Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

64 reviews

ecn's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark emotional 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

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Very sweet but also so heavy and difficult at times

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Deadnaming, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Medical content, Grief, Outing, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Dysphoria, Classism

tea_leaves's review against another edition

3.75

emotional funny inspiring sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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As a trans person, it’s really nice to see trans people in media especially when it’s written by a trans author who knows what it feels like. The only reason I didn’t love it is because Felix is the most obnoxious and selfs centered  person I’ve met. There are multiple times where he takes his friend Ezra for grated/ blatantly disrespects him. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Outing, Toxic friendship, Dysphoria

Moderate: Deadnaming

Felix has a lot of shitty friends and gets cyber bullied

chronicacademia's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Deadnaming, Hate crime, Homophobia, Racism, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Outing, Toxic friendship, Abandonment

oddlyghoul's review against another edition

5.0

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Deadnaming, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, Lesbophobia, Outing, Abandonment, Alcohol, Classism

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship

spooderman's review against another edition

5.0

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: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Deadnaming, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Dysphoria, Classism

Moderate: Child abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking

Minor: Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Vomit, Police brutality, Lesbophobia

a_sleepy_berry's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Transphobia, Outing, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Dysphoria, Classism

Moderate: Biphobia, Bullying, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Toxic friendship

brandirecognition's review against another edition

3.75

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

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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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Deadnaming, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Racism, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Outing, Toxic friendship, Dysphoria

d4rrrcy's review against another edition

4.5

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: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Deadnaming, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Outing, Toxic friendship

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Alcohol

Minor: Abandonment

analenegrace's review against another edition

3.5

challenging emotional hopeful reflective tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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This book was actually quite enjoyable until the end and i probably would have rated it higher had

Felix not ended up with Ezra instead of Declan.

I enjoyed the authors writing style and it felt like a very quick read even though it was not particularly short. Felix’s exploration of gender identity after initial transition was well-written (from a cis perspective) and their writing of the various characters and identities represented was well-done. I also enjoyed the ways Felix’s friends, for the most part, rallied around him and defended him.

i really enjoyed Declan’s character and i wish we had had more of him throughout, it felt like his character arc abruptly ended in favor of

Ezra’s crush on Felix, which he seemed to reciprocate out of nowhere.

Declan’s character felt the most complicated out of all of the characters, with everyone else being clearly written as good or bad

with exception of Austin’s twist of having done the gallery which made sense in terms of his character.

The Romance between Ezra and Felix is definitely where this book lost me, as i really did think up until that point that Declan and Felix were going to be together and even when they spent time with his grandfather, their chemistry was better than Felix’s with Ezra. Usually I root for a best friend to lovers plot, but the plot with Declan felt more genuine and earnest and like Felix chose to pursue Ezra because he felt like he didn’t have another option with Declan still angry with him over the catfishing.

I’d be interested in reading other things the author has written as I did still enjoy it! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Transphobia

Moderate: Body shaming, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship

theuncannydani's review against another edition

2.0

challenging hopeful slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Very underwhelmed and I don't want to read about teenagers anymore.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Hate crime, Transphobia, Outing, Dysphoria

Moderate: Biphobia, Cursing, Deadnaming, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol

Minor: Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Racism, Sexual content, Religious bigotry, Abandonment