Reviews tagging 'Biphobia'

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

16 reviews

fred___'s review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

Harry Potter fanfic published.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia

Moderate: Racism

bree_h_reads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

The only thing stopping me from really liking this book is that one of the main characters is an unapologetic bigot and this is never addressed or treated with the seriousness it should be. 

SO, on to my more in-depth thoughts on the book. I thought the beginning was fairly strong. I really liked Simon’s POV and while the world-building could be a bit of an info dump, I didn’t fully mind it and thought Simon’s inner monologue made it rather funny. I thought Simon’s break from the traditional chosen one of selflessness and martyrdom was a nice change, I like that he wanted to be selfish and have his own life. I liked the women characters in the book for the most part, but it didn’t feel like the book could quite decide if being fem was a good thing or something to be shamed. The relationships felt realistic and I enjoyed getting into their dynamics. As for our other leading man, Baz, I thought his POV was hilarious. He’s so wildly dramatic is was fun to listen to. He’s funny and sarcastic, but more aware of his feelings and (mostly) how to handle them as opposed to Simon, which was a nice change. I thought the foreshadowing of the book was extremely well done and none of the twist were particularly dissatisfying and I thought every one made sense.

While the world building isn’t really something you can look at too hard, I don’t mind it, especially when it lends to interesting dynamics between characters and (sometimes) nuances in their world views and the conflicts happening. It made me wish the nuance could be carried into more things and when it wasn’t it fell short. A handful of things in the book were presented as shades of grey, but others were stark black and white with no variation in between and that felt like a bit of a let down.

Finally, there were a handful of more problematic things that made me dislike the book and kinda cemented for me that I wouldn’t be continuing the series, which is disappointing because I think the books have a lot of potential. To start with, Baz and his family are horribly bigoted and this is never addressed. It’s mentioned a few times, but this never gives Simon pause in making out with Baz nor does he bring it up as a sort of “hey this is a really shitty way of thinking and I want to see it change because I’m not going to date a bigot.” It’s largely swept under the rug by the end of the book unless Baz wants to angst about being a vampire. Furthermore on the topic of Simon and Baz’s relationship, I hated the way Simon’s sexuality was treated. Every character seems to drive home he HAS to either be straight or gay as if sexuality isn’t a spectrum and there aren’t other sexualities out there that he could be. As someone who themself is queer and is attracted to multiple genders, it was upsetting to read about these characters ignoring that and insisting Simon must be one or the other. Finally, there’s the book’s inconsistent treatment of femininity. It was strange to me the only opening feminine character was often depicted as a mean girl who did very little to help or care for her friends and it was never clear if Penny’s blatantly misogynistic views on felinity and women who want to be feminine were being supported by the author. Perhaps some of these are remedied in the later books, but they just left a sour taste in my mouth for the first one and have deterred me from continuing the series.

Overall, I think the book was just okay, but was held back by a handful of iffy writing decisions and the seeming pushing of some questionable views.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Racism, Biphobia, Suicidal thoughts, and Death of parent

Moderate: Kidnapping

snackattackisback69's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Biphobia, Homophobia, and Gaslighting

Minor: Death of parent

bornachoker's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

This was a cute read. I felt like the pacing was a little off, but I enjoyed the characters and the humorous tone. Also, is bisexuality not a concept in this book at all haha.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Bullying, Confinement, Death of parent, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and War

Moderate: Body horror

Minor: Biphobia and Eating disorder

squinnittowinit's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book reads at first like an excellent Harry Potter parody, lightheartedly poking fun at the plot holes and loose worldbuilding moments of the HP series as the main character, Simon Snow, recounts his misadventures (a humorously self-aware reskinning of many HP plot points) at his magical school during years 1-7. 

I was ready for this book to be a Harry Potter parody and nothing more the entire way through (and would have loved every minute of it), but I was very pleasantly surprised to find an actual, original plot that played very well with the humorous setting and premise. The plot and the surprisingly complex characters took this book from parody to a genuinely gripping Harry Potter rewrite that successfully delivered a more complex (and plausible) plot, alongside characters that were more flawed yet more understandable at the same time.

I felt like this book was wholly satisfying as a standalone. I don't really feel any need to read the sequels, though I'm sure I'll get to them someday. For now, I'm left with that same soul-satisfied feeling that I get when I've just finished a 100k word fanfic with no tags and I can't remember what it was like to have ever not known about something so wonderful.

4.5 stars because of complete bi erasure and minor racism (not the inclusion of it in the world but rather minorly problematic descriptions/inconsistent descriptions of poc by the author)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Eating disorder, Death, Animal death, Biphobia, War, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Classism, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Cursing, Confinement, Stalking, Kidnapping, and Misogyny

Minor: Abandonment, Racism, Ableism, and Infidelity

Bi erasure details:

Once Simon allows himself to voice his feelings for Baz, he almost immediately questions if this makes him gay, an already tired question. He ends up not answering that for himself, continuing to wonder several more times to the end of the book. Never once does he even consider that he could be bi, despite having had a girlfriend before. It is perfectly acceptable for Simon to not know what labels he wants to use for himself, or to never subscribe to using labels, and it would also be acceptable for Simon to determine that he isn't actually attracted to girls after all, but by only including the words "gay" and "straight", it makes it seem as though Simon can only be one of those two things, which is harmful to other LGBTQIA+ identities like bi and pan.

Minor racism details:

Mostly my issue is with Baz's physical description being inconsistent. Baz is described as having red-gold skin before becoming a vampire, as his mother was Egyptian. Most of the time, as a vampire his skin is described as "gray", which is a great way to describe someone being bloodless without changing their skin tone (because skin tone isn't really determined by whether your body has blood in it or not). However, there are a few times where Baz is inexplicably described as having "white" skin in reference to his vampirism. It reads like Baz was originally written to have the race-erasing white skin of classic vampires and then the author decided to update the description to the better "gray", but didn't catch all instances.

vaka's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Biphobia

marciafelis's review

adventurous emotional funny tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Someone recommended this book to me as (in short) "Harry Potter but better", and it did not disappoint. I love the way magic works in this book, and the characters were vibrant and most of them were very relatable. As some other reviewers have pointed out, the story does feel like very elaborate (and well-written) fanfiction at times. For me, that's more of a feature than a bug, but some people might be a bit exasperated by the tropes employed.

One minor gripe is that apparently none of the characters know bisexuality is a thing. It would be fine if it was just that

Simon

hasn't thought of it (with emphasis on how

he

often "doesn't think") or doesn't want to define

him

self/use that label (yet), but someone (at the very least

the psychologist Simon starts seeing in the epilogue

) could have brought it up. I'll see how it's going to turn out in the next book, though, as I'm going to Carry On reading!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Animal death, Biphobia, Classism, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, and Death of parent

vaguely_pink's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Bullying, Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Blood, Cursing, Homophobia, Suicide attempt, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Animal death, Biphobia, Classism, Murder, Violence, Death, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Physical abuse, Alcohol, Body shaming, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Vomit, and War

nerdydreamer107's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

So much bi-erasure.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia

inkyinsanity's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

Before I start this review, I would like to point out the absolute frustration I have suffered trying to mentally and verbally distinguish Rowell and Rowling. I know the difference. I swear I do, but they share too many of the same letters 🤣

Carry On was originally created as the Harry Potter stand-in for Rowell’s main character of her contemporary novel Fangirl to write fan-fiction of, which Rowell then turned into an original novel of its own. By that premise alone, it's similar to the webcomic parts of Eliza and Her Monsters.

disclaimers:
1: I have not read Fangirl.
2: I adore Harry Potter and fantasy is my favorite genre.
3: I have read a truly enormous amount of Harry Potter fan-fiction. We're talking millions of words, easy. (Shhh!)

I knew Carry On was meta-fiction inspired by fictional fanfiction when I got into it (and isn't that a mouthful!). Being aware of how that can backfire, I tried to be a cautious buyer. I read reviews and an excerpt before getting the book. I expected honest writing; tongue-in-cheek characters, world building, and plot; a standard slash (m/m aka gay) romance between pseudo-Harry and pseudo-Draco; and I expected it to be ridiculously, hilariously cheesy.

I expected to have fun.

First of all, this was not Harry Potter fanfiction. This was Twilight fanfiction dressed in a Gryffindor uniform.

The “i know what you are—say it!—vampire!” scene was literally word for word. It was as ridiculous in here as it was in Twilight, but this didn’t feel like either satire or homage. It just felt awkward.

For all that I’ve seen other people in reviews complain about HP plagiarism, I have to disagree. Yes, Simon Snow is clearly a riff off of HP, but Rowell changed her characters, world, and plot enough that the premise was full of potential, even as the archetypes were recognizable: the mentor might be the antagonist, the bad guy literally eats magic, spells are made from common vernaculars, do the ends truly justify the means, why don’t traumatized fictional kids ever get therapy, etc. Those are fascinating concepts!

But the Twilight scene dumped me right out of the story.

The romance itself confused me. Both boys continuously described each other as gross, which is the opposite of how I thought romance is written. I naively assumed one should find their love interest at least somewhat physically attractive and intellectually stimulating or whatever too.

It wasn’t until over 400 pages in that Simon even remotely considered Baz good looking… and it only happened once or twice. Baz, at least, found Simon attractive, (I don’t know how), but the descriptors given were pretty icky.

Examples: (Simon about Baz)

"He has these droopy dog eyes… it’s like his face was designed for pouting.”
“Today, [his eyes] are the color of wet pavement.”
“He looks like he’s been in some American terror prison.”
“He’s got a cruel mouth. It looks like he’s sneering even when he’s happy about something. Actually, I don’t know if he ever is happy. It’s like he’s got two emotions—pissed off and sadistically amused. “

(Baz about Simon)

“Snow blusters like no one else. But! I! I mean! Um! It’s just! It’s no wonder he can never spit out a spell.”
“He’s half a f*cking numpty [ogre] himself.”
“...he says through a maw full of roast beef.”
“…Simon Snow is standing there like a lost dog. Or an amnesia victim.”
“Snow’s table manners are atrocious—it’s like watching a wild dog eat. A wild dog you’d like to slip the tongue.”

It’s one thing to portray an average-looking anybody as a love interest. That’s not my problem. I love that, actually. The problem is when the main character repeatedly (internally!) described the love interest as disgusting.

As for the length of the book, it was too long for me. My attention dragged, and this was only 500 pages. I can read The Lord of the Rings in a weekend. Length is not an issue, but for Carry On, it was. The prose was sometimes fun, but nothing like the witty trope-turner I had heard this described as.

“Is this how you usually plot my downfall?” 
“Yes. With multicolored chalk. Stop complaining.”

The magic had some very cool potential. Basically, the more often non-magical people speak phrases, the more powerful that phrase is when used as a spell, ie, cat got your tongue, all's well that ends well. So all the spells were things like references, song lyrics, or little sayings. Very fun idea.

Unfortunately, this often became comedic at the wrong time. Characters would shout the most ridiculous phrases when there was supposed to be tension or drama, and it really broke the emotional beats.

Speaking of poor word choices, “gay” wasn’t actually said until the last parts of the book; when gay is explicitly said, it’s used in reference not to Baz but to Simon. The problem with naming Simon as gay is he displayed the exact same feelings of attraction towards both Baz and Agatha, albeit at different times.

That’s called bisexual. 🩷💜💙

This is of course my interpretation, but I argue that it is strongly supported by the text. I think Rowell simply didn’t consider making Simon bisexual because she’s most likely attracted to only one sex, and so that’s  what she assumes her characters also are, even if which sex they like varies person to person. So, when she wrote Simon being hetero-normative until he discovered himself, she probably thought nothing of the descriptions of Simon's past love for Agatha, because he ends up with Baz--a boy. Thus, gay.

As a bi, I choose to disagree, but this is the least bothersome part for me. Real experiences can vary greatly in ways that don't make sense on paper.

Plotwise, the big bad didn’t do a thing until over 200 pages in. The actual antagonist mostly used his social status as a threat, and I had serious doubts as to whether or not he'd follow through on anything. The few twists given were predictable, but I didn't get any satisfaction out of guessing them correctly.

This is not fanfiction. Good fanfiction takes something beloved about the original work and expands or transforms that idea with visible passion. This is a character-driven contemporary fantasy, unfortunately without either character development or likable characters.

—•—•—

[when talking about Baz’s magic:] “Someone else’s magic never feels like your own—like someone else’s spit never tastes like your own.”

“Them’re” is used in the actual prose, not dialogue.

Baz: “I bloody well should marry [Simon’s ex-gf]. My father would love it. Marry her. Give her the keys to whatever she wants keys to. Then find a thousand men who look exactly like Simon bloody Snow and break each of their hearts a different way.”

”Looks like a race...”

??? this referred to a person

Baz rolls his eyes. “Well, it’s not like you have any family of your own.”

Penny and Agatha have the Can Girls Like Pink Debate. Pg 310

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cursing

Minor: Biphobia and Homophobia