#1 New York Times bestselling author!Booklist Editors’ Choice 2015 – Youth! Named a “Best Book of 2015” by Time Magazine, School Library Journal, Barnes & Noble, NPR, PopSugar, The Millions, and The News & Observer!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 … 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 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.
more
just yes………….YES
I absolutely love this book, you cannot do it, you just simply fall in love with all the character, It was also so funny I laughed while I was reading it. I would love read much more on Simon and Buz love story an their adventure ( I cannot wait to read the sequel) !!
I absolutely love this book, I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve read it. And Rainbow is releasing a sequel! What’s not to love?
This book could be considered a play-off of Harry Potter, but from someone who’s never enjoyed Harry Potter, it has it’s own flair. The ‘World of Mages’ that Rainbow constructs is both convincing and enchanting, it makes you wish it was real. And the characters! Rainbow Rowell is especially talented at writing characters and character development; Baz is so charming, he is hands down the best character, though Simon and Penny are close behind. The way the romance is written is definitely very reminiscent of YA fiction, but it’s not an overwhelming portion of the book, so even if you don’t enjoy those parts you have to stick around for the story.
1000% I recommend this novel!
This book feels young and vibrant, with colorful world-building and lovable characters that pull you into a captivating page-turner. I absolutely adore the magic in this book; it is unique and playful while still feeling plausible in that mystical sort of way. The love interests are organic and the emotions are relatable — I don’t have anything bad to say about one of my new favorite books!
I am living for this book and this book only
Definitely one of my favorites! It is a beautiful novel that I ADORE and cannot function without! I can’t wait for Wayward Son!!!
it’s the perfect OC lgbt book of a lifetime
This book was so amazing! When I first started reading this book, I was a little dubious. It started off kind of boring, but once you hit Book 2 (it’s split into books inside of the book) it’s so so so worth the wait! It’s so easy to fall in love with all the characters and empathize with all of them.
I absolutely love this book. I couldn’t put it down after I got into the flow of the story. Baz is by far my favorite character because for me personally, very relateable.
I absolutely love this book, it’s builds an amazing universe and creates really interesting and relatable characters.
This book is a 10/10 wholesome read. It adds a touch of everything I love; relatable characters, fantasy, romance, and comedy. Everything fits so well together and it’s one of my favorite books to pick up whenever I need to be picked up a little.
I loved the characters and the romance between Baz and Simon. I was never able to put this book down. It had everything I have ever wanted in a book: Fantasy, lgbtq romance, and plot twists!!!
Rainbow Rowell writes great books. One of those great books is Fangirl about a girl starting college who also writes a famous fan fic about a (sort of) Harry Potter analogue wizarding college fantasy. That book is about her learning to live in the real world and it’s great. This book is the story of the characters she writes about. Also great. Check it out!
I absolutely loved this book, it is by far my favorite Rainbow Rowell book!
The entire time I was reading this book, all I could think about was that Fun. song.
They’re not remotely related, but for some reason while I read this book, this song just kept playing along in my head on its own and I would find myself humming it. It’s actually oddly fitting – some of the lyrics seem to fit into it.
The minute I started reading this book, the glaring parallels between this and the Harry Potter series was actually a bit off-putting. A school for magic, a Chosen One, a best friend who’s a girl and super smart, an elitist view to who should be allowed to study at this school for magic, the Old Families (magic nobility) being almost evil… It reeked of the parallels. And then I decided to keep reading.
Oh my God. This was nothing like I expected, to be honest. There was so much to offer that I hadn’t expected I would find.
Simon Snow, the protagonist, is the fabled Chosen One who will save the World of Mages from its own destruction, a prophecy that has been foretold time and again. Simon is hopeless with magic – he isn’t a prodigy, he isn’t even able to cast simple spells. He just bumbles around while his more successful classmates excel ahead of him. But because he’s the Mage’s Hair – the Mage being like the President of their world and also the Headmaster of their school – he has to stay there. His roommate, Baz, is a (supposed) vampire and the son of the late – and last – headmistress of their school, Watford. The story picks up in their final year, when Baz’s mother visits them as a Ghost to tell them that whoever killed her is still running around and needs to be stopped. For the longest time, everybody thought that whoever killed Natasha Pitch-Grimm was actually The Insidious Humdrum, a magical non-entity that sucks the magic out of everything – but according to her ghost, it wasn’t him. Because of this revelation, Simon has to put aside his differences with Baz (they very obviously hate each other) and try and solve the murder of Natasha, while also trying to figure out how to defeat the Insidious Humdrum once and for all.
This story has some wonderful twists in it that I foretold, but was still very satisfied when I realized I was right. Such as who Simon’s parents are. Even though I had my suspicions, I was still super happy with myself when I figured it out and didn’t think it at all predictable. I was a bit surprised with the revelation of the Humdrum, and this could be because I was expecting this to be a complete reboot of Harry Potter and have the Humdrum be some kind of Big Bad like Voldemort was.
I liked the way that Rowell talks about Magic in this novel. Magic is all about words, and magicians can use anything to invoke magic – wands, staffs, rings, even belt buckles. One character is mentioned to use his violin bow to cast magic. And magic in this realm isn’t pre-written spells like in the Harry Potter universe. Spells aren’t like Accio or Expelliarmus, full of Latin or Greek roots, but rather whole English sentences like song lyrics, nursery rhymes, adverts, children’s games. Some of my favourite spells were Have a break, have a Kit Kat, and Twinkle, twinkle little star. The spells are all about giving the words magic, which means that if you put emphasis or magic into the right words, then you can create a new spell. I liked the originality of that.
Another note I’d like to lightly touch on is the parallel between Wicked that I found in this book. Baz and Simon hate each other a lot, but they also remind me of Elphaba and Glinda in the Wicked franchise – the musical and the books.
In the musical, the song ‘What is this Feeling?’ starts off making you think it’s gonna be about love but – SURPRISE – they’ve confused their feelings of caring for each other with feelings of resentment and loathing. Which is exactly what happens to Baz and Simon. I won’t say anymore, but if you’re mildly familiar with Rowell’s work, then you already see where this is going.
SPOILERS AHEAD
I also felt like Baz and Simon could very easily be a mirror of Harry and Draco. A lot of people shipped Harry and Draco together (if you don’t know what shipped means: it means wanting two fictional characters to be together) and I felt like, if you were a fan of that pairing, then maybe this book can give you the closure you always wanted, without having to read too much fanfiction.
SPOILERS AVERTED
Final rating: 4/5. If you guys are looking for something new to read that is really reminiscent of Harry Potter, you should definitely try this out!
Absolutely loved this book. At first it was slow going and I almost gave up on it, but I’m so glad I stayed because when it picked up it turned out to be another of Rowell’s gems. Entertaining and full of heart. Five very enthusiastic stars.
I personally enjoyed this book. Rowell’s writing style is fantastic. Would recommend to anyone who likes magic, romance, or books.
I ended up feeling really mixed about this book. While reading it, I enjoyed it tremenously. As a piece of literary criticism, it’s brilliant–by its nature, it’s a commentary on the Harry Potter books and chosen one mythology, while also being its own story. But, after mulling it over for a few days, if you take away the lit crit element, it doesn’t stand as well as an independent story. There’s also a bit of (I assume accidental) bi-erasure toward the end that could have been handled with a few short sentences to validate the character’s sexuality.
I can see why people rave about it and love it, and I did find it incredibly enjoyable to read, but the glow wore off after the reading was over.
This is honestly one of my favorite books over all, and I’ve read over 500 books in the past 3 years. I loved how you could take the LGBT+ or romance out of it would still be a great book.
I am so happy that I read this book!!! It was so fun and so realistically wonderful!!!