A review by whpltab
Felix Yz by Lisa Bunker

emotional funny hopeful

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

4.75

Felix Yz is a boy with an alien inside of him. His father was a scientist, and one day an experiment went wrong while Felix was at the lab, ending with his father dead and Felix in a sort-of coma for a long time. Because of the accident and the being inside him, whom they named Zyx, Felix doesn’t have long to live. To separate himself from Zyx, Felix must go through the Procedure. The possibility of him dying during the procedure is incredibly high, but he will die if Zyx remains inside him. The story is told through Felix’s journal entries leading up to the Procedure, as he deals with his family, school, a crush, and having to say goodbye to either all of that, or Zyx, forever.

Zyx is unable to speak, so he communicates with Felix and his family through typing. Because he comes from a different dimension, it’s sometimes hard for him to understand things, and because of that, he sometimes reacts when something happens to Felix, causing misunderstandings. Because Zyx can take control of Felix occasionally, it causes Felix to have fits where sometimes he can’t even move, or he might do something that he doesn’t mean to do.

For instance, Zyx learns that vo’s a genius at chess, which leads to Felix technically defeating a grandmaster with no knowledge of chess at all.

Another interesting thing about the book is how Felix’s and other characters lgbtq+ identities are explored.

Grandy is one of Felix’s grandparents, and is neither a man nor a woman. Vo is Vern on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, during which vo wears jeans and button shirts and boots and tucks veir hair in a cap, and on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, vo is Vera, and wears dresses and blouses and skirts, and brushes veir hair out. On Wednesday, vo stays in veir room, and does nothing but meditate all day.

Grandy explains that vo doesn’t tell anyone whether or not vo was born a girl or a boy because vey are both Vera and Vern, and at the same time, neither, and that is veir way of expressing it. If people knew veir biological sex, others might assume they know what gender vo is, and that the whole Vera/Vern thing isn’t really who vo is, and vo doesn’t want that.

This book explores overall, the bonds of family, as Felix’s family do the best they can to support him, and love him no matter what.