Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

Happy Monday ya’ll! I recently finished Carry On by Rainbow Rowell, so here is my review of the book!

I got a bit ahead of myself! Here’s the blurb for those of you who aren’t familiar with Carry On:

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 starts 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 the Watford School of Magicks, and Simon's infuriating nemesis didn't even bother to show up.

Alrighty, here we go! Carry On is one of those rare fantasy books that mixes all the best elements of the genre, while still being an easy read. The book starts off, and to me, there wasn’t as much info-dumping and worldbuilding, or at least as much as I’m used to in fantasy books. It was a pleasant surprise and I don’t feel like it hindered the plot. In fact, I feel like instead of this the plot swept me away in the first couple of chapters. Rowell does a fantastic job weaving multiple conflicts together that slowly unravel until the reader reaches the climax. The way that the conflicts unraveled in Carry On reminded me of a lot of classic mystery novel conflicts! After the climax, the story was tied up pretty well which was insanely satisfying to me.

Along with the amazing plot flow in the book, the characters are absolutely amazing. Rowell wrote them in such a way that they feel real. They struggle with issues that many today struggle with, which I found endeared them to me all the more. The changes in relationship dynamics between all of the characters are just as fascinating to read about as the plot of the story was. I absolutely loved the nemesis relationship between two of the main characters and how this changed throughout the novel. This book had a bunch of solid themes, including finding oneself and loving without labels, along with a bunch of other wholesome themes. Carry On was an easy, fun, and wholesome read that left me feeling all the warm fuzzy feelings and feeling satisfied at the end. If the fabulous fantasy aspect or any of the other pieces above appeal to you, I recommend this book to you!

Happy Reading!

Renee