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4.5 stars! This review will contain no spoilers!
Synopsis:
"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 Watford School of Magicks, and Simon's infuriating nemesis didn't even bother to show up.
Carry On is a love letter to love stories and the power of words - to every 'chosen one' who ever had more on their mind than saving the world..."
Thoughts:
This book could be deserving of 5 stars if I continue to linger on thoughts of Baz and Simon, Simon and Baz... BUT 4.5 stars! The synopsis of this book couldn't have set the tone of the story any better. This book is sarcastic, humorous, and AMAZING. Carry On is the kind of book that has the perfect balance of a cute squeal-worthy romance, intense spell-throwing fights, and a very mysterious villain. This was one hell of an adventure. AND an emotional roller coaster of the best kind. AND there's the epilogue. I love me a good epilogue, everyone knows. This one hits you right in the feels and makes you want to start this book all over again. Also, I feel as I should mentioned the whole "Harry Potter" parody thing. Did not bother me one bit because these characters are totally different. Baz is dark, self-deprecating, and BAE. Simon is a moron, but a cute one with a heart of gold. And Penny is smart, the Hermione equal essentially, and you can't go wrong with a Hermione.
I am most definitely going to reread this book in the future and I'm definitely going to tab up all those "squeal-worthy" moments I mentioned. I haven't been this excited about finishing a book in a while. My only two grips and the only reasons I knocked off a half star is because one, it took me a good while to get into the story. All of book one to be exact, but once Baz came into the picture I was SOLD. The second reason is that everything was extremely predictable. That did not take away from my enjoyment of the book at all though. It actually made the book more suspenseful. Still, I dare you to read this book and not love it.
*Also, I read this book using Audible! The narrator for this book, Euan Morton, was the BEST choice! He got the sound, the tone, and the personality of every character down perfectly. I couldn't have asked for a better audiobook for this story. So so so good, def recommend!*
Plot:
The first and most important thing I want to fangirl over right now is the relationship in this story. I absolutely loved how the relationship in this story happened. It's the "hate to love you" relationship to end all "hate to love you" relationships. I really wondered how Rowell was going to have these two come together and I'm am extremely happy with the way it happened. It wasn't simple. It wasn't easy. It was rocky and passionate and so freakin' adorable! There were chapters I had to restart because I needed to read what happened multiple times to let it sink in.
I LOVE MULTIPLE POV BOOKS. This one took multiple POV's to a new standard. The ways the chapters were split were done expertly and then in some parts, the POV's switch back and forth every paragraph so it's like you're experiencing an event as it's happening from two people at once. And it's one of those event that you WANT to know what going through each person's head. Of course, Baz's chapters were my favorite. His personality is what makes him so lovable to me.
I think the switching between perspective also made the story pass by quicker because you didn't have to spend so much time learning about the personalities of the other characters from the main one. Yes, I mentioned it was slow in the beginning, but please please push through if you can. I think it's absolutely worth it to at least make it to book two (I think it's split into five books). After we finally meet Baz and start getting Baz chapters, everything starts rolling. I like how things kept happened back to back. We never got boring in between moments that weren't necessary. But also, nothing ever felt rushed. The pacing of this story was perfect, enough to keep you on the edge of your seat without combusting your heart.
This book also had a mysterious aspect to it. Who is the real villain? What is the real villain? I loved that. The whole insidious humdrum deal was always a present worry, though not the conflict at the forefront most of the time. When crap starts to hit the fan though, the attacks and the magical fights, those were super intense and always worked to push the story into new directions.
Now, I don't know if I was ever spoiled for the plot of this book, but when I was reading it by book 2 or 3 I already knew who was who and what was going to happen in the end. That did NOT make this book any less enjoyable because these characters are the perfect excuse to read a predictable book. THESE CHARACTERS are what makes the experience of this story feel unique, especially amongst all the claims that this is Harry Potter fanfic. I know this is super similar to HP it's impossible to miss that. But if you remove that aspect, and just read this book to the end, you'll see it's a story that can stand on it's own. It has it's major differences that set it apart from HP.
The ending of this book though. THE FEELS. I was so so so sad yet so so so happy reading the last three chapters of this book. I just want to go through it all again. All loose ends were tied up in the most perfect way. Loose ends that you may have forgotten about through all the craziness and suspense were tied up too. I know I keep using the word perfect to describe most aspects of this book, but there's no better word!
Okay, I could go on and on and on about all the things I love about this book, but I digress. x)
Characters:
Simon Snow is such a slow person, but such a sweetheart. He knows who he is and yet doesn't get to bigheaded about it. He doesn't want to be the chosen one because he doesn't feel like one and I like that aspect about him. Simon develops so much as a character in this story, his whole destiny changes, and he becomes someone even more lovable and kind.
Basildon Pitch in one word: badass. His self-deprecating personality is my favorite thing about him. He's very honest with his feeling and himself as person in his chapters and that vulnerability is what you want to root for him. He's also witty and sarcastic as anything which kind of gave me Percy Jackson vibes. Baz is my favorite character in the book. Probably my new favorite character ever. I want him to be my best friend.
Penny Bunce is the Hermione equivalent. With all the allusions to HP, Penny is probably the only one who doesn't differ from her counterpart all that much. She is smart and cunning and clever, and in the ending when she finally figures out this one thing... Made the whole story come full circle and it was the best.
Overall:
Yet another novel by Rainbow Rowell has blown me away. I love this one even more than Fangirl! Simon and Baz are my everything right now. Especially Baz, because Tyrannus Basildon Grim Pitch is BAE. Freakin' bae!