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5 stars! This review will be spoiler free for Wayward Son, but if you haven’t read Carry On yet... YOU SHOULD.
Synopsis:
Sequel to Carry On, Simon Snow’s story is supposed to have had it’s happily ever after. He beat the Humdrum, his friends survived, he fell in love. However, Simon cannot find his happy ending. And Baz can see that and it’s killing him. And Penny can see that and so she comes up with a plan to go to America. The famous trio cannot just go West and leave unscathed. They continue to struggle with the after effects of the war and they struggle with the new obstacles that face them in America, then they of course run into trouble and they get lost. Continue reading Wayward Son to see how they find their way and start to find themselves.
Thoughts:
I was so happy to finally be able to read this book! So I’m am very likely to be biased as I am a full-on-Simon-Snow fangirl, but still, I loved this book and will do my best to be objective. Also, the audiobook for this series is one of my absolute faves!
What I liked:
I felt like this was a very realistic portrayal of how life-changing experiences can change a person, can change their perspective of themselves and their loved ones.
Simon and Baz + their relationship. Their setbacks and how (again) realistic it was to see Simon t
ackling, or better put, struggling with his feelings and outlook on his life. EVEN THOUGH IT WAS BREAKING MY HEART.
A lot of Baz being Baz, being his usual cynical but hella witty self. My favorite POV is Baz.
Penny also in a way finding herself after the effects of the Mage. Realizing that she’s not the perfect know-it-all she thought she was and that when given the change of scenery (being in America), she encounters unexplored territory and struggles with her inability to always have a plan and a back up plan and a back up back up plan.
Shepard! The moment a human was introduced I was so excited! That’s exactly what we needed. We have a vampire-mage, a normal mage, an unmagical-mage, a mage-who-wants-to-be-normal, and a normal-who-wants-to-be-a-mage.
Shepard and Penny’s banter. SO FUNNY.
The plot and how it unfurled seamlessly together. There were moments of foreshadowing that I didn’t even realize were foreshadowing and I love it when I’m reading a book, get to the ending/climax, and think “omg, so that’s why the author made it a point to mention so-and-so earlier in the story.”
The ending. WHAT was THAT?! I thought this book was just supposed to be a sequel and the last book, but then I was starting to run out of pages and I still had so many questions. Then the LAST PAGE. Again, WHAT was THAT?! I need the next book now.
What I didn’t like so much (but didn’t detract from my love of the story):
It was rather short. This is probably because I can never have enough Simon-Baz-Penny. Because I don’t feel like the plot was rushed or anything? Maybe some scenes could have been drawn out? I just wanted more. And this also is why I didn’t like it as much as Carry On. Carry On has more planning and interacting and meeting out their missions, whereas Wayward Son felt more like a scramble through America. But I also feel like it was supposed to be that way, so I’m not mad about it.
Meeting Micah made me so sad. But I know that’s how it has to be. It’s cool now, I ship her with someone else now whom I’m sure you can guess.
Simon being the super jealous type. I can’t tell if it suits him or not, but it made my heart break. In likely the way Rowell intended.
Overall:
I didn’t like this sequel as much as Carry On, but of course that could be because Simon and Baz and Penny are in a very different situation. The tones overall felt different, but the characters are very much the same favorite people I liked from Carry On (excluding Simon because of course he had to experience change).
Can this series never end? Please.
Also also, yes, I did buy every single edition I could of this series. All their covers are below and Rainbow Rowell does have a "special edition guide" on her site.
LOOK AT THESE GORGEOUS COVERS!
