Carry On - Rainbow Rowell

Hi there! I'm Lovella Mole and for today, I'm going to review Rainbow Rowell's book Carry On. I'm sorry if I was gone for too long. School's been such a bitch to me, so I have only quite a small time that I could use for reading. But anyway, it's the Christmas holidays so I actually had time to read books once again. And a lot of people gave me books for Christmas, so more books to review! Yay!

Carry On is a gift given by a friend of mine. I actually told her to buy it for me. I just saw this in the bookstores and read the plot. It sounded like a fan-fiction of Harry Potter, because of the "Chosen One" and all of that. Later, I realized it's somehow connected to Rainbow Rowell's other book, Fangirl. I haven't read that one, and I plan to read that after I'm done with all of my other books.

Just to remind everyone, here's the criteria for my book review:

50 % - Story Itself

30 % - Characters

20 % - Writing Technique

Before I begin, let me also remind everyone that there will be spoilers. So if you hate spoilers, better read the book first and then come back in this book review. Yeah?

CARRY ON BY: RAINBOW ROWELL

STORY

The story is all about Simon Snow, and apparently, he's the "Chosen One" that could defeat the Humdrum. He's in his last year of Watford School of Magicks. When his roommate, Baz, didn't return for the school year, he got worked up. What if Baz was planning something evil? Together with his best friend, Penelope, and well, his ex-girlfriend, Agatha, they have adventures you kind of expect when reading stuff like this.

The first thing I noticed when I started reading this book, is that they're British. I think Rainbow Rowell isn't British (is she?) so it must be hard for her to write characters that has different cultures from her. I also compared this book a lot from Harry Potter. Simon Snow is Harry Potter, Penelope is Hermione, Baz is Malfoy, The Mage is Dumbledore, the Humdrum is Voldemort and Agatha... I really don't know who Agatha must be playing because I'm pretty sure she couldn't be Ron. The similarities were just there: Simon and Harry are both "Chosen Ones" and had a prophecy about them, Penelope and Hermione are both smart and they both are close to the main character, Baz and Malfoy hated Simon and Harry from the beginning, but of course, we eventually learn that Baz has other feelings for Simon, The Mage and Dumbledore are both headmasters of this prestigious magical school and both are very powerful, albeit the Mage isn't as wise as Dumbledore, and the Humdrum and Voldemort both has a connection with the "Chosen One" - like the Humdrum showing Simon's eleven-year-old face with the ball and Voldemort making Harry his seventh Horcrux.

The story started off great. I immediately liked the flow of the story, and how Rainbow Rowell presented the characters. I totally shipped Simon and Penelope from the beginning, and really hoped that Penelope's going to break up with her American boyfriend. (I also shipped myself and Simon, but that's not really important.) I liked how the story is so alike with Harry Potter, but also so different. But everything went downhill when I got to the part where Simon kissed Baz. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with LGBT and stuff like that. My favorite show is Glee, and they support LGBT very strongly, so I don't have any problem with that. It's just that Simon didn't really show any feelings for Baz in the beginning. I get it that he's worked up because Baz didn't show up in the beginning of the school year, but that's because they're nemesis and he's worried that maybe Baz was planning something evil. He kissed Baz because he wanted to shut him up and to stop him from killing himself. BUT that's not enough reason to turn him gay. It was just not. Or maybe I just didn't like the idea of Simon being gay because I have a crush on him (*cries*)

I didn't like the ending. The whole of it. It all seemed so rushed to me. I liked the school, the unforgettable characters, and the witty dialogue. I also like the fact that their spells are unique. In Harry Potter, their spells are in different language like Latin. But in this book, the spells are cliche phrases that Normals speak. For example, Stand your ground! and An Englishman's word is his bond! It's very unique and very entertaining to read. I thought at first their spells are songs, but it's not necessary for it to be songs. Just cliche phrases uttered by Normals. 

Overall Score - 45%

CHARACTERS

Simon Snow. He was actually a good protagonist. I like his character, and the way he treats people. I like his relationship with Penelope. The only thing that really disappointed me with this whole book is that he ended up with Baz. As I said earlier, I don't have anything against gay people, but I just didn't like the fact that Simon's gay. There were no hints about him liking Baz even before the kiss. He considered Baz as an evil person, and I also considered Baz him evil from his point of view. But he kissed him. And I thought, "Okay, he kissed him so Baz won't kill himself with his flammability. Sure." But after that kiss, he said he liked the kiss and he wanted more. So I went, "What?!" He turned gay after that one kiss? It was obvious he found the whole thing new and wanted to try. He doesn't have any feelings for Baz except pity and maybe, hatred. Maybe I'm misinterpreting the whole thing here, but this is my opinion. I liked Simon from the beginning of the story, but after that one kiss, I didn't and Baz turned out to my favorite character of the story.

Tyrannus Basilton "Baz" Grimm-Pitch. At first, I hated his character. But then he mentioned that he's hopelessly in love with Simon. And I laughed out loud. I was reading this book alone in the dining room, and laughed out loud. That doesn't happen normally. I wasn't against with Baz's love for Simon. I even thought it was kind of cute! I was just against with Simon's love for him. Anyway, I love Baz's character. I have a love/hate relationship with him. He's funny and he's infuriatingly cute. I find his relationship with his mother touching. I always knew he's not the evil guy, I just didn't trust him in the beginning. Simon used to be my favorite character in the story, but in the end, Baz's my favorite character. I can also relate to him to Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter's nemesis in Hogwarts. I don't read fanfics of Harry Potter, because I didn't like fan-fictions (generally) but I know there are a couple of fanfics about Draco and Harry. So maybe this was a dedication to them? I really don't know.

Penelope Bunce.  She's the Hermione Granger in this one. She loves being right and loves to answer every questions. I love Penelope. Even though she knows her best friend, Simon, is a lot of trouble, she doesn't hesitate to help him whenever he's in need. She's always there to help him. She's my second favorite character. Okay, there are times I may find her annoying, but that's because she's trying to be a know-it-all. I hate know-it-alls because I'm one of them. But overall, I like Penelope. She's a great character and I shipped her with Simon... That was back when he was straight.

Agatha Wellbelove. Let's just pause for a moment and admire Agatha's last name. Wellbelove. That's a very beautiful name. Can you imagine it with my name? Lovella Wellbelove. Okay, maybe not. Too many "love" and it's kind of annoying to say it out loud. I sound like this blonde ditz (lol). Anyway, Agatha. I also didn't like her in the beginning, but as the story went on, I thought that I'm definitely going to be an Agatha when I'm in that story. I'm pretty sure I'm going to run away as far as I could if the Mage tried to kill me. She was just being a human. And she didn't like to be involved with magic. She just wanted to be a Normal, and so tried to live like a Normal in the end. Agatha made her own decision, and that's something most people couldn't do. Even though her parents didn't like that decision (perhaps her mother), she did it because she knows it will make her happy. Go Agatha! 

The Mage / Davy. This guy. The most frustrating character of all. Okay, maybe not. Baz is the most frustrating character, but he's a cute frustrating character. The Mage isn't. He's hungry for power and I don't understand why he has to make sure that the prophecy should come true. Why couldn't he just wait? I feel so bad for Lucy because of what she suffered just to stay with him. The Mage is Simon's father, I knew that from the very beginning, but he didn't even bother telling Simon (did he?) I didn't like this character, not because he's evil. I like evil characters. But the Mage... isn't just what I expected. He's supposed to be a wise evil person, but he just wasn't.

Overall Score - 24%

WRITING TECHNIQUE

This isn't my first book written by Rainbow Rowell. I read Eleanor & Park because a lot of my friends told me it's a "cute book" and I also thought it was. I also didn't like the ending. Let's just say I hate cliff hangers, like the one in Eleanor & Park. Anyway, I like Rainbow Rowell's writing in this book compared to that one. It was written beautifully and wonderfully. I'm not sure if Rainbow Rowell's British. Okay, I'm checking it right now--- Aaand she's not. It's says in her Wikipedia page, "Rainbow Rowell is an American author of young adult and adult contemporary novels." Huh. So she made extensive research to write a British novel with British characters. Cool. It also explains why there are a lot of cliches, like drinking tea and eating biscuits. But it was a good book with witty dialogue. Cheers to you, Ms. Rowell!

Overall Score - 20%

SUMMARY / RECOMMENDATION
To top it all off, my overall score for the whole book is 89%. It's not that low, and it's high. In my school, that's an A so it's not really a bad score. I recommend this book to everyone who loves magic and adventure novels. To everyone who loves Harry Potter, here's the perfect book for you. And if you also write or read one of those Harry Potter/Draco Malfoy love story, this is your dream come true. I'm definitely going to read Fangirl, because Simon Snow is actually part of that book. Rainbow Rowell couldn't let go of Simon Snow's story so she made another novel for it.