Carry On by Rainbow Rowell
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
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.
Carry On is a ghost story, a love story, a mystery and a melodrama. It has just as much kissing and talking as you’d expect from a Rainbow Rowell story—but far, far more monsters.
Sorry, this book is just too meta for me, man.
This book is about a fictional character who was the subject of fascination in another fictional character’s life from another book. It’s a story about a made-up character from a series that’s fictional inspired from another fictional series? Does that even make any sense? I don’t even know. It’s just too meta, man!
Besides the ludicrous premise of a fictional Harry Potter (can you even have a fictional fanfic of a character who is fiction in the first place? I guess that’s what you call <.i>Twilight?). It is all sorts of ludicrous to read a book about a character who is a parody of another character. This isn’t tongue-in-cheek so much as it is absolute lunacy.
I didn’t give two shits about Simon and Baz in Fangirl to be honest. I don’t remember much of them at all besides the fact that Simon is the fictional Harry Potter in the Fangirluniverse. And I started this book not really giving a damn, hoping the book can convince me otherwise. It didn’t.
There is no plot.
Not having cared about Simon’s story in Fangirl, I still don’t care about Simon’s story now in a fleshed-out book.
There is no plot.
Literally nothing happens in the book.
There is no plot.
I have never been so bored reading about a world where vampires and unicorns and ghosts exist.
Maybe there is? I don’t know. I don’t care. I was falling asleep by page 10.
Furthermore, this book is just a sad parody at slash fandom. Baz’s unrequited feelings towards Simon felt empty and pointless. Let’s get this straight, it’s not that I’m anti-gay in the least. It’s that if you are to include homosexual and bisexual characters in a book, they should be there as a person. There should be a point to their character. They’re not there for the purpose of OMG HOT MAN ON MAN ACTION. This may be a little controversial, but I am largely against slash fiction because I feel they’re disrespectful to gays, to rewrite a character’s sexuality just for the purpose of titillation.
Baz’s mouth is colder than Agatha’s.
Because he’s a boy, I think, and then: No, because he’s a monster.
He’s not a monster. He’s just a villain.
He’s not a villain. He’s just a boy.
I’m kissing a boy.
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