Felix Ever After by Kacen Callendar
Print Length: 368 pages
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Genre: Fiction, YA, Romance, LGBTQ+
TW: deadnaming, harassment, separation, anxiety
Looking for a queer and romantic read involving teens? Check out this review!
Felix Ever After by Kacen Callendar perfectly captures the complexities of being a queer teen dealing with high school bullies, friendship conflicts, and parenting challenges while learning to embrace oneself as they are, not as society views a queer person. Note: Felix prefers they/them pronouns, so I will stick to that.
Felix Love is not very social but enjoys spending time with their best friend, Ezra Patel, and creating art. Others in Ezra’s friend circle see Felix as uninteresting but still accept them since they are close to Ezra.
Just because you don’t understand my identity, doesn’t mean I’m not real. That I don’t exist.
Kacen Callender, Felix Ever After
Aside from the typical high school romance, what gives the story complexity is how Felix, through their questions and thoughts, sensitizes the readers to being queer with limited resources, support, and the stigma of being trans in the queer community as well.
Although Felix has transitioned from female to male, they do not feel completely male. The story revolves around finding out which gender spectrum one feels comfortable with. The focus is also on Felix’s father, who is supportive but struggles with using Felix’s chosen name. I learned the term “deadnaming,” which refers to calling a transgender person by their birth name instead of their chosen name.
Quoting Harish Iyer’s words: ‘Pride month is not about rainbows and unicorns; it is about real people and their stories. It is about love and acceptance, about longing and belonging, about life, and those who want to live openly and are looking for a sign of acceptance from the world around them. Queer people in the closet, across the world live precariously. In several geographies, their act of coming out can take them closer to death. So, it’s not about being loud and proud, it is also about something deeply personal. Do pride 365 days of the year.’
Ratings on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being exceptional):
Quality of writing: 7
Pace: 9
Plot development: 7
Characters: 8
Enjoyability: 8
Insightfulness: 9
Ease of reading: 8
Photo/Illustrations: NA
About The Author
Kacen Callender is a Saint Thomian author of children’s fiction and fantasy, best known for their Stonewall Book Award and Lambda Literary Award-winning middle grade debut Hurricane Child. Their fantasy novel, Queen of the Conquered, is the 2020 winner of the World Fantasy Award and King and the Dragonflies won the 2020 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. Callender is Black, queer, trans, and uses they/them and he/him pronouns. Callender debuted their new name when announcing their next young adult novel Felix Ever After in May 2019.
Sources – https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15809784.Kacen_Callender
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