Carry On

The author's note mentions that this book is inspired by all the Chosen One stories she has read but we all can guess from page one that this is based on Harry Potter. This is also definitely an ode to all the shippers of Drarry in the fandom.

Simon is the greatest mage the magickal world has ever known but he doesn't know what to do with all the power. He is a flawed Chosen One, a very directionless teenage boy upon whom a huge responsibility has been thrust. He fights evil only because everyone expects him to and just hopes that he will have a secure future with the beautiful Agatha after the whole war is done. Baz is the heir to one of the oldest and powerful families and behaves as such – being all snobby and rude but he is hiding a lot of feelings and a terrible truth behind that rough exterior. Penny is a great friend who just wants the best for Simon and whose organizational skills just made me feel inferior. Agatha is a simple girl who wants to lead a quiet life without any adventures.

This is a fantasy novel but there isn't much world building. We get to know a little about the school and the magickal system but how/why the evil guy is evil is never truly explained. The way the spells work is vague but also hilarious. I loved the idea of a spell's power being dependent on the usage and frequency and sometimes, even the metaphorical meaning behind the words. The story also occurs during Simon's final year at Watford, so we only get to know about his past adventures and his eternal enmity with Baz in passing.

The strength of this book is definitely the relationship between Simon and Baz. The story doesn't even get interesting until Baz actually shows up after a quarter. They hate each other, want to kill the other, keep bickering all the time, always look for where the other is in the room and feel very very restless when the other is nowhere to be found – you can where this is going – you can actually feel all the UST flowing through the pages. I shipped them hard even before Baz showed up and then it was absolute fun watching them get together. Baz's superior magickal skills and steadfastness are well complemented by Simon's (sometimes) cluelessness and conviction to just do good.

There are a lot of POV's and many side characters here but we can see how difficult it is to actually flesh out so many of them. That's one reason why, though I liked a lot of characters like Penny, Fiona, Ebb etc, I couldn't really care a lot about any of them and none of the bad things that happened towards the end actually affected me. The climax is also very rushed and I couldn't wrap my head around why the evil got created and what Simon was really supposed to vanquish.

You might be wondering now why I gave this book 4 stars when I've mostly just discussed all it's negatives. But I really did have a lot of fun reading this one. I'm a huge fan of fanfiction and I can't describe how much my life changed after discovering AO3 and tumblr. So, I went into this book expecting a slash tribute to my favorite literary characters and I got just that. The plot is obviously a lot different from HP but I was so entertained trying to figure out which character from this book corresponds to characters from the Potterverse. The writing is also very funny and the dynamic between Simon and Baz is precious. I totally loved going on this adventure to Watford with them.

Let's recap briefly: [a:Rainbow Rowell 4208569 Rainbow Rowell https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1342324527p2/4208569.jpg] wrote a book ([b:Fangirl 16068905 Fangirl Rainbow Rowell https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1355886270s/16068905.jpg 21861351]) about what it was like to be a Big Name Fan and in order to capture this experience she made up a fictional Harry Potter series, which the protagonist of Fangirl wrote a fanfic about. Then, Rainbow Rowell decided to actually write this fictional Harry Potter series, which is Carry On. Meta'ed out yet?But, honestly, this kind of makes sense, because the Simon Snow snippets were the best part of Fangirl. Rowell is nothing if not wicked clever, and it shines the most in the way that she used the fact that everyone knows and understands Harry Potter to include huge swathes of background in a couple of paragraphs, which gave her inversions and subtle changes context. One of the coolest feats of literatures someone's pulled off in awhile, but I was worried that it was not particularly sustainable in a stand-alone novel.Good news, bad news? The way in which Harry Potter provides a context and background to Carry On is probably the strongest part. The whole book exists in a dialogue with Harry Potter and the two most interesting themes of the novel grow from here:1. Doesn't it kind of suck to be a mage in a magical/muggle world? The way HP is set up, you can only be a wizard if you're a wizard (you don't get the basic education required to be anything else.) What if you want to be a doctor or a mathematician or a chef in a big restaurant? Suck to be you: wizarding world or bust. But in the HP world, no one discusses this. Rowell actually explores this concept and how much magic destines people.2. If you're a mage in a magical/muggle hybrid world, and you get to go to magic school, the rest of life is a downhill slog of hiding and never being around your people. Another thing Rowell does great is evoking the culture and community of teenagers and it's really on show here: the sadness of graduation is clear in a way that Rowlings did not succeed at.3. I love the loyal opposition. That you can be boyhood enemies and play kid games, but if there's going to be a war and its going to be real, how does that change and mature your enmity. Because so much of childhood opposition is the loyal opposition: the person you depend on to antagonize you and play the foil.So, cool. This part is fun. Bad news: The book reads like Harry/Draco fanfiction. Not that I read fanfiction (only pro-singularity propoganda, [b:Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality 10016013 Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality Eliezer Yudkowsky https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1293582551s/10016013.jpg 14911331].) But still. So still some good news, in that those of us who have spent the last 14 years and 7 books growing to love the Harry Potter characters will be invested off the bat. But on the downside, very little actually happens. Literally, the first 20% of the book is HarrySimon wandering around HogwartsWatford looking for Baz. The majority of the rest is Simon and Baz mooning at each other. Also, it reads to me like Cath actually wrote it, i.e. that it was written by an 18 year old girl: Is falling in love with your sworn enemy actually a thing that happens in real life? Just one minute you're fighting and the next you're swooning and then a second later you're “snogging”? OK...Also, I talk a lot. I think in words. I need to talk to process my thoughts. My friends get sick of hearing me think out loud. Both the thinking and the talking. I get told “most people don't think that much; they just do” a lot. In Rainbow Rowell's world, I am both basically selectively mute and impulsive. Her characters talk about everything always and at length (usually sounding like self-important teenagers in their word choice and punctuation.) I have never in real life met someone who articulates quite so many thoughts, and definitely not a 17 year old boy who does so. Finally, despite having read approximately 20 pages of Baz's thoughts on Simon's hair, I still have no idea why they actually like each other in anyway. (Besides the hair. It seems easier to have your boyfriend wear a wig than to date your sworn enemy because he has nice hair.)So, in conclusion, its a fun romp, with interesting commentary on the world of Harry Potter and school fantasy in general, and it's the only book you'll ever read that's a fictionalized version of a fanfic of a fictional novel, so there's that.

I went into this basically knowing nothing of the plot besides it had magic and a little m/m romance. I guess I should have been a little more prepared since I spend over half the book just going, “Why is this all Harry Potter?” Apparently, it's the fanfic of a character is the author's book ‘Fangirl' which I have yet to read, though that's never referenced in this (and why would it be).
If I'd never read Harry Potter, I might have enjoyed this a lot more, but I did enjoy the characters and the different references. The author choosing Aleister Crowley's name as a curse and substitute for saying God/Jesus Christ was a weird choice since he was just a weird pervert into Satan, but nevermind. It had pretty much every trope imaginable and I can only assume (hope) it was on purpose since this is blatantly a fanfic.

I listened to this via Audible and the narrator was very good. I hope he's also doing the sequel.

A summary of this book in the words of the characters:
“I don't know.”
“Simon is an idiot.”
“I don't know.”

I've read this book thrice now, not counting the amount of times I just pick it up and read random bits. I've also listened to the audiobook recently which was so well done. I made notes while listening to the audiobook which I thought I'd post as a review, since my favorite book deserves a review! So everything below is spoiler tagged.

Spoiler
- Simon gets car sick in the back seat.

- Simon mentions how magic means everything to him. Simon says he'd make sure that he always has magic to come back to. (OMG, no wonder poor boy is depressed in Wayward Son).

- Simon said penny makes his cheeks hurt 😊so cute

- The Mage is an asshole because he had the audacity to ask Simon where he thought the Mage's wife and children were? In front of you, you deranged maniac!!!

- Penny reassures Simon at every point. I love her. Best friend ever.

- Agatha believed that Simon was going to die fighting the humdrum one day 😲

- Agatha was freaking love sick about Baz, and roamed the ramparts at night hoping he'll come back and see her hair whipping in the wind 😂 Oh, also she knew about him being a vampire.

- It took 28 chapters for Baz to appear. Oh God, the agony!

- Baz's bed has gargoyles. The room he gave Simon had a dragon on the bed whose head glowed and followed you around the room.

- Nobody knows where Lucy went. Or who Simon's parents were. This is shit!

- Ebb sacrifices herself to save Agatha, someone she barely knew. This book was a lot more serious than I figured in the first read.

- “It's not Gothic, it's Victorian.” 😆Is that really important for the story?

- Lucy was in a fucking toxic relationship which killed her. Literally! This is what they mean when they say love is blind.

- “You can have this, if you want it.” “I want it.” - This made me tear up. Great, I've figured out why Carry On makes me cry everytime.

- Baz steals a dog and calls it Bunce-spaniel 😂

- “A lot of sitting in silence and thousand-yard stares” 😂

- I swear to God, every third line in the book is “Baz sneers.”

- One of the things I liked best about the ending was Baz going to the catacombs in the end and telling his mom that he'll be okay, and he's decided to carry on as he is.

Wow! I don't even know where to start with this book. This was definitely one of my most anticipated books (especially in terms of standalones and not continuing a series). I feel in love with the characters in Fangirl. I obviously loved Cath and Levi, but I also loved the bits we got of Simon and Baz. So a whole 500+ page book about Simon and Baz was super exciting.

I loved that this book starts during their last year at Watford where they have already faced many challenges and overcome them. Instead we get as much information as we need as the story goes instead of a crazy summary of the previous years. Rainbow Rowell did a fantastic job of weaving in the past experiences. I also loved the pace of this book. We got straight to the point without a bunch of world building and explanations.

As soon as I started the book, I already felt like I knew the world. I do not think this was because I was already introduced to the world in Fangirl, I think it was just written well enough to not have a learning curve. There are many similarities to HP but I think that is part of The Chosen One trope and the fan fiction meta aspect of this book.

I will admit my one concern going into this book was the fact that this was a book about fanfiction of a fictional book from a different fictional book (and yes it is that complex). So I was worried it was going to be too much meta but I did not feel that way at all. There was really nothing relating to the original fanfiction from Fangirl other than character names.

I already want to reread this book and I really want to read Fangirl now. Both will probably happen by the end of the year so I can revisit these characters. This book is very different than Rainbow Rowell's other contemporary books, but she did a great job with this fantasy story!

3.5/5 stars

This was fun! But I do have thoughts.

Overall, I really loved the romance—Baz and Simon were soooo fun to read about, and Baz was great, and Baz and Simon together was just so great to read. I found myself smiling a lot. They were so great.

However! There was a major issue I noticed throughout: massive bi-erasure. Simon doesn't once consider that he might be bi, even though he'd had a girlfriend. He repeatedly wonders if liking Baz means he's gay, and when he discusses it with Baz, Baz never suggests (or even considers, for that matter) Simon might be bi, either. We get through the entire romance without the possibility of Simon's being bi mentioned once—which, I mean, I'd be okay with Simon deciding he's gay (not bi) because that's totally legitimate, but he should have at least considered the possibility that he might be bi.

On a totally unrelated note, I also found the first 100 pages or so kind of slow, so it took me longer than usual to get into it. I also thought two of the POVs (one used frequently, one not) was mostly unnecessary, which didn't help the pacing issue.

That said, I really enjoyed the magic system set up (it was so different from anything I'd read before!), the world building was fun, and I really, really liked reading an m/m narrative in a fantasy setting. I definitely enjoyed it overall despite the stuff I noticed above, and I thought the ending fit really well.

Cute romance. Fun world building. Totally perfect-for-the-book magic system. It was totally worth getting through the slow-ish opening, to me. :)

Loved the world created here, as a sort of meta-response to the holes in Harry Potter's universe. Loved Agatha and Penny, and probably would've loved a book about either of them more. Didn't really buy the main romance for whatever reason - I know this is meant to be the last book in the “series,” so it feels like a lot of the tension/angst/whatever that would've been built up in the earlier books just isn't there. Loved the spells and even enjoyed the plot twist, but overall this wasn't one of my favorites of hers. Perfectly enjoyable, but not something I'll be compelled to reread, I don't think.

I am overwhelmed by emotions after finishing this. I can't stop thinking about it. Rainbow Rowell is one of my all time favorite authors and in a long list of incredible works, this is one of her most moving. I feel like the book filled me completely full, and I'm just bursting to anyone near me about how amazing it was. It was impossible to stop reading, especially the last 100 or so pages (really, it was very hard to get any homework done until I finished this)! It made me react out loud. Quite genuinely. I laughed out loud, I cried, I gasped. The twists were amazing.
The entire set of characters were amazing. I felt like I really knew all of them. There was no character I felt lukewarm toward. I either really hated or really loved each!
Then the ending. One of the best endings in fantasy out there.
I really can't overstate how much I want everyone to run out and get this one, right now, stop your lives and read it.

J'ai adoré ce roman inclassable, à la croisée des chemins entre fantasy, romance et young adult. Le cadre du récit, une école de magie, fait tout de suite penser à Harry Potter, mais c'est une référence totalement assumée et avec laquelle l'auteur joue avec humour et talent. Les personnages sont sympathiques, ou sympathiquement antipathiques, et l'histoire est très agréable à suivre. Une lecture très plaisante !

I don't know. I feel kinda conflicted about this book.
I liked it, but I also was dissappointed by it? (doesn't really make sense lol)

Whilst reading the book I kept getting distracted by everything happening around me, which only happens when I am not that invested in the book. When I started reading I felt confused, since my reading experience was screaming I was reading the second installment (which was false of course). This book had a lot of flashbacks without really going in the depth of it.

But ... I did give it three stars and it definitely deserves that! After almost 200 pages the story started to get strong! I really liked how it all went from there. Except for the ending, that felt rushed.

Overall, it's a decent book. :)

4.5☆
La última parte del libro se me pasó volando, lo amé. Me encantaron los personajes y su desarrollo a lo largo del libro y la trama con el Humdrum, Nicodemus y todas las adversidades con las que se encontraban me parecieron muy interesantes y bien desarrolladas. Al principio me pareció un poco lento y por eso le pongo 4 estrellas, pero a medida que avanzaba la trama me iba enganchando cada vez más y me leí los últimos 20-30 capítulos rapidísimo para saber qué pasaba. Definitivamente quiero saber que va a pasar en Wayward Son así que próximamente lo leeré!

Finished reading 7/11/15.
Crying in tears of happiness

“I let myself slip away... Just to stay sane. Just to get through it. And when I felt myself slipping too far, I held on to the one thing I'm always sure of - Blue eyes. Bronze curls. The fact that Simon Snow is the most powerful magician alive. That nothing can hurt him, not even me. That Simon Snow is alive. And I'm hopelessly in love with him.”

Actual review 7/12/15.
This is for sure one of the best books I've read this year and it's up there with Jane Eyre, Mistborn and A Thousand Splendid Suns. This is the second best book by her I've read, having read Fangirl, Landline and Eleanor&Park-i think I liked E&P a little more- and it was just so beautiful.

I don't know how she can make me feel so many emotions with just words but she does. You have made me fall in love again with you beatiful writing, Rainbow.

The magic system was just fascinating:“Magic words are tricky. Sometimes to reveal something hidden, you have to use the language of the time it was stashed away. And sometimes an old phrase stops working when the reat of the world is sick os saying it” “And they become more powerful the more that they're said and read and written, in specific, consistent combinations” By the way the magic works, the spells are always evolving with the language and it's just so freaking cool!

Characters I loved: BAZ BAZ BAZ BAZ BAZ FREAKING BAZ:
He was all that I wanted in a character, and I would marry him if I could.
Penelope: she's totally a character of her own, not just a Hermione's copy. Her skills are out of this world and when she cast her spells I was just cracking up xD

I hated Agatha, the Mage and Simon so much, like I REALLY DESPISE them. No kidding.


Such a beautiful book. Thank you Rowell.