Book Review: Carry On

6/10 for Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

Simon Snow just wants to relax and savor his last year at the Watford School of Magicks, but no one will let him. His girlfriend broke up with him, his best friend is a pest, and his mentor keeps trying to hide him away in the mountains where maybe he’ll be safe. Simon can’t even enjoy the fact that his roommate and longtime nemesis is missing, because he can’t stop worrying about the evil git. Plus there are ghosts. And vampires. And actual evil things trying to shut Simon down. When you’re the most powerful magician the world has ever known, you never get to relax and savor anything. 

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.

Source: Goodreads

I've still not quite managed to make my mind up about this book. And that's what makes this review so hard.

First of, I love getting lost in magical worlds. I mean, I'm from the Harry Potter generation (then again, who isn't!) and enjoy myself a world of wizards and magic even if I don't read it that often.

However, the danger with writing a story so similar to a childhood classic makes it impossible for me not to start comparing it in my head and finding loads and loads of similarities.

Carry On was filled with these similarities and I struggled to get around of them.

Then there was also the issue that is Simon Snow. A main character who is in fact too stubborn, self-centered and frustrating that I struggled a lot to get into the story. I felt like the story was out of balance at the beginning, focusing too much on the ticking time bomb the main character was.

And if this book had just been about Simon and his sidekicks then I don't think it would have been enough for me.

Luckily enough there was Baz who saved the book. The moment he appeared on the scene, the story came alive. I'm not saying that I need a gay character to make the book interesting, but in this case it truly helped. It added a layer of sexual attraction and constant tension that added a pace to the story that hadn't been there before. Not to mention, that Baz's subplot in the book was so much more interesting than Simon Snow's bigger picture.

Baz and Simon's difficult and tense relationship is what carried this story for me and it just about managed to carry the weight of it.