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catherine_the_greatest 's review for:
Carry On
by Rainbow Rowell
I love everything about this book: the uniquely Rainbow Rowell riff on the "Chosen One" story, magic being taken from the power of spoken words, the (again, uniquely RR) witty dialogue, the teen angst, and the love story. Damn, Rainbow can write an outsider love story like no other.
This isn't HP fan fic. I know people will argue that Simon is Harry, Baz is Draco, Penny is Hermione...but they're not. They're the same archetypes, but you could say that about so many different stories. They are aspects of the human condition and Rainbow is sooooo good at capturing the human condition with all its tenderness and heartbreak and pain and humor.
So, yes, the characters in this book are first introduced in [b:Fangirl|16068905|Fangirl|Rainbow Rowell|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1355886270l/16068905._SX50_.jpg|21861351], but this isn't Cath's Simon Snow fan fic and it's not actually the children's series from Cath's world. It's Rainbow's stand-alone take on Simon with plenty of explanation of Simon's first seven years at Watford School of Magicks to catch you up to speed. (There's a fair amount of profanity and some "snogging," but no actual sex and the violence is pretty tame. I would consider it suitable for a teen audience.)
I could happily fill the rest of my allotted review space with quotes, but that steals some of the magic from actually reading and discovering them for yourself, but I will say again that the dialogue is brilliant and the cultural references include everything from nursery rhymes to MC Hammer to Pokemon. It's all absolutely delightful.
Thoughts on second reading: I still love it, but I got impatient waiting for all the things to happen. One thing I forgot:
This isn't HP fan fic. I know people will argue that Simon is Harry, Baz is Draco, Penny is Hermione...but they're not. They're the same archetypes, but you could say that about so many different stories. They are aspects of the human condition and Rainbow is sooooo good at capturing the human condition with all its tenderness and heartbreak and pain and humor.
So, yes, the characters in this book are first introduced in [b:Fangirl|16068905|Fangirl|Rainbow Rowell|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1355886270l/16068905._SX50_.jpg|21861351], but this isn't Cath's Simon Snow fan fic and it's not actually the children's series from Cath's world. It's Rainbow's stand-alone take on Simon with plenty of explanation of Simon's first seven years at Watford School of Magicks to catch you up to speed. (There's a fair amount of profanity and some "snogging," but no actual sex and the violence is pretty tame. I would consider it suitable for a teen audience.)
I could happily fill the rest of my allotted review space with quotes, but that steals some of the magic from actually reading and discovering them for yourself, but I will say again that the dialogue is brilliant and the cultural references include everything from nursery rhymes to MC Hammer to Pokemon. It's all absolutely delightful.
Thoughts on second reading: I still love it, but I got impatient waiting for all the things to happen. One thing I forgot: