This post contains affiliate links you can use to purchase the book. If you buy the book using that link, I will receive a small commission from the sale.
My Review:Title: Felix Ever After
Author: Kacen Callender
Published by: HarperAudio
Release Date: May 5, 2020
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Logan Rozos
Length: 8 hours and 24 minutes
Genres: LGBT, Coming of Age, Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Source: Libby
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2020 Audiobook Challenge, Lenoreo's 2020 Diversity Reading Challenge, Lenoreo's 2020 New Release Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ IndieBound ✩ iTunes ✩ Book Depository
My rating:
Blurb: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 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.
4.5 stars — This felt like a true coming of age YA novel…just one that brings more diversity and representation. And while I learned a LOT about being trans, and about all the different flavours of queer out there, if you break it down it’s also just about Felix figuring out who he is, coming into his own, and embracing himself. I loved how unique that was — because in some ways Felix doesn’t shy away from embracing who he is and being proud of it. But in other ways he’s insecure about his worth because of all the different flavours of marginalized he is. The story just…fuck, it just really explored a lot of unique topics. Some very specific to the LGBT community, some having to do with race…but most having to do with feelings that every teenager experiences, every human being for that matter — recognizing our own worth and what we have to bring to the table. So yeah, I appreciated that while this was an amazing LGBT story, it was also just a great coming of age story at its most basic.
I enjoyed the narrator for sure, he definitely got Felix’s voice just perfect. I loved the emotions he showcased, and there were a lot of them. He also had Felix’s dry wit down to a tee. He wasn’t the *best* at different voices for different characters though — it was a bit harder to tell who was speaking in some moments. And I also had a hard time distinguishing between Felix’s thoughts and dialogue most of the time…which can be a bit frustrating. But in everything else he was solid.
I appreciated how authentically teenagers Felix and Ezra and the crew felt like. They had moments where I could see them pushing boundaries and stretching their wings, and other moments where I could see them thinking and worrying over the future. And then there were the moments where they did/said things that made me cringe…unfortunately realistically teenagery. Basically the author nailed it.
I loved watching Felix grow and figure things out, and make mistakes, and test waters. I appreciated that he wasn’t perfect, that none of the characters were. Even the jerks weren’t black and white evil, but more on the gray scale. You know, like real life.
I honestly had no idea how the romance plot was going to shake out. I had a lot of mixed feelings on it, but I was happy with how it all turned out. Similarly with the mystery of the gallery — I had a lot of different guesses, though I’m not sure if I ever guessed the actual person in the end…even if it makes sense in hindsight.
I really loved the art aspects of the story too, seeing the different styles of the characters, and seeing Felix describe his own work.
Yeah, I don’t know what else to say about this one. If you appreciate a YA that may be a bit grittier (kids drinking and doing drugs, but not in unhealthy ways necessarily), but also has a lot of light moments mixed with growth, I think you’d enjoy this one.
This was a very good review. I need to read Felix Ever After one of these days!