Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

189 reviews


i had the best time with this! it was the perfect upper YA rom-com, with all the swoony moments but also the tough decisions/thoughts that many teens experience. i wish i had had a book like this when i was in high school. so much love for felix!! loved being in his head for the duration of the book. amazing LGBTQIA+ rep in the mcs and side characters!

⚠️: transphobia, deadnaming, bullying, homophobia, outing, hate crime, abandonment, drug use, toxic friendship, racism, emotional abuse

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I loved it. Seriously loved it. Beautiful and captures the trans experience so well. I couldn’t put it down and I seriously flew through it once I was reading. I’m so sad it’s over. I feel like I only read 3 pages and then it was already over

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emotional hopeful lighthearted 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: Complicated

My jaw was dropped several times.

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emotional funny hopeful sad tense 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: Complicated

This was really sweet and it made me so emotional. I couldn’t stand the love triangle (I did like both guys but the catfishing made me so anxious) but other than that and some things I found annoying in Felix I really enjoyed reading this . I loved most of the characters and I loved getting to read about Felix opening up to love and learning more about himself and his identity. 

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challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Since I couldn't get a hold of the print copy in time for this read-a-thon, I ended up listening to it on audiobook via the Libby app, which was great!

I really enjoyed this story despite this anxiety that catfishing give me 😂. Felix is a sweet kid who has been through some shit & I'm glad he had the space to explore the complexities of it. I was a little bit surprised at the amount of cannabis use throughout the book, but it's not like I can say whether or not that's authentic as I'm not a teenager & I don't live in NYC. The best part about this book for me, aside from Felix's friendship with Ezra, was the depiction of a person questioning who they really are & realizing that this may be a lifelong journey instead of arriving at an identity destination.

❗content warning❗: there are a lot of instances of transphobia throughout.

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emotional inspiring reflective tense 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: Complicated

An amazingly queer ya novel! The beginning was a bit hard to get through and there were a lot of painful moments that made you feel for Felix and what he was going through. I adored the ending though and u loved that the backdrop was an art school! 

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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

This is a book about finding and learning to love oneself. It was so cute and I found myself internally and sometimes externally screaming. Everything is so interconnected and cool. The plot had a lot of different points which sometimes felt like too much but it was still fabulous. 

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emotional hopeful tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Be warned that the inciting incident is a transphobic hate crime (outing & deadnaming) that continues throughout the story. Hard to read given the rampant transphobia being enacted by US state legislatures, but Felix's personal journey toward loving/accepting all parts himself makes this an affirming trans story. The YA love triangle made this hard to read at times, but the set up and fall out was a realistic seventeen year old problem.
Felix had to feel more secure in himself and his relationships with others before he could be open to understanding that Ezra loved him. The story's trampling on Declan felt undeserved, though, especially because he and Felix's poor communication skills were similar and ended up causing the same problem for each of them.
 
The gratuitous references to Harry Potter were jarring and honestly a huge detractor for me. This book was published in 2020, when Rowling was very much openly a terf. just a bizarre choice
Felix's gender journey was well-written and realistic and definitely made me tear up. 4/5 stars in regards to his continuing journey

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challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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: Complicated

I am so glad this book exists. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective tense 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: Complicated

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