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4.16 AVERAGE
4.16 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
funny
mysterious
slow-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:
Complicated
Not quite Harry Potter but there are main characters who are gay, coming of age and becoming comfortable with who they are in the world.
Look, this book is quite light, and the comparisons to Harry Potter are all too clear. BUT it's a lot of fun and almost compulsively readable.
This was, objectively, a bad book. For so many reason.
First of all, it was very clear that miss rowell just wanted to write a romance. Sadly, she chose to have a shot at fantasy instead, which results in the most awful and boring plot ive ever read, along with awful world building. There were multiple occasions during this read where i had to check if this REALLY was the first book in the triology.
Spoiler: It is.
It’s just that dear miss rowell does not give us a proper introduction to ANYTHING in this book. Her way of introducing things is talking. I fear she mixed up the words when she heard the saying “show, don’t tell” because i can’t remember a single instance in this book where something is actually SHOWED instead of just, being thrown at the reader.
Another thing that deeply irked me about this book were the politics. And i wish i could say that reading this book felt like reading libfem right wing leaning propaganda, but in order for that to happen rainbow rowell would need to actually KNOW about the politics in her book. The main villain in the book is both compared to a communist and the nazis multiple times.
And oh no, now ive gotten started.
What the fuck was going on with the mage and his political opinions???? His goal was to make education accessible to everyone in the world of mages, and somehow that was treated like it was a bad thing???????? It confused me so incredibly badly when all anyone ever talked about when mentioning the pitch family was how classist, ableist and racist they were, only for them to be preached towards the end of the book? Look, i get baz mourning his mother, but penny talking about her like she was a legend???? THAT WOMAN WAS A FASCIST. GET OUT.
So yeah, did absolutely NOT enjoy the message that send. Really, the only “enjoyable” thing about this book was ebb. I did cry when she was killed off, so i’ll give rainbow rowell that. But getting me attached to goat ladies isn’t really an art form so actually i don’t know about that.
But there is one thing that genuinely amazed me about this book. Every time i think of it i wonder about how on EARTH the author managed to pull that off.
How the fuck did this bitch not get sued by jk rowling.
Magical school?? Common enough.
In england? eh, let’s make it quirky.
Chosen one? Come on, it’s YA, what did you expect.
Orphan? Gotta make it angsty i guess…
Morally gray mentor?? okay, getting a bit too specific now!
Absolute obsession with a random guy? uh-
The guy is evil? well-
And tortured? If you put it like that-
And filthy rich? Okay come on-
And the two of them fucking HATE each other???? GET OUT OF MY HEAD JK ROWLING.
I wish i could say that this was a published hp fanfiction, but ive read some seriously great hp fanfic that actually had intriguing writing and no fascist sympathising, so it’d be an insult to those fics.
All in all, this book feels like colleen hoover for gay people. Very stereotypical, queer 13 year old tweens. Listen, if i were still 13 id probably eat this tf up. But im not. So yeah, maybe im just not the target audience for this book, or maybe im just grown enough to recognise flaws when i see them.
……..
All of that being said, there’s still a chance im gonna read the rest of the series. Why??? Well, i hate myself, but also the whole snowbaz thing kind of gets me sometimes. Yeah, their whole relationship is incredibly predictable and boring, but i still wanna know more about them. LEAVE ME ALONE IM ALLOWED TO ENJOY BAD LITERATURE SOMETIMES, AND THE GOLDEN RAVEN DOESNT COME OUT UNTIL FEBRUARY.
But yeah. Thats just uhm. My two or three (or more…) cents. Heh. That’s it!!
First of all, it was very clear that miss rowell just wanted to write a romance. Sadly, she chose to have a shot at fantasy instead, which results in the most awful and boring plot ive ever read, along with awful world building. There were multiple occasions during this read where i had to check if this REALLY was the first book in the triology.
Spoiler: It is.
It’s just that dear miss rowell does not give us a proper introduction to ANYTHING in this book. Her way of introducing things is talking. I fear she mixed up the words when she heard the saying “show, don’t tell” because i can’t remember a single instance in this book where something is actually SHOWED instead of just, being thrown at the reader.
Another thing that deeply irked me about this book were the politics. And i wish i could say that reading this book felt like reading libfem right wing leaning propaganda, but in order for that to happen rainbow rowell would need to actually KNOW about the politics in her book. The main villain in the book is both compared to a communist and the nazis multiple times.
And oh no, now ive gotten started.
What the fuck was going on with the mage and his political opinions???? His goal was to make education accessible to everyone in the world of mages, and somehow that was treated like it was a bad thing???????? It confused me so incredibly badly when all anyone ever talked about when mentioning the pitch family was how classist, ableist and racist they were, only for them to be preached towards the end of the book? Look, i get baz mourning his mother, but penny talking about her like she was a legend???? THAT WOMAN WAS A FASCIST. GET OUT.
So yeah, did absolutely NOT enjoy the message that send. Really, the only “enjoyable” thing about this book was ebb. I did cry when she was killed off, so i’ll give rainbow rowell that. But getting me attached to goat ladies isn’t really an art form so actually i don’t know about that.
But there is one thing that genuinely amazed me about this book. Every time i think of it i wonder about how on EARTH the author managed to pull that off.
How the fuck did this bitch not get sued by jk rowling.
Magical school?? Common enough.
In england? eh, let’s make it quirky.
Chosen one? Come on, it’s YA, what did you expect.
Orphan? Gotta make it angsty i guess…
Morally gray mentor?? okay, getting a bit too specific now!
Absolute obsession with a random guy? uh-
The guy is evil? well-
And tortured? If you put it like that-
And filthy rich? Okay come on-
And the two of them fucking HATE each other???? GET OUT OF MY HEAD JK ROWLING.
I wish i could say that this was a published hp fanfiction, but ive read some seriously great hp fanfic that actually had intriguing writing and no fascist sympathising, so it’d be an insult to those fics.
All in all, this book feels like colleen hoover for gay people. Very stereotypical, queer 13 year old tweens. Listen, if i were still 13 id probably eat this tf up. But im not. So yeah, maybe im just not the target audience for this book, or maybe im just grown enough to recognise flaws when i see them.
……..
All of that being said, there’s still a chance im gonna read the rest of the series. Why??? Well, i hate myself, but also the whole snowbaz thing kind of gets me sometimes. Yeah, their whole relationship is incredibly predictable and boring, but i still wanna know more about them. LEAVE ME ALONE IM ALLOWED TO ENJOY BAD LITERATURE SOMETIMES, AND THE GOLDEN RAVEN DOESNT COME OUT UNTIL FEBRUARY.
But yeah. Thats just uhm. My two or three (or more…) cents. Heh. That’s it!!
If your looking for a fantasy book look elsewhere. If your looking for good fanfic and a "love letter to love stories" you've found it. Rainbow Rowell picks up where her "Fangirl" character Cath left off introducing the reader to the world of mages. More importatnly though you're introduced to Simon Snow and his arch enemy Baz. While the book started slow it picked up once Baz returned to school, and while Simon is a great character in his own right he's even better when he's arguing with Baz. The biggest drawback for me however was Agatha (She was terribly boring and whiny). Overall however it was a great book, and I'm glad I got to see into the world that Cath and Wren loved so much. (4.5 stars)
Gay wizards. Gay wizards!
I rolled my eyes reading through the ‘Simon Snow’ sections in Fangirl so I was sure I wouldn’t think much of Carry On, but instead I fell in love with it!
Beautiful writing as usual from Rainbow and a refreshing modern day telling of the Harry Potter world format.
Baz + Simon 4eva <3
I rolled my eyes reading through the ‘Simon Snow’ sections in Fangirl so I was sure I wouldn’t think much of Carry On, but instead I fell in love with it!
Beautiful writing as usual from Rainbow and a refreshing modern day telling of the Harry Potter world format.
Baz + Simon 4eva <3
What a fabulous and fun read! I can't wait to start the second one.
For the first 150 pages, I thought for sure I hated this book. Like a 1-star kind of hate, which is rare for me. Because I could not get past the Harry Potter parallel. This book is SO.MUCH. like HP, that I just kept thinking how disappointed I was in Rainbow Rowell, whom I love. Because she's more creative than this! This is just like HP! I l already know and love HP, I want RR!
But then two things happened. The book started to depart (a bit) from HP and I did something I never do in the middle of a book - I went online to read interviews w/ Rainbow Rowell and other reviews of the book. And found that RR acknowledges that this is a weird mix of fan fiction (which of course makes sense if you read Fangirl, which I did), canon, and story-within-a-story. She wanted to see what she could do with Simon Snow. It was only then I was able to really let the HP parallel go and enjoy Carry On for what it is.
It's fun and it's fast-paced. I felt like there were some holes in the plot and I could have done with some more explanation of certain aspects of the story. But overall, I enjoyed it. Just definitely not typical RR. So if you (like me) go into this expecting to be blown away like you were with Eleanor and Park or Fangirl, you'll be disappointed. It's not bad, it just is what it is.
But then two things happened. The book started to depart (a bit) from HP and I did something I never do in the middle of a book - I went online to read interviews w/ Rainbow Rowell and other reviews of the book. And found that RR acknowledges that this is a weird mix of fan fiction (which of course makes sense if you read Fangirl, which I did), canon, and story-within-a-story. She wanted to see what she could do with Simon Snow. It was only then I was able to really let the HP parallel go and enjoy Carry On for what it is.
It's fun and it's fast-paced. I felt like there were some holes in the plot and I could have done with some more explanation of certain aspects of the story. But overall, I enjoyed it. Just definitely not typical RR. So if you (like me) go into this expecting to be blown away like you were with Eleanor and Park or Fangirl, you'll be disappointed. It's not bad, it just is what it is.