Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender is the story of Felix Love, a transgender high school student who is black and Latinx who has never fallen in love even though he desperately wants to. Felix is attending a prestigious art school called St. Catherines and is struggling to find his place amidst his classmates who are richer, straighter, whiter, and cis-er than him. He’s trying to prepare a portfolio to get into Brown, his dream university and he finds himself in direct competition with his ex-friend turned nemesis, Declan Keane. A golden boy who has everything going for him, killer talent, good looks, a ton of money, and his white skin. When an act of transphobic hate targets Felix personally he becomes obsessed with proving that Declan was behind it. But will he take it too far in his quest for revenge? And what if Declan wasn’t actually behind it?

This is a friends to enemies to... something story. It deals with the themes of family, found family, friendships, allyship, negotiating trying to understand your gender identity, and what it means to be trans.

There were moments that I was cringing while reading Felix going down these instagram hate spirals and making choices that the reader knew were going to come back on him badly. Watching Felix make mistakes and struggle with his identity and his relationship to his mostly supportive father and his total loss of a relationship with the mother who walked on on him were hard, but so worth it as we get to see Felix coming into himself through painful realizations and learning to trust friendships.

I also owe this book a debt of gratitude for introducing me to the term demi-boy and demi-girl, I had heard them in passing before, but didn’t really know what they meant. Thanks Felix (and Kacen) for the education :)