My 5 Favourite Things About ‘Carry On’ by Rainbow Rowell

• Title: Carry On
• Author: Rainbow Rowell
• Publisher: Macmillan Children’s Books
• Pub. date: 8 October 2015
• Series: Simon Snow #1
• Pages: 517
• Genres: young adult, fantasy, romance, LGBTQ

Simon Snow is the worst Chosen One who’s ever been chosen.

That’s what his roommate, Baz, says. And Baz might be evil and a vampire and a complete git, but he’s probably right.

Half the time, Simon can’t even make his wand work, and the other half, he starts something on fire. His mentor’s avoiding him, his girlfriend broke up with him, and there’s a magic-eating monster running around, wearing Simon’s face. Baz would be having a field day with all this, if he were here — it’s their last year at the Watford School of Magicks, and Simon’s infuriating nemesis didn’t even bother to show up.

Carry On – The Rise and Fall of Simon Snow is a ghost story, a love story and a mystery. It has just as much kissing and talking as you’d expect from a Rainbow Rowell story – but far, far more monsters.

I picked up Carry On mainly because I have heard so many people raving about SnowBaz. Also, I have been meaning to read a Rainbow Rowell novel, and I happened to pick this up at a secondhand store. Now seemed a good a time as ever to give it a read!

Carry On follows Simon Snow and his friends at Watford School of Magicks. Simon is the Chosen One who is supposed to battle the evil Humdrum, who has been shaking up the magical world with his evil shenanigans. The thing is: Simon sucks at being the Chosen One. His spells backfire, he has the worst luck and honestly he doesn’t trust himself to get anything right. But he is still the Chosen One. But then something even more important happens: Baz, his evil roommate, doesn’t show up for their last year at Watford and Simon is determined to figure out why.

1. The humour is top-notch!

There were multiple points at which I had to stop reading because I was laughing too hard and the tears streaming down my face made it impossible to figure out what the words on the page were. I am not exaggerating here! I do not know if this is Rowell’s usual style but oh my God, if this is what all her books are like, I will devour them all with zero sleep! The humour seamlessly goes along with the plot and I loved it!

2. The dynamic between Simon and Baz.

You will never meet roommates more unique than Simon Snow and Baz Grimm-Pitch! I love how their relationship progressed throughout the book and that we got to read their own POVs. That was so much fun and made it so much easier to relate to them. I would die for these two. Period.

3. It reminded me of Harry Potter but it’s not!

There is Simon, the Chosen One. Then the super-bad villain Humdrum. The Watford School of Magicks. Then the super trio of friends. Sounds like a whole lot of Harry Potter references, right? Well, I believe it ends up being even better than Harry Potter! Such a bold claim, but I think this is the more diverse, inclusive version and I love it! And the plot! You go in thinking it’s obviously good versus bad and BAM! Watch out for those plot twists! It’s gonna rock your world!

4. I got invested in this book within the first five pages!

Since the book starts when Simon and his friends are ending their studies at Watford, I started out questioning just how much I would be able to connect with the characters and the friendships and everything else. But Rowell wrote such compelling characters that I fell in love with all of them within seconds of meeting them! And the friendships! I just cannot express my love for them! Also, there were tears shed… There were many tears shed reading this book.

5. I wanna hire Rainbow Rowell to write my life story.

Because her writing is like smooth butter! Literal butter dripping off the pages and into my bookish heart! She managed to project the characters’ voices while maintaining such an amazing grip on the pace of the story. And the alternating timelines and POVs? Genius! I loved how she employed these complicated approaches to weave such a complicated storyline!

Carry On is definitely one of those books that I will read over and over and over again simply because I fell in love with it. It’s not just the fact that the story-telling is excellent, or the characters are amazing, or it’s funny as hell. If there’s ever a thing as falling in love with a book on the first read, this was it for me!

Have you read Carry On or do you plan to? Let me know your thoughts below!

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