BOOK REVIEW ✨ Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

There’s magic, a Chosen One, an ominous villian, and a good looking rich pure-blood enemy. Sounds familiar… but I enjoyed this way more than I thought I would.

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All of my reviews are made to be as spoiler-free as possible. 

Synopsis: 

From Goodreads:

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.

My Thoughts: 

If you want to read this book and enjoy it, you absolutely must know what you’re getting yourself into. So once I had excepted that book is basically a rip-off/fanfiction of Harry Potter, I was good to go. After that, I was free to enjoy Carry On.
And tbh, I was mostly here for Simon and Baz. 

And let me tell you, it wasn’t as horribly bad as I expected it to be. (Yay?)

I had very low expectations for this book, since I had heard mixed reviews and I didn’t really like Rainbow Rowell’s other YA books. But I told myself that I had to open this book with an open mind, and sometimes that’s really all you need.

Simon was honestly a good character. I liked him. I felt bad for him, too, and I related to him. That being said, Baz was actually my favorite character. While it took me a while to warm up to Simon, as soon as Baz appeared, I was immediately drawn to him. But maybe it’s just because I like vampires? I wanted to know more about Baz and his family, and congrats! That’s partially what this book was about.

Honestly, Simon and Baz pretty much held up the whole book. I didn’t care about anything else. (Just kidding, I’m not that heartless.)

As characters, Simon and Baz had by far the most fleshed out personalities and backstories, compared other characters like Penelope, Agatha, and Dumbledore I mean, The Mage.

However, I could totally see other people having problems with all the characters. I mean, if we’re being honest, it’s almost like Rainbow Rowell took the Harry Potter characters and settings, changed all the names, and gave them all one thing that would make them particularly different than the original. I think it really depends on what you’re looking for in this book.
(And yes, I understand that it’s a bit unfair to compare Carry On to Harry Potter, but you know what? I’d like to see you try reading this book without getting some serious HP vibes.)

I actually liked most of the characters, and there were even a few twists I didn’t see coming. On top of that, I also enjoyed how the main characters worked together as friends, or just how they had a role in the plot. I liked that almost every character did something to move the story along. While some characters’ actions were a bit surprising, the actions also made sense, rather than seeming like the author just gave everyone an out-of-character push to get the plot moving.

But another thing that was a hit or miss situation was the POV styles. Of course, because this book is about Simon Snow, most of the POV chapters are from Simon (or Baz). But there were also many other chapters from the POVs of Penelope, Agatha, and several other characters. As someone who doesn’t usually like to read books with more than 1 or 2 POVs, I didn’t like it when someone other than Simon or Baz was telling the story.

The climax of the story wasn’t as satisfying as it could have been, either. Sure, I didn’t see most of it coming, but it also seemed a bit too easy for the characters to get off like that.

In conclusion: Thank magic this series isn’t over, because I would have had some serious problems if this was just a standalone.

It ended, and I was like, “That’s it? Where’s the rest? Give me more, gosh dang it.” 

*pounds my fist on the omnipresent table*

PS: Was that last line from Baz a pun? Or was it just another clever comment?

My Rating:

3.5 Stars out of 5, because it was okay, but I still want to know more.

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Have you read this book? What did you think? Who was your favorite character? (How excited are you for Wayward Son?) I want to know all of your thoughts!

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Happy reading, everyone! 😀

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