most important relationship: how he feels about himself.

Felix Ever After is an honest and layered story about identity, falling in love, and recognizing the love you deserve. source: www.harpercollins.ca/9780062820273/felix-ever-after/

11 editions

Jaelyn reviewed Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

Review of 'Felix Ever After' on 'Storygraph'

4 stars

Felix is an art student in Harlem who wants to prove that he, a black queer trans man, is worthy of getting into Brown University. And as much as he wants love, he fears he will never deserve it.

One morning he is faced with an impromptu gallery in the school entrance of his pre-transition photos and deadname hacked from his phone. Knowing the school would do little if the person behind it was the privileged student he suspects, he sets up his own catfish scenario which winds up complicating his relationships and future further.

It’s fairly hard in focusing on transphobia, racism and privilege within the wider queer community and the unique struggle we each face. It also shows Felix’s vulnerability in reassessing his own identity and how he’s worried it will be perceived by others after fighting to be recognised as a man.

Felix is an art student in Harlem who wants to prove that he, a black queer trans man, is worthy of getting into Brown University. And as much as he wants love, he fears he will never deserve it.
One morning he is faced with an impromptu gallery in the school entrance of his pre-transition photos and deadname hacked from his phone. Knowing the school would do little if the person behind it was the privileged student he suspects, he sets up his own catfish scenario which winds up complicating his relationships and future further.

It’s fairly hard in focusing on transphobia, racism and privilege within the wider queer community and the unique struggle we each face. It also shows Felix’s vulnerability in reassessing his own identity and how he’s worried it will be perceived by others after fighting to be recognised as a man.

pithypants reviewed Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

Review of 'Felix Ever After' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Perfect read for Pride Month – especially since it ends with a Pride parade! It makes me sad that this book is on the banned list in a lot of states because it does a great job both normalizing non-binary and non-cis identities and raising the issues kids face in navigating the ignorance of their peers. This book is fun because most of it is underpinned by a mystery – trying to figure out who is anonymously harassing Felix.

TW: dead-naming, transphobia/homophobia

DThoris reviewed Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

Review of 'Felix Ever After' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Sweet, drama-filled YA with some serious soul-searching and the usual teen love themes.

Young, black, gay and trans Felix has a lot working against his success. Add his insecurity into it, and it's unlikely he'll reach his dreams.

I read this for a book club, with an eye to self-love as the theme of our discussion, so my take was heavily influenced. It was an excellent story of Felix finding his core and learning to love himself. It was a bit pat for my tastes, but I believe that's a function of the audience. Overall, it was uplifting and interesting.

Owen Blacker reviewed Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

Review of 'Felix Ever After' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Kacen Callender is a transmasculine Stonewall and Lambda Award-winning author who has written for children, teens and adults; Felix Ever After is a YA m/m romance novel with a Black, queer, transmasculine protagonist.

Felix is a 17-year-old art student in New York who worries that he’s never been loved or in love. After a transphobic troll deadnames him and violates his identity at the start of summer school, he wants to get revenge to help heal that hurt.

But, inevitably for someone moving into adulthood and wondering about his place in the universe, that’s only one of several complicated emotions he’s working through.

One thing I liked about Elise Hu’s review for NPR is that she addresses the thing that might be discomﬁting for some readers who are white, cis, straight, middle-class and, frankly, not 17 anymore:

All of those boxes Felix checks, in addition to being abandoned by his …

All of those boxes Felix checks, in addition to being abandoned by his mother early on, can make the character hard to believe if you’re in parts of the country where white is still the dominant racial group and boy and girl binaries are the only socially acceptable options.

But today’s teens are part of the most mixed, gender-bending generation ever, and they should get the spotlight in more stories. And ultimately, Felix’s empowerment by the book’s cinematic end wouldn’t feel so hard-won and well-earned without all of his complicated identity issues.

I spent a good chunk of this book being irritated at teenagers and their messy drama — it’s not a major revelation that, at the age of 45, I can no longer relate to 17yos. But Callender has created such richly-written characters, such a well-paced story and explains concepts such as gender, privilege and intersectionality so clearly that it’s really hard not to be drawn in and root for these characters — even when they are naïve, messy, irritating teenagers, indeed perhaps because of that. And so I spent the last few chapters with eyes full of happy tears.

Rachel Charlene Lewis interviewed Callender at length for Bitch Media and their conversation is a really interesting read, especially on the subjects of creating credible young-adult characters, about gender identity and how both they and Felix re-questioned their own, and about misgendering — including the review of Felix Ever After from