From the Bookshelf of Diversity in All Forms!…

Felix Ever After

Kacen Callender

Start date: November 1, 2020

Finish date: November 30, 2020

Discussion: Members' Topics for Discussion

Why we're reading this: November: Gender Stereotypes

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender
[close] November: Gender Stereotypes

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

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What Members Thought

Jun 21, 2021 Yna from Books and Boybands rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audiobook, lgbt-rep

Initial thoughts~

I had high hopes for this book after a lot of bookish content creators I trust raved about this. When I entered the world of Felix Ever After, I was expecting a heartfelt transgender story.

But boy, was I so wrong.

This book took on the journey of discovering one's identity until you find that perfect thing that feels right for you. It touches on themes of family, race, friendship, love, sex, life... An absolutely perfect formula that hits the right notes on every page.

Felix Ever ...more

9 likes · Like · see review

Jan 30, 2021 Jeanne rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: lgbtq, read-around-the-world, read-2021, african-african-american, ya

YA books, TV, and movies can be boring and trivial, their characters drama queens. Such books make me want to throw up a little. I don't know about your experience, though, but my adolescence was unpleasant. I will gladly accept a few aches and pains to avoid re-experiencing my adolescent angst. How do you avoid being a drama queen when talking about such an angst-filled period?

I think Felix Ever After hits this balance well. It explores sexuality and gender identity; bullying and cyberbullying; YA books, TV, and movies can be boring and trivial, their characters drama queens. Such books make me want to throw up a little. I don't know about your experience, though, but my adolescence was unpleasant. I will gladly accept a few aches and pains to avoid re-experiencing my adolescent angst. How do you avoid being a drama queen when talking about such an angst-filled period?

I think Felix Ever After hits this balance well. It explores sexuality and gender identity; bullying and cyberbullying; healthy parenting, as well as parental neglect, rejection, and abandonment; accepting self, seeing beyond the surfaces, and risking emotional intimacy; coming of age and artistic flowering; and oppression and privilege. Surely, I missed something. With so much on its plate, Felix sounds preachy, but it was fun. I would have wanted to hang out with this group as a teen. (And the cover!!!)

Felix is a Trans 2.0 story: Felix questions his identity, finding a more nuanced label for himself (deciding labels can be helpful); bullying and rejection (and acceptance) occur both in and outside the LGBT+ community; and parents can be helpful or not.

Some people say we shouldn’t need labels. That we’re trying to box ourselves in too much. But I don’t know. It feels good to me, to know I’m not alone. That someone else has felt the same way I’ve felt, experienced the same things I’ve experienced. It’s validating. (p. 58)

As a 2.0 story, Felix becomes a book that transcends the YA and LGBT+ genres, something that people of many ages and sexualities, even those not represented here, can identify with. Even Felix's projection – seeing the rejection in others that characterizes his own feelings about himself – feels familiar. "It’s almost like I was looking for the pain and the hurt, because it was easier to live with the idea that, even though I want love, I’m not the kind of person who deserves to be loved" (pp. 326-327). I walked away from Felix thinking "we" rather than "he."

Of course, the YA books that I most like are peopled by characters who are brighter, more talented, and more compassionate and insightful than average (several of these characters want to go to college at Brown). They are not broadly representative of all teenagers, but gifted, talented, and often privileged (even when they are brown, black, red, or yellow). Should they be representative of the greater population?

I cut my teeth on Nancy Drew mysteries. I looked up to her and wanted to be as smart and competent as she was. I think this, in part, the point of YA novels – to give tweens and teens something to look toward, to help them see themselves as able to make it through the morass of childhood and adolescence successfully, to see themselves as also able to succeed. I needed to be able to see Nancy Drew as more competent than I was, but still see myself as like her. Harry Potter novels offered a similar gift to a later generation.

It makes me cringe to talk about J. K. Rowling and trans issues in the same review, but maybe this was another theme to this story, that adults are often going to get these things wrong, but sometimes they try and do come around.

Felix Ever After is a book about a difficult topic, but as its name suggests, also hopeful and uplifting. My granddaughters are probably too young for Felix, but I will likely pass it on as they get closer. ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Jun 12, 2020 Angele | adominiquereads rated it it was amazing

Shelves: young-adult, contemporary, lgbtq, ebooks, r-friends-to-lovers, social-problems, poc-authors, people-of-color

“I’m not flaunting anything. I’m just existing. This is me. I can’t hide myself. I can’t disappear. And even if I could, I don’t fucking want to. I have the same right to be here. I have the same right to exist.”

Trigger warnings: emotional abuse, transphobia, bullying, racial discrimination, absent parents

This book is something everyone of all ages should read right now. With what the world is currently going experiencing and June being Pride Month, this is a must-read for people who wan ...more

3 likes · Like · see review