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What if Harry Potter ended up with his enemy instead of the female love interest?
Simon Snow is the worst Chosen One who's ever been chosen. Ever since the mage has brought Simon to Watford School of Magicks, Simon’s life has been a bundle of chaos, magical disasters and deadly rivalries. Having been told he’s the Chosen One, the one who will defeat the Humdrum, Simon has been burdened with a heavy responsibility to save the magical world that has welcomed him in. The only problem is: he just can’t get the hang of the whole wizard thing, a fact his five-year long roommate and lifelong rival is all too eager to point out. A dangerous magic is brooding within Simon. Will he learn to control it in time to stop the Humdrum once and for all or will he burn everything to the ground? Simon’s last year seems to get off to a good start but when his archnemesis Baz doesn’t show up for their last year at Watford, Simon’s head starts racing. What is the evil vampire up to this time? Has Baz finally accepted his role as a villain? And why can’t he stop obsessing over his roommate, looking for the vampire at every turn he takes?
Carry On, written by Rainbow Rowell in 2015, is a work of its time. Taking in elements from the world of fanfiction, fandom and pop culture, Carry On asks the obvious question: what if Harry Potter ended up with his enemy instead of the female love interest?
Reading this book I felt very nostalgic to the age of the internet around the 2010s. Rowell does a very good job at capturing that period while also bringing something new and well written. Carry On is a very fun read, filled with pop culture references and great scenes.
The focus of the story is really Simon and Baz unravelling their complicated relationship and discovering things right beneath the surface that just might open up a whole new and bright future for the two of them. Their dynamic, how it is established and how it changes is done exceedingly well. The subtlety for example that Baz already knows Simon through and through because he has been observing him for years, is endearing.
I loved the double pov because as you read Simon’s chapters, he thinks Baz wants to kill him but really, as you discover with Baz’s pov, his anger at Simon comes from a whole different kind of frustration. Baz has accepted one thing: that Simon will be the death of him, just how that will happen remains an agonising mystery for him as well as the reader and just makes the book an all-round great read.
Speaking of Baz’s pov, it is amazing. The whole book club lived for his chapters and his snarky, angsty narration filled with gay panic. Simon as well, as a main character, is an incredible idiot but he’s a very fun idiot. The softer moments between them are very lovely.
Into the spoiler zone: the book does contain the miscommunication trope but I was glad Rowell didn’t go the usual route that many writers do when using the miscommunication trope. Both characters didn’t push each other away but rather came back running towards one another wanting to figure out their feelings towards one another and what they were. Both did not want the other to be alone and I appreciated that Rowell wrote this because you don’t often see characters trying to understand the other’s perspective while struggling to figure out what kind of relationship they have. The miscommunication trope usually turns into a lot of unnecessary drama that in turn unintentionally shows why the relationship might not actually work, but here they talked, they listened to one another and they refused to leave each other’s side even though everything seemed to collide into each other.
I do have to point out one minor thing that I did struggle with while reading. Though I do think this is more the cause of it being a product of its time, Carry On once in a while misses the mark with a few remarks that the characters make. Sometimes the dialogue between characters attempts to put itself on too high of a pedestal, occasionally hitting itself in the head with a joke that likes to point towards itself as woke. In this day and age I do think that we don’t need these kinds of comments anymore in novels but perhaps in the 2010s it still needed to be that kind of obvious because it wasn’t the norm yet.
All in all, Carry On is a very fun and great read fully packed with humor, gay panic, fluffy romance and a whole bunch of fandom reference. Take a trip down memory lane, fangirl and squeal as you read the story of Simon Snow, the Chosen One, and his archnemesis Baz!
Carry On, written by Rainbow Rowell in 2015, is a work of its time. Taking in elements from the world of fanfiction, fandom and pop culture, Carry On asks the obvious question: what if Harry Potter ended up with his enemy instead of the female love interest?
Reading this book I felt very nostalgic to the age of the internet around the 2010s. Rowell does a very good job at capturing that period while also bringing something new and well written. Carry On is a very fun read, filled with pop culture references and great scenes.
The focus of the story is really Simon and Baz unravelling their complicated relationship and discovering things right beneath the surface that just might open up a whole new and bright future for the two of them. Their dynamic, how it is established and how it changes is done exceedingly well. The subtlety for example that Baz already knows Simon through and through because he has been observing him for years, is endearing.
I loved the double pov because as you read Simon’s chapters, he thinks Baz wants to kill him but really, as you discover with Baz’s pov, his anger at Simon comes from a whole different kind of frustration. Baz has accepted one thing: that Simon will be the death of him, just how that will happen remains an agonising mystery for him as well as the reader and just makes the book an all-round great read.
Speaking of Baz’s pov, it is amazing. The whole book club lived for his chapters and his snarky, angsty narration filled with gay panic. Simon as well, as a main character, is an incredible idiot but he’s a very fun idiot. The softer moments between them are very lovely.
Into the spoiler zone: the book does contain the miscommunication trope but I was glad Rowell didn’t go the usual route that many writers do when using the miscommunication trope. Both characters didn’t push each other away but rather came back running towards one another wanting to figure out their feelings towards one another and what they were. Both did not want the other to be alone and I appreciated that Rowell wrote this because you don’t often see characters trying to understand the other’s perspective while struggling to figure out what kind of relationship they have. The miscommunication trope usually turns into a lot of unnecessary drama that in turn unintentionally shows why the relationship might not actually work, but here they talked, they listened to one another and they refused to leave each other’s side even though everything seemed to collide into each other.
I do have to point out one minor thing that I did struggle with while reading. Though I do think this is more the cause of it being a product of its time, Carry On once in a while misses the mark with a few remarks that the characters make. Sometimes the dialogue between characters attempts to put itself on too high of a pedestal, occasionally hitting itself in the head with a joke that likes to point towards itself as woke. In this day and age I do think that we don’t need these kinds of comments anymore in novels but perhaps in the 2010s it still needed to be that kind of obvious because it wasn’t the norm yet.
All in all, Carry On is a very fun and great read fully packed with humor, gay panic, fluffy romance and a whole bunch of fandom reference. Take a trip down memory lane, fangirl and squeal as you read the story of Simon Snow, the Chosen One, and his archnemesis Baz!
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