Rose Quartz Reads

Title: Carry On
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Genre: Fantasy, Magic, Romance
Warnings: death
Rating: 5 stars
Goodreads | Book Depository

Rainbow Rowell made me laugh, cry, and fall in love with Carry On.

Simon Snow is The Chosen One. He sucks at his job. In his final year of magic school, he still has little to no control over his powers. Plus he's pretty convinced his roommate is a vampire and is trying to kill him. Baz is most definitely trying to kill Simon. He's also hopelessly in love with him.

This book was an unexpected gem, and a new favourite. The story had a slow start, but Rowell brought her own distinct writing style to the world of fantasy and made something completely separate and new.

The characters were so many levels of perfect. They are funny and sweet and so wonderfully flawed. Simon cares so much about others. He's clumsy and sloppy and freakishly paranoid that Baz is plotting his demise, whilst also being concerned for Baz's well being. His irrationality is almost charming and begins to make more sense as the book progresses.

Then there's Baz who is a complicated little darling. He has an aggressive and snarky personality and likes to start up petty arguments with Simon to get him all flustered. Simon and everyone thinks Baz hates him. Baz knows otherwise.

I didn't expect much from the plot, and I'll admit, Carry On isn't a revolutionary fantasy. But I was wonderfully surprised at how the storyline developed towards the characters hunting down the person who killed Baz's mother instead of just focusing on the romance, and developing further towards an ending that I would have never expected.

The humour, the romance, and the story made this a book I simply adored. It isn't perfect, but for me it didn't have to be. Carry On is definitely a book I'll reread, and I will be reading more of Rainbow Rowell's books in the future.

An ebook copy of this book was provided to me by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.


2017 Reread: I was silly to think I wouldn't love this as much the second time around. I know the similarities with Harry Potter are numerous, but both times I've read this book I reached a point where it totally broke away for me and I fell in love. I also know that this book isn't a masterpiece. There are brackets everywhere and multiple first person persepctives and it has a slow start and it doesn't read entirely as a fantasy novel. (Plus Simon definitely reads as bisexual to me and I know he's figuring himself out but the word is never said.) But Carry On is sweet and dumb and funny and relatable and plain adorable, and somehow all of those things mush together to give it a place in my heart.