Reviews with content warning for Bullying - Felix Ever After

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Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

356 reviews

elliott_the_clementine's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I think Felix Ever After may have been one of the first books I read as a teenager where the main character, a queer person, existed as a real human with flaws in a unsanitized space, struggled with issues including, outside of, and intersecting with their marginalization by society, and found happiness without compromising themself. This novel truly changes lives. A beautiful re-read.

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julian7's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

At first I thought the main character was annoying, but then I realized it was because I relate to him, lol. In the end, I loved Felix, as well as Ezra, Leah, and even Declan (big Draco Malfoy vibes from that one). Parts of the book were a little corny, but that’s kind of a given when it comes to YA romance and I don’t mind it too much. 🤭
I’m glad that teens get to grow up with more beautiful trans stories these days. Shoutout to gay interracial trans love. 🥺🫶

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caramelie's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Merci Felix de m’encourager, dans les mots d’Alok Vaid Menon, à avoir le courage de me briser le cœur moi-même.

J’ai retiré 0,25 pour les quelques répétitions qui n’ont en rien changé le fait que ce livre va rester avec moi très longtemps.

Ce livre m’a fait ressentir des émotions similaires à, voire plus intenses que, I Wish All the Best. Je recommande donc aux personnes qui ont aimé I Wish You All the Best de lire Felix Ever After et aux personnes qui ont aimé Felix Ever After de lire I Wish You All The Best.

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aromanticreadsromance's review against another edition

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This book is so lovely and I wish I had read it sooner! It stars Felix Love, a 17-year-old trans boy who, ironically, has never been in love but is desperate to experience it. Taking place over the course of one summer, he finds himself in an accidental love triangle with his best friend, Ezra, and his sworn enemy, Declan (who happens to be Ezra’s ex, and their ex-friend).

I loved the nuanced discussions on class, parental acceptance and love, and the fluidity of identity. (Bottom line: it’s okay if your identity changes over time!) It also touches on intersectionality (without ever using the word). Felix feels like he is one marginalization too many: Black, trans, and queer (and also working class, but that’s NYC for ya).

This book deals with HEAVY transphobia (it is a central plot point), but Kacen Callender writes it with the grace it deserves. Although Felix is deadnamed, we never find out his deadname, which I appreciated.

I DO feel like Felix ends up with the wrong person in the end... but no spoilers.

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wardenred's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

“The issue is that we’ve never really gotten to see our own stories,” Declan tells me. “We have to make those stories ourselves.“

Ugh. Kids these days. How I envy them sometimes. I wish I had books like this growing up!

This was an absolutely lovely story with so much packed into it, and such a wonderful balance between dealing with the pain transphobia causes and experiencing the joy of self-discovery and settling into your skin. I found Felix an extremely relatable character between his struggles to figure out the details of his gender identity, and his worries about possibly having one marginalization too many, and how he reacted to his mother abandoning him by gravitating toward the choices that will get him hurt when it comes to feelings, and the whole big damn mess he created with that love triangle / catfishing scheme. A lot of it threw me right back into my own messy teenage years.

I really loved how flawed and messy in that uniquely teenage way all the central characters were, and how alive they all felt on the page. At the same time, some of those emotional peaks, especially in the second half of the book, sometimes made it difficult to stay immerse—which I think wasn’t so much the book’s flaw as just my experience as an adult reader. I had to remind myself that yeah, that’s exactly what teens can be like. Everything is always so extreme, so larger than life, and nope, they can’t just temper down the feelings and talk it out because they’re *still learning how to do that.* Communication is a skill, and the characters in this book definitely work on developing it in a realistic, relatable way.

There were also some structural tricks here I really liked, such as the very first scene doing so much foreshadowing in terms of everything from plot to theme, or specific scenes kind of mirroring each other, like the one where Felix has an important face-to-face conversation with Ezra while texting Declan and the one where he has an equally important face-to-face interaction with Declan while pretty much talking to Ezra in his head. At the same time, in the late part of the story, if I’m very strict, I have to admit there were some parts where the structure got sloppy-ish as the emotions heightened. I really don’t want to be strict, though. I just want to be happy this book exists. <3

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drawahardline's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

bisschen pipi in den äuglein und riesiger detektivmoment, weil ich fast von beginn an wusste, wer es war - i am so smart yesyes

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courtknee__vn's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

I really loved this!! Felix was such a great mc and I loved getting to see his growth throughout the story! I really enjoyed how messy he was, it felt really authentic to being a teenager and questioning your identity. My heart broke when he saw the pictures and his deadname plastered all over the school and when he was being harassed on Instagram! I think the only thing that kept me from giving it 5 stars is that I could’ve done without the Declan storyline and I didn’t feel like the love triangle was necessary 🤷🏻‍♀️ besides that though, I loved it and I’m so glad I finally picked it up! 🧡

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byalexisrae's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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sarahfa's review against another edition

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hopeful inspiring fast-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

Thank you to the Rainbow Book Bus for this book! 🏳️‍🌈

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smilagros's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I read this on audio and I don’t know if that was the right idea. The reason why is because at times Felix reminded me of Holden from the Catcher in the Rye. As someone who is not part of the LGBTQ community but I am an ally, this was incredibly informative. Kacen Callender is an incredible writer and he was able to show the difficulties LGBTQ teens go through on a day to day basis.

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