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.
Review: Well I loved this book right from the word go. Felix makes for a great narrator and it was just so wonderful being a part of their world and hearing the thoughts in their head. I really think that if you loved reading the development in Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda, you will love reading this one. This books takes it that step further, that step deeper and I am so here for it.
All of the themes explored in this book are of course wonderfully timely and definitely something that you people today need to be reading about. The issues surrounding online harassment and bullying just can't be written about enough in my opinion. There is so much stigma around speaking up against that kind of harassment and how schools handle that when it occurs outside of their walls. I just loved how it was handled and dealt with in this book.
Friendship is a major theme of this book as well as family and that is something that often comes up in young adult fiction but it is dealt with in new and interesting ways in this novel. I like that friends might be those you find outside of school and family might just disappoint you, that can happen. There is a fab support group in this novel that reminds me a lot of the support group I read about in Rick by Alex Gino. It is encouraging to know that that kind fo support is out there.
Identity is also of course the over arching theme in this novel and it is dealt with so well. We might think we know something about our identity but at any point in our lives that can change drastically or even minutely and that can be terribly discombobulating. I think living this issue through Felix is great and it is written about so well here. I also love that Felix is encouraged to be creative at school, that it is celebrated. As a teacher it makes my heart happy to see that it could actually happen.
If you are wary of picking up this book because it covers so many issues, please don't let that put you off. This book is romantic and funny and the plot is perfectly pace. Yes issues are dealt with but they are part of the story of Felix and I really enjoyed every moment of this. Highly recommend.
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