Reviews with content warning for Death - Carry On

Reviews tagging 'Death'

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

89 reviews

ameliad23's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional lighthearted mysterious 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

4.25

Content Warnings

akira_outofthegravity's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

I like this book, but it works better as a sequel. It’s a lot of showing “oh wow Baz and Simon don’t get on…oh man it sucks that Baz literally almost took your magic away…man it sucks that your relationship is super complicated…” hence why when Baz confesses to the audience it’s very jarring.

I’m expected to believe this character I just met is telling me that actually he’s been in love with Simon the whole time? Where?? It’s very half baked. I like the magic, I like the stories woven together, I like the final fight, I like Simon. I love the shade thrown at Dumbledore! but honestly it’s like being thrown in at the deep end. I wish this was a quadrilogy. But I’m not interested in Wayward Son or AWTWB so I guess this is where we part ways SnowBaz.

Content Warnings

libbyhb's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced

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

4.0

Did a re-read of the first two Simon Snow books ahead of the release of Any Way the Wind Blows, and this time I read them by audiobook! I highly recommend the audiobooks, Euan Morton is a delightful narrator. (Side note, his son is Young Sheldon? Wild.) I've read Carry On at least three times - it's such a comfort read for me. I enjoyed it just as much this time around, although with each reread my patience with Simon lessens, lol.

Content Warnings

litokeland's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional funny mysterious sad fast-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

toberomanced's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional funny fast-paced

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

4.5

I love the characters, but there were a couple of problematic lines in here.

Content Warnings

lizzyfields's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous funny medium-paced

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

4.5

Content Warnings

allygator's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous funny tense fast-paced

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

4.0

As much as I hate to do this, I'm dropping my review of this from 5 to 4 stars.
And before I get any further -- that's not a bad thing!! I think I've just matured as a reader and as a person in general, and that's had an effect on my thoughts on this book.
First, as much as I love Simon, I spent the entire first 150 pages just waiting for Baz to show up. The build-up of anticipation is well written, I just think it goes on for like 50 pages too long.
Once Baz gets there, though, the pacing of the book immediately picks up. The next 200-300 pages feel like nothing. I sped through them like I didn't have class to go to and homework to do. I adore the narration from all the characters, and the minute the plot picks up it doesn't let go until the book ends.
Also, and forgive me for saying this because I truly truly love Simon and Baz and them together, there were moments, especially right after they got together, that felt a little toxic. There's so many moments where Baz (or Simon) should apologize for something he says or does, and neither of them ever do. There's a lot of unresolved conflict between the two of them, and honestly after this reread I think I'm going to appreciate Wayward Son a lot more.
I think the first times I read this book, I read it with rose colored glasses, and now that I'm reading it for the first time in a couple years, I'm realizing some of the problems with it that I hadn't noticed the first few times around. Little things that aren't big issues in the grand scheme of things, but make a difference as I'm reading this with more queer fantasy novels under my belt.
A few things that could make it better? I'm glad you asked:
- Acknowledgement from Baz that his family was kind of terrible and has bad views about the world and about magic
- Slightly more consistent pacing
- Fixing of the (sometimes more than) slight biphobia that is mentioned more than once after Simon gets with Baz (I have heard that this gets addressed in Any Way the Wind Blows though, so I'll have to get to that to be sure)
- Just a tiny, tiny bit of development between Simon and Baz between when they argue and when they're hopelessly in love -- the jump from the night after the fire to the moment in the White Chapel is jarring

Anyways, this is still a massively comforting read to me, and some quotes still take my breath away ("You were the sun, and I was crashing into you" -- excuse me??? crisis time). Definitely still a solid read, and one that I'll definitely read again. Looking forward to reading the sequels with more mature eyes!

Content Warnings