Morgan's Reviews > Carry On

Carry On — 3.5 ★

How We Met: I had to pick up this book after falling in love with Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl, which resonated with me personally as a twin from the midwest (only 3 hours from the setting of the book) who also went to college with her twin, much like Cath and Wren in Fangirl.

In that book, Rowell images another popular book series much like Harry Potter, following a magical boy named Simon Snow whose greatest enemy is his posh-vampire roomate, Baz. But the premise in Fangirl is Cath's commitment to her fanficiton which re-imagines a different fate for Simon & Baz. Carry On is *that* story.

Carry On is a magical "Chosen One story," as Rowell puts it, and her attempt to give these characters that started as background characters their own story & journey.

My Thougths: It's important to know that when you jump into this book you're jumping into the characters' final/seventh year at a magical school, Watford. Rowell doesn't have the time (nor is it the purpose of this book) to world build perse, so in the first 50 somes pages you get a crash-course in how we've come to be in this moment.

Naturally this means some intentional overall with HP, but it also means the first 50 pages are a slow start. I know for myself I was so excited & impatient to move into the "now" aspect of the book, that I didn't feel truly invested until the story started to really move forward. From here, I was very happy with what emerged.

The main conflict in the book is between The Mage vs. the Old Magic Families (think Slytherins) and all the Magical People/Entities vs. "The Humdrum" some force that is sucking out magic like vacumm leaving holes in the atmosphere (think Global Warming, but for magic). Simon is an orphan, heir of the The Mage, and the "Chosen One," and Baz is the son of one of the oldest magical families. Need I say more? It's easy to see where the conflict comes in, so I'll leave it at that.

Like any Chosen One story, our ideas of good and bad are constantly changing, and perceptions are constantly being challenged to the point that hatred, infatuation eventually reveal something deeper, something stronger — love.

I didn’t love the “instalove” bht as a whole the characters were gold (even the evil ones I could empathize with).

Simon *is like* the quintessential all-American, thick-headed quarterback in your high school, but uncommonly kind and honest — he sees things for what there are, and says what he feels.

Baz is incredibly clever with a quick tongue, and always certain of himself unless he's needing to be vulnerable..

But in my opinion, Rowell's attention to badass female characters was the real highlight.

From Ebb, Fiona, Lucy, to most notably Simon's best friend Penny who is like Hermione Granger, but 70/40 the version of Hermione that slaps Draco in the face. In other words, she's absolutely brilliant! And her loyalty makes her afraid of nothing, not Baz, not Simon's uncontrollable power, not even the Humdrum. At one point she threaten's Baz and his entire family and I truly chuckeld and dogearred that page.

Spot on Shelf? Yes, maybe not forever, but yes for now. Fangirl holds a special spot for me, but this magical Queer Story definitely surprised me. Rowell tells a story we know in a new and engaging way. It's hard not to fall in love with the characters in it.

Aside: I didn't know where to put this in the review, but the way Rowell imagines casting spells is a very unique spin on the classic proverb "words have power."  The attention she puts on linguistics and how we say things, the power of certain phrases over others, etc. was deeply clever and I loved it. My divinity-school self wants to take this notion and turn it into a badass sermon. Maybe in the next life.