Review: Felix Ever After

Title: Felix Ever After

Author: Kacen Callender

Stars: ★★★★ (4 stars)

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If you’re looking for a book that deals with the complexity of intersectional marginalization and shows a diverse cast of characters coming of age through different trials in a realistic manner, this is it. This is all the book if you want the friends-to-lovers trope done right.

Coming into this, I had a bit of a hard time because of just how realistic Felix is. Callender has created such viscerally real teenage characters that anyone who was that dramatic teen might feel somewhat called out. Felix Love has that passionate desperation to prove himself mixed with self-hate that hit me to the core, so there were times I had to put this book down just to not feel a bit embarrassed by how much I related while also realizing (as a now grown human) how overboard I personally went now and again as a teenage.

Felix has a lot on his plate. Between a transphobic bully coming after him anonymously and the inconsistent support of his father, he doesn’t have the level of security that kids need. While his father is trying, which is more than can be said for his absent mother, he isn’t meeting Felix where he is, and so Felix is pushed closer to his best friend Ezra.

I’ll be honest — first suspect for me in the secret bully case wasn’t Declan. I actually suspected Ezra. Looking back, that might’ve been some projection on my end. I’ve had friends like that who are kind to your face and work to chip away your confidence behind your back, so learning that Ezra legitimately is a great friend was a huge to relief.

Callender also does an amazing job with side character. Each one is incredibly multidimensional. They had me completely fooled on the actual villain, so I made the startling realization along with Felix. Ending also took a left turn. It felt like we were going down the enemy-to-lovers trope, and Callender completely had me on board, but when we slid down friends-to-lovers instead it made so much more sense. Honestly, it was way more realistic.

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