Carry On

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

Age: Young Adult
Category: Historical
Rating: 5 stars

Brittany Thinks: Rainbow Rowell is one of my favorite authors writing today. From her first adult novel Attachments to her smash hit YA novel Eleanor & Park, I have devoured every one of her novels in one sitting every time. Carry On just might be my favorite. I’ve already read it twice since picking up a copy in February and I’m sure I’ll read it a few more times before the year is through.

Now this might get a little bit meta and confusing so hang in there, but Carry On is kind of a novel from within a novel and you may want to read Fangirl before digging into it. Fangirl is a novel about a girl who adores a set of fictional characters to the point where it distracts her from really living. She writes a web-hit fan fiction about these characters and fans fell in love with them. So did Rainbow. Carry On is Rowell’s version of what happens to those characters. Still with me? Good. I read Fangirl first, but it definitely isn’t necessary. I’d suggest it only because it’ll make you love these characters before even cracking the spine of Carry On.

Rowell herself has said that Carry On is her take on some of the best series of the last 20 years - namely Harry Potter and Lev Grossman’s The Magicians. It follows Simon Snow through the course of his last year at Watford School of Magicks as he tries to make sense of why every one thinks he’s “The Chosen One” and why his roommate Baz hates him so much. This is a fun, exciting read and, like all of Rowell’s books, it’s absolutely hilarious. She has such a wit and clever tone to her novels that I always find myself snickering or all out laughing. Simon and Baz have a great love/ hate chemistry going on and I lived for the scenes that featured both of them.

As a real fan girl of Harry Potter and anything a bit magical, I loved this. As a lover of character development and coming of age novels, I was even more satisfied. Seriously, writing this review makes me want to read it again. And then reread everything by Rainbow Rowell, because I just love her so much. Definitely pick this one up. It was perfect.