January 15, 2016

"Carry On" Review


23734628

Book: Carry On

Author: Rainbow Rowell

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

My Rating: ★★★1/2

Synopsis: 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 sets 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.

      Everyone and their mother has been raving about "Carry On" before it was even released. For the first time in awhile, I bought into the hype and got the book release day. However, I've been so busy with college that I haven't been able to pick it up until recently. If I'm being perfectly honest, I fricken hated the Simon Snow fanfiction in Fangirl. I thought it took away from the story and so after like the first couple of shorts, I skipped the rest. Nevertheless, I was still hella interested to read "Carry On".



      Honestly, I did not think "Carry On" was the hot shit. So many people listed it as one of their favorites last year and I'm just sitting here like how?????



      The first like 250 pages were so damn rough that I honestly thought about DNFing the book. It was boring, there was no real plot, and honestly the world and characters did not speak to me. "Carry On" is obviously a spoof of "Harry Potter", and that didn't really bother me most of the times, but there were moments where it ruffled my feathers. For instance, those spells. I'm sorry those were so damn lame and made me roll my eyes. And the whole Hundrum thing was confusing as hell and I still don't fully understand and I also feel like that whole thing was a load of bull.



      Penny and Agatha.... Hmmm... For the most part, I liked Penny. Penny to me was like a combination of Hermione and Ron, and I enjoyed that. Her personality appealed to me, though there were times where I just wanted to slap her. Agatha... god damn I hate that bitch. I'm sorry, she did not have a single redeeming quality.



     Simon Snow... he was tolerable. I don't know, he just felt kind of moody and a bit bat shit crazy to me. And dear god his obsession with Baz was unbearable. I swear his every thought was about Baz this, Baz that; it was annoying as hell. I still don't completely understand why his every thought was about Baz. And after all the hate he seemed to have towards Baz, he comes out of nowhere and kisses him and loves him. I know people say hate and love are on a thin line, but I think it is bullshit that within one paragraph he went from hating Baz to loving him with every fiber of his being. Don't get me wrong; I ship them and I was head over heels when they kissed because I'm a sucker for those kind of scenes, it just didn't seem realistic.



     Finally Baz, the redeeming quality of this book and my favorite aspect. He is the only reason why I continued to read the book. I love his thought process and just the way he holds himself. I loved the fact that he was truly in love with Simon from the beginning because that is something that I didn't expect.



     Overall, I have mixed feelings. A lot of the story just bored me or I thought was a load of crap. But there were moments that I thought were really cute and gave me butterflies, those were my favorite moments. Basically I wish the book had less of the confusing fantasy and unnecessary plot and more of the cute, contemporary parts.


Join the conversation!

  1. Couldn't have put a post better myself. Beginning: boring as hell. Humdrum: cheesy and confusing??? Penny and Baz were great aspects to the story but Simon was such an annoying protagonist.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yesss!!! I'm so glad I'm not the only one with this opinion.

      Delete
  2. You finished reading it?? I've yet to actually move on from Chapter 27 haha..... xD Guess I need to make a crack on it and get to Baz ASAP! :D

    ReplyDelete
  3. I decided not to buy this because I don't think I could read it! Everyone says it is basically just HP over again. Based on all the things I've heard, I think Rainbow should stick to contemporary because it's what she's best at.

    ReplyDelete

Please leave a comment down below because I would love to hear your thoughts. To ensure you see my reply, make sure to click "Notify Me".