Review Series: One LGBTQ+ Book, One POC Book — Two Voices, One Theme
Two Books, One Theme: When Queer and POC Stories Speak to Each Other
A new kind of review — where identity meets empathy, and difference deepens connection.
Why This Series Exists
We talk a lot about representation — and we should. But sometimes, we get stuck in categories: “This is a queer story.” “That’s a Black story.” “This one is Latinx.” “That one is trans.”
What if we paused the labeling — and started listening?
In this new review series, we’re pairing one LGBTQ+ book with one by a POC author to explore how different lived experiences still circle the same emotional truth. Whether the theme is identity, grief, resilience, or love, we’re asking:
How do two distinct voices tell one universal story — and what can we learn when we read across that difference?
It’s not about comparison. It’s about conversation — across cultures, orientations, and emotional truths. Let’s begin.
This Week’s Theme: Belonging When the World Says You Don’t
For our debut pairing, we’re looking at belonging — not the kind that comes easily, but the kind you have to fight for. When your body, your name, your silence, or your truth make you an outsider, what does it take to finally feel like you fit?
Two authors. Two characters. Two books.
One shared ache — and one shared act of resistance.
Book 1: Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender
Felix Love is Black, queer, and transgender — and still trying to figure out how to love himself. When an anonymous student at his art school deadnames him and starts a cruel campaign online, Felix sets out to uncover the culprit. What follows is messy, honest, and ultimately beautiful: a journey through gender, identity, and the courage it takes to choose your own story.
Why it matters:
Felix’s voice is raw and real. He isn’t perfect — and that’s what makes him unforgettable. His experience as a trans teen of color isn’t framed as tragedy, but as a fierce, messy, joyful fight for love and self-worth.
Book 2: The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
Xiomara Batista is a Dominican-American girl growing up in Harlem, trying to navigate her body, her mother’s faith, and the things she’s never been allowed to say out loud. Her poems — electric, vulnerable, and rebellious — become her way of surviving and eventually thriving.
Why it matters:
Written entirely in verse, The Poet X is a reminder that poetry isn’t decoration — it’s protest. Xiomara’s silence is forced. Her voice is sacred. And her story shows how creative expression can literally save us when the world demands we stay small.
Where Their Stories Intersect
Felix and Xiomara come from very different places — one trans and queer, the other cis and straight; one navigating gender identity, the other religion and cultural expectations. And yet...
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Both are trying to claim space in systems that weren’t built for them.
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Both are punished for being too loud, too visible, too themselves.
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Both learn that self-definition is a radical, risky act — and worth everything.
In Felix, we see the politics of gender and race.
In Xiomara, we see the weight of silence, tradition, and faith.
And in both, we see a shared desire to say: I exist. I matter. I’m not asking anymore — I’m telling you.
Final Reflection
When we read only within one identity lane, we risk mistaking difference for distance.
But when we read across difference — queer and POC, Muslim and trans, disabled and neurodivergent — we find something deeper than identity.
We find connection.
We find echoes.
We find that our need for love, voice, and freedom isn't divided by identity — it’s multiplied by it.
This is why this series exists: to put books in dialogue. Not to flatten, but to listen. Because stories don’t live in silos — they speak to each other. And that echo? That’s where the transformation begins.
Read the Books
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🏳️⚧️ Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender → HarperCollins
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✍🏽 The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo → HarperTeen
Would you like to see more pairings like this? Let me know in the comments, or drop your own recs. Next up: Grief & Identity — and the stories we inherit from loss.
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