Out of all of Rainbow Rowell's books,
Carry On was the one I really wanted to read. The others caught my attention but
Carry On catch it and held it. It's the one of the few reasons why I read
Fangirl (
review for that is here)- not only to see if it lives up to all the hype, but because I wanted to read this.
Simon Snow is the Chosen One. Here to save the World of Magicks. Only, he's probably the worst Chosen One ever. And all he wanted to do is enjoy his last year at Watford School of Magicks. Expect his girlfriend has broken up with him, his best friend is starting to get under his feet and his mentor wants to hide him, safe from the Insidious Humdrum. He can't even enjoy the fact that his don-partner and nemesis is missing because he can't help worrying about the slimy git.
So what is he going to do when ghost of his nemesis's mother wakes him up one night, desperate to pass her son a message...?
Where to begin?
If you have read
Fangirl, you are kinda aware of Simon Snow because this is the
Harry Potter-like series that Cath writes fan fiction for. And this is Rainbow Rowell's attempt of Simon Snow fan fiction. That's right, folks. Rainbow Rowell wrote fan fiction for a fantasy series that a main character in one of her other books reads and write about. Confusing? It's like
Inception but with books!
This was a fun read. I had fun reading it, which surprised me a lot. I liked
Fangirl (and I do have plans to reread
Fangirl next year sometime) but I think I prefer
Carry On more. I think it's because this felt like
Harry Potter, and I LOVE
Potter.
This book felt as if creators of
Harry Potter and
Grey's Anatomy/Scandal, JK Rowling and Shonda Rhimes, sat down in a room together, merged story ideas together and then invited Rainbow to write the story. The three blended so well together.
It was fun. There's no other word for this book. It was fun. I really enjoyed the story and I really liked how the magic worked in this world (no latin! Instead, we had words and phrases - which is great as it shows the beauty of language). I liked the relationships (friendship and love - I think I started madly tweeting when there was kissing...) and how the story, while having a
Harry Potter feel to it, stood on its own two feet.
But - yes, there is a but - this book is fan fiction. And readers might see a little too easily the possible Harry Potter/Draco Malfoy fanfic hidden underneath the words. While I have not read fan fiction (I wish I discovered fanfic in my teens. I would be all over it!), I did at one or two points go "Is this Rainbow's way of getting Harry and Draco together?" before dismissing it very quickly.
Another tiny problem I had was the mystery. I love a good mystery, but there was a few things I kinda guessed (and was frighteningly correct on). That's not a bad thing - but I just wished there was a twist, a moment where I would go "I didn't see that coming!".
While reading this, I was addicted to this book and I had such fun with this. I can imagine rereading this again in the near future. With a mug of hot chocolate and a copy of
Fangirl nearby... and maybe a
Harry Potter on standby, just in case...
