Book Review: Carry On

"Carry On" by Rainbow Rowell

Genre- Fantasy, reads like contemporary

Hardcover Edition-522

5/5 Lily Pads

Would I Recommend It? Yes

Minor Spoilers!



Hey there, I'm back with a review. Today I am reviewing "Carry On" which is Rainbow Rowell's new stand-alone novel. This book is based on the "Simon Snow" series from "Fangirl". I was so excited to read this book because I loved "Fangirl". It was one of my favorite books of 2014. This book has so much hype but I tried not to go into it with high expectations. Did I love the book? No, but I did enjoy it. I actually had mixed feelings while reading it. Let's get on with the review. 

The Plot

This book is similar to "Harry Potter". It's like reading HP Fanfiction but Rainbow Rowell changed some things and made her own world and everything. It's about a boy named Simon Snow. He is "The Chosen One" and he's the most powerful magician in the world. He goes to the "Watford" school which is a boarding school for magicians. He has a best friend named Penelope. He has a enemy named Baz, and they have been roommates since their first year. This book takes place in their last year. Simon and Baz hate each other and someday they have to fight each other and one of them will die. 

My Opinion

I apologize for that bad description. This book is really hard for me to describe because I don't want to spoil anything. Overall, I liked this book but didn't love it. I'm going to split this review into two parts. I usually don't do this but I feel it's necessary for this book since I don't know how I feel about it. 

What I liked: First of all I loved the plot of this book. I love fantasy books and of course I love HP. I always read HP fanfiction and that's what this book felt like to me, but the characters are different. The plot was really cool, I liked reading about Simon and Baz's romance. I don't read many books about gay people and it was unique to read about. I was expecting to love this book since people compare it to HP. In the beginning I thought it was too much like Harry Potter but by the end of the book, I noticed it's very different than HP. I really liked the characters. I liked Simon, he was a good protagonist and he was a good person. I liked Penelope, she was a good friend. I think Baz is my favorite character. I loved him, he was interesting to read about and I just loved his character. 

What I Didn't like: 

The pacing was okay. It's a big book and honestly, not much happens. I thought the beginning was really good. I was waiting for Baz to come in the book which took a long time. When I got to the middle of the book, I started to become bored and had a hard time focusing on the story. While I was reading "Carry On" I had a hard time completely getting into the story. I couldn't picture the characters and the story well in my head. I just couldn't get into most of the book. The ending really saved it for me, it got so much better at the end of the book. I thought she wrapped it up well, it was a satisfying ending. 

I didn't care for the writing style, and this was my main issue with the book. This book is in a lot of different perspective's. I usually enjoy reading books in multiple pov's but there were too many and because of that, not much happens in the book. I usually don't have a problem with pacing and author's writing styles. I feel this book would have been better if it was in just Simon and Baz's pov's because their the only characters I cared about, and more would happen in the book. It reminded me of Eleanor & Park, which is the only book from her I didn't like. Another reason why I hated the writing style is because of the way she did it. I'm a writer and I was taught that your supposed to show not tell when writing a book. Rainbow didn't show, she told the whole story and that really bothered me. Nothing happened because she didn't show anything. Also since the book is in like 7 different pov's, they just told the same thing in their perspectives. It felt like back story and not enough action. I didn't really care about the other characters either. I just liked Simon, Baz and Penelope. I didn't really get to know the other characters well, because they weren't in the story much. 

Overall, I liked this book but didn't love it. Your probably wondering why I gave it 5 Lily Pads if I didn't love it. The reason why I gave it 5 is because it was my most anticipated book of the year and I was so excited to read it. I hate giving books less than 5. "Fangirl" is a lot better and that's still my favorite book from her. I would recommend this book only if you loved "Fangirl". There are way better fantasy books out there but I guess I would recommend it to anyone that wants to read it. I just don't think it's really worth it because it's over 500 pages but nothing happens. If you love books with action then I wouldn't recommend this one. I think this book isn't worth a buy, even though I bought my copy. I think you should borrow it from the library first and then buy it if you liked it. It wasn't a bad book, I just didn't love it. I feel it was too over hyped and I guess the hype ruined it for me. Anyway that's my review. Thank you so much for reading this very long review. I will have more posts coming soon. Thanks again and happy reading.