Carry On by Rainbow Rowell – A Book Review
Carry On by Rainbow Rowell is a mystery packed story with some romance sprinkled in. It was published in October 2015, and is 521 pages long, with 85 chapters plus an epilogue. The story is about an 18-year-old wizard named Simon Snow and his journey to find and defeat the evil magical being the Humdrum, who lurks around the United Kingdom’s magical community. Along the way, him and his long-time rival, Baz Grimm-Pitch, team up to explore more pressing mysteries and questions that have been going on in the wizarding community.
The initial response to this novel was split down the middle. Some found the book intriguing and heartwarming while others saw it as a rip off of the Harry Potter series. Personally, I quite enjoyed the parallels to the more popular series, but luckily the book does not only thrive off of that. Rowell does a good job of establishing a new magical world through this story. She puts a new twist on magic by making the spells pop culture references, common phrases, or song lyrics. Some examples would include “U Can’t Touch This”, clean as a whistle, doe, a deer, cat got your tongue?, “Scooby-Dooby-Doo Where Are You?”, and “Out, out, damned spot!” to only name a few.
The queer and person of color representation in this book is well portrayed and made me more appreciative of the book. Simon’s best friend, Penelope Bunce, is a strong and smart female that is a person of color and is a fan (and my own) favorite. One of the major characters identifies as queer and has self-conflict about whom they fancy. While another character is bisexual and has a hard time coming to terms with it. What can be appreciated about this queer representation is that it is not over-romanticized or rushed, unlike many novels or books. It takes it’s time and establishes a base for each character’s identity to build off of.
Depending on the person, the way this book was written could be favored or disliked. To start off, the pacing of the book itself could have been much faster and efficient, even though it’s introducing us to the characters and their world. Once you get over the pacing hurdle that fortunately only lasts a few chapters, the story picks up and is enjoyable to read. A liberty that Rowell took on this story was telling the story from different characters perspectives. Whether they were a major character or not at all, a different take on a certain part of the story was always interesting and had given extra details to the reader. A final take away from this book is the character’s connection to the reader. Personally, I found myself immediately taking a liking to a majority of the characters, magical creatures, and had found myself shedding a few tears throughout the story.
Overall, Carry On by Rainbow Rowell is a clever and well written young-adult novel, and I highly recommend it if you are ever looking for a new book to read. If you do enjoy this book, keep an eye out for the 2019 sequel, Wayward Son.
Genre: Mystery, Ghost Story, Fantasy, Romance
Rating: 4/5
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