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4.12 AVERAGE
4.12 AVERAGE
I'm DNFing this at only page 58 (11%) and I'm fine with that.
Admittedly, I borrowed this from the library with some reservations. I thought, at worst it's as bad as I expected, and at best it surprises me and I genuinely enjoy it. Somehow, it's already even worse than I thought it might be. I think the problem is that this isn't actually a fantasy book at all. In fact, it's almost insulting, as a fan of fantasy, to have read the 58 pages I managed to get through.
Some of the spells in the 50 pages I read: 'Take it away' 'Into thin air' 'Some like it hot' 'Stay cool'. Nope. I ain't buying it.
You know, when it comes to Harry Potter, I could talk about how those books have a convenient and not entirely consistent magic system. But, JKR- for all her faults- did at least manage to create an immersive magical world and did attempt to have a semblance of structure in her magic system. And while JKR is not an amazing writer, her writing isn't bad either.
I half considered pushing through this book out of spite for this ridiculous magic system, but I don't want to force myself through something, especially with poor intentions toward it, so I'm throwing in the towel.
Everything about the world that we learn in the first 50 pages is essentially directly lifted from HP but changed just enough to avoid plagiarism on a bare technicality. My problem isn't with the fact that this is derivative of the HP books, exactly. The problem is that it attempts to satirize something it doesn't truly understand. Plus we've seen HP satirized better before. We have the A Very Potter Musical series for that. And that was actually funny and really well done for a parody. And it's free to watch on YouTube.
The fact is Rainbow Rowell clearly does not write fantasy. And, after reading only 60 pages of this, I can tell she doesn't read it. I don't want to say that authors have to box themselves in as artists. However, if I can tell in the first 20 pages that the author doesn't understand the basics of the genre, then that's a problem. You can only break the rules in a way that works after you thoroughly understand the rules and the reasons they exist. The magic system here is a perfect example of that not working.
On top of that, this isn't written in a style that works for me. First-person is rarely my preferred POV to read, and this was not one of those rare cases. The writing is, overall, very simplistic and juvenile. There's one action scene in the pages I read, and it was a mess. Like it's so clear that this author is not within their element writing fantasy within those first 50-ish pages that I could not continue. I don't think authors have to stay in one genre, but in general, an apathy toward the worldbuilding and magic showed here, and I could have got over that if I liked the writing or what I got of the story or characters in the 58 pages I read, but unfortunately, none of that worked for me either.
I can deal with a fantasy that doesn't have perfect worldbuilding or consistent magic systems if the story or characters are engaging and the writing is good. After all, I'm a fairly character-driven reader. I can get through fairly mediocre books pretty quickly if there's even one character that I am invested in, even if it's a background character.
The characters have some key differences from their HP counterparts in terms of superficial traits, but they're so clearly meant to be those characters. Simon is Harry. He was given up by his parents and is apparently the only mage born to non-mages to ever exist? Because no mage would give up their magic baby because magic is too precious? (Side note: I find it harder to suspend my disbelief for a world where no one gives up their biological children (there's a myriad of reasons someone would make that choice, and not all of them are bad) than I do the silly 'spells' in this book.) "The Mage" is Dumbledore, clearly. He's got a mustache instead of a beard. Penelope is obviously Hermione, but half-Indian. I didn't even meet him in the book, but I guess Baz is Draco as a vampire, which honestly made me wonder whether Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way was lurking around a corner somewhere at Watford as well.
Then there's the plot. The fact that this drops you right in the middle of the war when our hero is already 8 years into his schooling isn't helping anything; basically, it relies on the reader knowing the plot of the Harry Potter series. Which again, is a problem. Now, if you're on AO3 reading HP fanfic, that's to be expected. In a published novel pretending to be something that isn't HP? Not so much. And, personally, I didn't even feel nostalgic toward HP while reading this. I'd rather re-read the HP books or some fanfic that's actually well-written. Honestly though, even if the little I read of this did make me feel nostalgic, that wouldn't have been enough. Maybe this becomes more of its own thing later on in the book, but that doesn't make this part better. Frankly, there are better books I can spend my time on that will pull me in from page 1.
So yeah. I don't know how I've managed to have so many problems with this book after having read so little of it, but here I am. I was hoping it would surprise me, and it did, but not pleasantly. Like with the infamous fic that Ebony Dark'ness came from, I couldn't tell whether this book was serious or a parody. Either way, I'm more nostalgic for My Immortal than the HP books.
Admittedly, I borrowed this from the library with some reservations. I thought, at worst it's as bad as I expected, and at best it surprises me and I genuinely enjoy it. Somehow, it's already even worse than I thought it might be. I think the problem is that this isn't actually a fantasy book at all. In fact, it's almost insulting, as a fan of fantasy, to have read the 58 pages I managed to get through.
Some of the spells in the 50 pages I read: 'Take it away' 'Into thin air' 'Some like it hot' 'Stay cool'. Nope. I ain't buying it.
You know, when it comes to Harry Potter, I could talk about how those books have a convenient and not entirely consistent magic system. But, JKR- for all her faults- did at least manage to create an immersive magical world and did attempt to have a semblance of structure in her magic system. And while JKR is not an amazing writer, her writing isn't bad either.
I half considered pushing through this book out of spite for this ridiculous magic system, but I don't want to force myself through something, especially with poor intentions toward it, so I'm throwing in the towel.
Everything about the world that we learn in the first 50 pages is essentially directly lifted from HP but changed just enough to avoid plagiarism on a bare technicality. My problem isn't with the fact that this is derivative of the HP books, exactly. The problem is that it attempts to satirize something it doesn't truly understand. Plus we've seen HP satirized better before. We have the A Very Potter Musical series for that. And that was actually funny and really well done for a parody. And it's free to watch on YouTube.
The fact is Rainbow Rowell clearly does not write fantasy. And, after reading only 60 pages of this, I can tell she doesn't read it. I don't want to say that authors have to box themselves in as artists. However, if I can tell in the first 20 pages that the author doesn't understand the basics of the genre, then that's a problem. You can only break the rules in a way that works after you thoroughly understand the rules and the reasons they exist. The magic system here is a perfect example of that not working.
On top of that, this isn't written in a style that works for me. First-person is rarely my preferred POV to read, and this was not one of those rare cases. The writing is, overall, very simplistic and juvenile. There's one action scene in the pages I read, and it was a mess. Like it's so clear that this author is not within their element writing fantasy within those first 50-ish pages that I could not continue. I don't think authors have to stay in one genre, but in general, an apathy toward the worldbuilding and magic showed here, and I could have got over that if I liked the writing or what I got of the story or characters in the 58 pages I read, but unfortunately, none of that worked for me either.
I can deal with a fantasy that doesn't have perfect worldbuilding or consistent magic systems if the story or characters are engaging and the writing is good. After all, I'm a fairly character-driven reader. I can get through fairly mediocre books pretty quickly if there's even one character that I am invested in, even if it's a background character.
The characters have some key differences from their HP counterparts in terms of superficial traits, but they're so clearly meant to be those characters. Simon is Harry. He was given up by his parents and is apparently the only mage born to non-mages to ever exist? Because no mage would give up their magic baby because magic is too precious? (Side note: I find it harder to suspend my disbelief for a world where no one gives up their biological children (there's a myriad of reasons someone would make that choice, and not all of them are bad) than I do the silly 'spells' in this book.) "The Mage" is Dumbledore, clearly. He's got a mustache instead of a beard. Penelope is obviously Hermione, but half-Indian. I didn't even meet him in the book, but I guess Baz is Draco as a vampire, which honestly made me wonder whether Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way was lurking around a corner somewhere at Watford as well.
Then there's the plot. The fact that this drops you right in the middle of the war when our hero is already 8 years into his schooling isn't helping anything; basically, it relies on the reader knowing the plot of the Harry Potter series. Which again, is a problem. Now, if you're on AO3 reading HP fanfic, that's to be expected. In a published novel pretending to be something that isn't HP? Not so much. And, personally, I didn't even feel nostalgic toward HP while reading this. I'd rather re-read the HP books or some fanfic that's actually well-written. Honestly though, even if the little I read of this did make me feel nostalgic, that wouldn't have been enough. Maybe this becomes more of its own thing later on in the book, but that doesn't make this part better. Frankly, there are better books I can spend my time on that will pull me in from page 1.
So yeah. I don't know how I've managed to have so many problems with this book after having read so little of it, but here I am. I was hoping it would surprise me, and it did, but not pleasantly. Like with the infamous fic that Ebony Dark'ness came from, I couldn't tell whether this book was serious or a parody. Either way, I'm more nostalgic for My Immortal than the HP books.
Check out this review and more on my blog!
This was so much fun!
I stayed away from Carry On for a while because I was being a snob. I love fanfiction – I still enjoy reading it and I used to write it, too – but as a huge Harry Potter fan I was initially kind of annoyed that Rainbow Rowell was making money off Rowling’s idea.
Then I got over myself, because it’s not like Rowling invented the ‘Chosen One’ story or wizarding schools, and while Carry On is very much a response to Harry Potter, it still feels like its own thing.
(Also, unlike Harry Potter, Carry On isn’t afraid to be queer as hell.)
Written as the final book in a series that doesn’t really exist, Carry On is surprisingly easy to follow and, when we’re told what Simon’s already been through, it doesn’t feel like an info-dump, which is quite a skill considering we’ve missed out on around seven years of adventures.
Simon Snow is the chosen one, plucked from foster care by The Mage when he was 11 to fight the Humdrum, an entity that is essentially an absence of magic terrorising the magical world.
Simon is the first student from the Normal world to attend the Watford School of Magic which was previously run by a headmistress who believed the school should teach only the most elite. The Mage took over the school after she was killed in a vampire attack in which her son, Baz (who just so happens to be Simon’s worst enemy and, unfortunately, roommate), was turned into a vampire himself.
Simon and Baz have never seen eye-to-eye, in fact they hate each other, but when Baz doesn’t show up at the start of the school year and Simon receives a visit from his mother’s ghost, he knows something isn’t quite right. And that’s all I’m going to say, because this novel is so much more enjoyable if you let the story unfold for you one piece at a time.
I’ve read Rainbow Rowell before – her adult novel Attachments and her short story in My True Love Gave to Me – and didn’t love either of them (although I didn’t dislike them either) so I wasn’t sure what I was going to make of this novel. If nothing else, I knew Rowell’s writing style is incredibly readable and, even though this book is on the chunkier side for a YA novel, I flew through it and ended up really enjoying it.
One of the things I was most nervous about was Rowell, an American, writing about British teenagers, not because I think authors should only write about people of their own nationality – that’s ridiculous – but because I think teenagers in particular can often be written badly, even by authors who do share their nationality. Thankfully the British slang Rowell used never felt out of place; Simon and his friends all sounded British, and not in a Hugh Grant kind of way either.
Considering there’s so much we don’t know about this world I thought Rowell did an excellent job of explaining everything, so much so that this world felt real to me. It’s very heavily inspired by Harry Potter, but rather than feeling like a rip-off it feels like a response to it. While Hogwarts is staffed by House Elves who seem to do all the cooking and cleaning for no apparent pay, Simon tells us how the kids at the Watford School of Magic serve their own meals and do their own laundry. Where Harry himself is our narrator throughout his series, albeit in third person, Carry On is told from multiple first person perspectives so that we get to know Baz, Simon’s friends and even some of his teachers as much as get to know Simon.
It was little tweaks like this that made this story so refreshing, as well as how utterly and unapologetically queer it is.
I ended up loving Simon and Baz’s relationship a lot more than I expected to. I love a couple with good banter and these two have plenty, but there are also moments of genuine warmth and tenderness that made the romance in this book so lovely to read as well as so validating.
J.K. Rowling told us Dumbledore is gay after she wrote the series and then continued not to write him as gay in the Fantastic Beasts films, whereas in Carry On Baz says the words ‘I’m gay’, and it makes a difference. Not everyone uses labels, and that’s fine, but when authors don’t use labels and also don’t make their characters’ potential non-heterosexuality clear in some other way, it doesn’t have the same kind of impact that saying the words outright does.
I loved this book. There’s very little I want to say about it in a review because I think the real joy of this book is reading it for yourself and finding all those tips of the hat to Harry Potter alongside a much more inclusive, much more queer, wizarding world.
This was so much fun!
I stayed away from Carry On for a while because I was being a snob. I love fanfiction – I still enjoy reading it and I used to write it, too – but as a huge Harry Potter fan I was initially kind of annoyed that Rainbow Rowell was making money off Rowling’s idea.
Then I got over myself, because it’s not like Rowling invented the ‘Chosen One’ story or wizarding schools, and while Carry On is very much a response to Harry Potter, it still feels like its own thing.
(Also, unlike Harry Potter, Carry On isn’t afraid to be queer as hell.)
Written as the final book in a series that doesn’t really exist, Carry On is surprisingly easy to follow and, when we’re told what Simon’s already been through, it doesn’t feel like an info-dump, which is quite a skill considering we’ve missed out on around seven years of adventures.
Simon Snow is the chosen one, plucked from foster care by The Mage when he was 11 to fight the Humdrum, an entity that is essentially an absence of magic terrorising the magical world.
Simon is the first student from the Normal world to attend the Watford School of Magic which was previously run by a headmistress who believed the school should teach only the most elite. The Mage took over the school after she was killed in a vampire attack in which her son, Baz (who just so happens to be Simon’s worst enemy and, unfortunately, roommate), was turned into a vampire himself.
Simon and Baz have never seen eye-to-eye, in fact they hate each other, but when Baz doesn’t show up at the start of the school year and Simon receives a visit from his mother’s ghost, he knows something isn’t quite right. And that’s all I’m going to say, because this novel is so much more enjoyable if you let the story unfold for you one piece at a time.
I’ve read Rainbow Rowell before – her adult novel Attachments and her short story in My True Love Gave to Me – and didn’t love either of them (although I didn’t dislike them either) so I wasn’t sure what I was going to make of this novel. If nothing else, I knew Rowell’s writing style is incredibly readable and, even though this book is on the chunkier side for a YA novel, I flew through it and ended up really enjoying it.
One of the things I was most nervous about was Rowell, an American, writing about British teenagers, not because I think authors should only write about people of their own nationality – that’s ridiculous – but because I think teenagers in particular can often be written badly, even by authors who do share their nationality. Thankfully the British slang Rowell used never felt out of place; Simon and his friends all sounded British, and not in a Hugh Grant kind of way either.
Considering there’s so much we don’t know about this world I thought Rowell did an excellent job of explaining everything, so much so that this world felt real to me. It’s very heavily inspired by Harry Potter, but rather than feeling like a rip-off it feels like a response to it. While Hogwarts is staffed by House Elves who seem to do all the cooking and cleaning for no apparent pay, Simon tells us how the kids at the Watford School of Magic serve their own meals and do their own laundry. Where Harry himself is our narrator throughout his series, albeit in third person, Carry On is told from multiple first person perspectives so that we get to know Baz, Simon’s friends and even some of his teachers as much as get to know Simon.
It was little tweaks like this that made this story so refreshing, as well as how utterly and unapologetically queer it is.
I ended up loving Simon and Baz’s relationship a lot more than I expected to. I love a couple with good banter and these two have plenty, but there are also moments of genuine warmth and tenderness that made the romance in this book so lovely to read as well as so validating.
J.K. Rowling told us Dumbledore is gay after she wrote the series and then continued not to write him as gay in the Fantastic Beasts films, whereas in Carry On Baz says the words ‘I’m gay’, and it makes a difference. Not everyone uses labels, and that’s fine, but when authors don’t use labels and also don’t make their characters’ potential non-heterosexuality clear in some other way, it doesn’t have the same kind of impact that saying the words outright does.
I loved this book. There’s very little I want to say about it in a review because I think the real joy of this book is reading it for yourself and finding all those tips of the hat to Harry Potter alongside a much more inclusive, much more queer, wizarding world.
I was expecting so much from this book and was disappointed. stuff didn't make sense and I didn't like the characters. it was like trying to do a harry potter fan fiction but different characters. I did enjoy reading it though I love Rainbow's writing and she did do a great job overall but there were some bits I found a bit cringey.
4.5 stars
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Absolutely cannot wait until next Tuesday when this is released!!! It's been so long since I've eagerly awaited a book release.
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For real?!
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Absolutely cannot wait until next Tuesday when this is released!!! It's been so long since I've eagerly awaited a book release.
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For real?!
On of my all time favorite books, read it at least 5 times at this point.
Love the characters, I think the story works really well.
It is Harry Potter Fanfiction, and I really enjoy how it reflects on the HP world and characters.
I think about these babies all the time.
I listened to the audiobook read by Euan Morton but I also own and read the physical copy.
(I also wrote a paper for uni about it comparing the magic in it to HP in relation to muggles)
Love the characters, I think the story works really well.
It is Harry Potter Fanfiction, and I really enjoy how it reflects on the HP world and characters.
I think about these babies all the time.
I listened to the audiobook read by Euan Morton but I also own and read the physical copy.
(I also wrote a paper for uni about it comparing the magic in it to HP in relation to muggles)
I very much enjoyed this book. I may be a little biased with my review because I am huge fan of Rainbow Rowell. I thought this books was funny and entertaining. I had a little bit of trouble getting into it at first. The first couple chapters aren't very attention grabbing. Fortunately, it started to pick up after about 5 or 6 chapters. I had heard that this book was too dependent on the Harry Potter world to be a real stand alone, but I would have to totally disagree. If somebody had not read the Harry Potter series, they could easily read this book and not be confused. However, if you have read Harry Potter you will appreciate all the ways that this book nods at the events that happened in that series. Additionally, although this book draws from Fangirl as being the fanfiction that Cath wrote, it does not depend on Fangirl at all. If someone has not read Fangirl they can still read Carry On and enjoy it.
*3.5
Baz es muchisimo mejor que Simon. Leà el libro because rainbow pero lo que querÃa del libro era una relación gay pero si estás esperando esto lamento decir que este no es tu libro porque esa trama es tan secundaria y nada pasa la mayor parte del libro y cuando pasa vamos de 1-100 en 24 horas literal, tampoco no esperes nada sexual :(
Digo las escenas de ellos dos son buenas pero el drama fue meh maybe es porque no es lo que querÃa aunque hubo cosas interantes
Baz es muchisimo mejor que Simon. Leà el libro because rainbow pero lo que querÃa del libro era una relación gay pero si estás esperando esto lamento decir que este no es tu libro porque esa trama es tan secundaria y nada pasa la mayor parte del libro y cuando pasa vamos de 1-100 en 24 horas literal, tampoco no esperes nada sexual :(
Digo las escenas de ellos dos son buenas pero el drama fue meh maybe es porque no es lo que querÃa aunque hubo cosas interantes