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Book: Carry On - Rainbow Rowell
If you want a book which is basically Harry Potter dialled up to 11 with canon m/m and vampires, go read this one.
SPOILERS BELOW
I got this from the library, finished it in 2 nights (with a lot of frustration at the times I couldn't be reading it), and decided to keep it a bit longer so that I could read it again. So I guess it's safe to say that I enjoyed it a lot.
It makes me feel very self-conscious, actually. I don't like feeling transparent. And the funny thing is, I was never in Harry Potter fandom, I was never a Harry/Draco shipper, and while I do enjoy vampires I've never got around to even trying to read Twilight. But I love things which are genre-savvy, and this was so genre-savvy.
Random thoughts, as usual:
- Obviously this book owes a lot to Harry Potter, but also to Harry Potter fandom, and a lot of the ways Carry On differs from Harry Potter are ways that the fans identified in their fic and meta. It's great.
- See also: Simon is Harry with actual trauma from his awful childhood
- The magic system. So great. And a magical world that isn't completely separate from modern technology!
- I was never a Draco Malfoy fan. But I loved Baz. I think part of it is the brilliant way he's introduced - several chapters of Simon being suspicious of him and convinced he's an evil vampire, and then suddenly you're in Baz's head and he's vulnerable and pining and ashamed of being a vampire.
- On that note, rotating first person has the potential to be irritating but I really enjoyed it here.
- Penelope! Penny was great! Her relationship with her family and her intelligence and her general tolerant frustration with Simon's ignorance. ("Arabic is a language, Simon. And everyone's a race.")
- I really liked Agatha as a reversal of the usual "normal girl longs to have magic" trope. That closing scene where she thinks that Lucy was the one who escaped, though. Ouch.
- All of the protagonists got families, and I really like that.
- I'm not sure how I feel about the Lucy and Davy storyline, too be honest. We already had one dead mother in this story. It gives us a lot of interesting information, but the protagonists never find any of it out. Hrm.
- Simon gets therapy at the end. *chinhands*
- It's totally against the sacrifice of the climax and I respect that, but I find myself wondering, if magic is going to return to the areas the Humdrum drained, will Simon's magic also come back?
- I was dubious about the main pairing going in (see earlier about not being a Harry/Draco shipper - I'll read it sometimes but usually only futurefic), but you know, I bought Simon's obsession with Baz being about ~something else~ in a way I never did with Harry.
- Why does every "teen boy realises he's attracted to other boy despite girlfriend" story have to come with a side of bisexual erasure though D:
- I didn't get a good feel for what daily life at the school was actually like, and I think Simon was very insular. (Maybe I was just reading too quickly - haven't done that reread - but I can't recall offhand how the rest of the school thinks of find him?)
- I feel like I should have more negative things to say here, but. *flails*
- Edit: I have really mixed feelings about the Mage. I don't like the lingering message that being forceful about wanting change leads to corruption. Tone arguments are bad, people. But it was interesting that he had that kind of depth as antagonist (and he was your classic "how did it all go so wrong?" villain).
- Edit Ebb! I was really sad about Ebb. I have a definite fondness for that "most powerful mage in the world just wants a simple life" trope. She deserved better.
I enjoyed Fangirl but I connected with it a lot more on the anxiety aspects than I did the fandom aspects, which felt subtly off. This book, though, felt like fanfic in the best way. (It didn't feel like actual fanfic though, because there was a lot of retrospective exposition that would feel out of place in fic.)
Edit 1: Added 2 points!
SPOILERS BELOW
I got this from the library, finished it in 2 nights (with a lot of frustration at the times I couldn't be reading it), and decided to keep it a bit longer so that I could read it again. So I guess it's safe to say that I enjoyed it a lot.
It makes me feel very self-conscious, actually. I don't like feeling transparent. And the funny thing is, I was never in Harry Potter fandom, I was never a Harry/Draco shipper, and while I do enjoy vampires I've never got around to even trying to read Twilight. But I love things which are genre-savvy, and this was so genre-savvy.
Random thoughts, as usual:
- Obviously this book owes a lot to Harry Potter, but also to Harry Potter fandom, and a lot of the ways Carry On differs from Harry Potter are ways that the fans identified in their fic and meta. It's great.
- See also: Simon is Harry with actual trauma from his awful childhood
- The magic system. So great. And a magical world that isn't completely separate from modern technology!
- I was never a Draco Malfoy fan. But I loved Baz. I think part of it is the brilliant way he's introduced - several chapters of Simon being suspicious of him and convinced he's an evil vampire, and then suddenly you're in Baz's head and he's vulnerable and pining and ashamed of being a vampire.
- On that note, rotating first person has the potential to be irritating but I really enjoyed it here.
- Penelope! Penny was great! Her relationship with her family and her intelligence and her general tolerant frustration with Simon's ignorance. ("Arabic is a language, Simon. And everyone's a race.")
- I really liked Agatha as a reversal of the usual "normal girl longs to have magic" trope. That closing scene where she thinks that Lucy was the one who escaped, though. Ouch.
- All of the protagonists got families, and I really like that.
- I'm not sure how I feel about the Lucy and Davy storyline, too be honest. We already had one dead mother in this story. It gives us a lot of interesting information, but the protagonists never find any of it out. Hrm.
- Simon gets therapy at the end. *chinhands*
- It's totally against the sacrifice of the climax and I respect that, but I find myself wondering, if magic is going to return to the areas the Humdrum drained, will Simon's magic also come back?
- I was dubious about the main pairing going in (see earlier about not being a Harry/Draco shipper - I'll read it sometimes but usually only futurefic), but you know, I bought Simon's obsession with Baz being about ~something else~ in a way I never did with Harry.
- Why does every "teen boy realises he's attracted to other boy despite girlfriend" story have to come with a side of bisexual erasure though D:
- I didn't get a good feel for what daily life at the school was actually like, and I think Simon was very insular. (Maybe I was just reading too quickly - haven't done that reread - but I can't recall offhand how the rest of the school thinks of find him?)
- I feel like I should have more negative things to say here, but. *flails*
- Edit: I have really mixed feelings about the Mage. I don't like the lingering message that being forceful about wanting change leads to corruption. Tone arguments are bad, people. But it was interesting that he had that kind of depth as antagonist (and he was your classic "how did it all go so wrong?" villain).
- Edit Ebb! I was really sad about Ebb. I have a definite fondness for that "most powerful mage in the world just wants a simple life" trope. She deserved better.
I enjoyed Fangirl but I connected with it a lot more on the anxiety aspects than I did the fandom aspects, which felt subtly off. This book, though, felt like fanfic in the best way. (It didn't feel like actual fanfic though, because there was a lot of retrospective exposition that would feel out of place in fic.)
Edit 1: Added 2 points!
no subject
omggggggg.
*goes to see if her library has this*
no subject
I hope you like it!