Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

Carry On (Simon Snow, #1)

by Rainbow Rowell

Simon Snow just wants to relax and savour his last year at the Watford School of Magicks, but no one will let him. His girlfriend broke up with him, his best friend is a pest and his mentor keeps trying to hide him away in the mountains where maybe he'll be safe. Simon can't even enjoy the fact that his room-mate and longtime nemesis is missing, because he can't stop worrying about the evil git. Plus there are ghosts. And vampires. And actual evil things trying to shut Simon down. When you're the most powerful magician the world has ever known, you never get to relax and savour anything.

Based on the characters Simon and Baz who featured in Rainbow Rowell's bestselling novel Fangirl, Carry On is a ghost story, a love story, a mystery and a melodrama. It has just as much kissing and talking as you'd expect from a Rainbow Rowell story - but far, far more monsters.

Reviewed by readingwithwrin on

3 of 5 stars

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Originally I received this as an arc from NetGalley and the publisher. ( I ended up reading it in physical form from the library.)

I haven't yet read Fangirl ( I have tried but just couldn't get into it) so I didn't really know what to expect going into this. Besides that, it was a type of fanfiction.

Very early on it was easy to tell that it was fanfiction, but it also felt like things got started really slow, and I could have done without the first 100 or so pages. A lot of info gets put in because we didn't have any back story to explain what was happening, so it was understandable but a bit much at once as well.

We do get to see multiple points of views from Simon, Baz, Agatha and Penelope and few other characters here and there.
Simon's obsession with Baz not only seemed unhealthy but a bit much after awhile. I did like his friendship with Penelope and Agatha were nice to see, and both were very strong in what they believed in and were level headed for the most part.

The world itself is different from harry potter, and it did feel like an older version of it mixed in with vampires. Magic while present wasn't used all the time either in fact Simon hardly used any at all with an actual wand which was interesting.

Overall I really did enjoy it and It surprisingly was a quick read. The romance was okay, it did seem to go from hate to love rather fast, but it had been building for awhile from what the other characters were saying. I am now interested in reading other books by Rainbow Rowell. I'm thinking about going with Landline first.



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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 6 August, 2017: Finished reading
  • 6 August, 2017: Reviewed