Felix Ever After by Kacen Callendar, 2.5 stars rounded up

[NancyJ]

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callander, is on the Time List of 100 Best YA books of All Time. I have a feeling it might not make the next edition of the list, but it fulfills a topical need. Felix is a transgender high school art student, with a father who is very supportive, except when he forgets and uses Felix's "dead name." The father is raising Felix on his own (his wife walked out on them), and he sometimes grieves the loss of his daughter. Or perhaps he's grieving the life he had once dreamed of for his family. The transgender part of the story was fairly interesting as far as it went, and the author has "own voices" credibility.

The rest of the story was old-school angsty teenage romance, with lots of high school melodrama and sneakiness. This is not what I was in the mood for at all this month. I suppose I would have liked it when I was 14, and engaged in my own highly melodramatic high school romance.

I haven't been loving all my choices this month. The high point of my month so far was Cantoras by Carolina de Robertis.