Review: Felix Ever After

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender is a queer romance mystery that centers on seventeen-year-old Felix Love, who’s about to graduate from his private high school but has never been kissed, much less in love. Felix is a trans male of color and his father has a hard time accepting him, so he spends most of his time at his best friend Ezra’s apartment. Ezra’s parents are super rich and bought him his own apartment so he could attend their school’s summer art program.

Felix’s family is less wealthy, and his father works a ton to pay his tuition, and his only shot of getting into Brown without racking up massive student loan debut is by winning a scholar to their art program. Felix has two problems: he has no  clue what to do for his portfolio, and Declan Kean is also going for the scholarship. While Felix’s work is good, Declan’s is on another level.

To complicate matters, a transphobic troll hacks into Felix’s IG account and puts up portraits to him pretransition with his deadname in the school’s gallery. This person goes by the username GrandeQueen69 and proceeds to taunt Felix with horrible comments about his being trans and no one loving him.

In the search for GrandeQueen69’s identity, Felix suspects Declan and catfishes him, but to both their surprise they fall for each other. 

While Felix is searching for GrandeQueen69, he’s also searching for himself, and it is thanks to his local LGBTQ+ center that he’s able to work out his gender identity and in the process figure out his portfolio projects, and in doing so realize he’s worthy of love.

I can’t say how much I loved this book. I haven’t read many books featuring trans characters, (I know shame on me), but I deeply connected with Felix’s sense of isolation, loneliness and feelings he wasn’t worthy of love, and by the end of the book, I was in tears.

If I had one criticism, it’s that the mystery of who GrandeQueen69 was didn’t make sense as it wasn’t until the end that two vital clues were given that made it clear who they were, and had these clues been revealed earlier in the story, the mystery would have been solved instantly. Moreover, theses clues are the only ones given that this person had an issue with Felix, and I felt robbed that it wasn’t hinted at them being GrandeQueen69 until the end of the book.

However, I still loved this book and can’t recommend it enough. I give Felix Ever After five out of five stars.