“Carry On” by Rainbow Rowell is a story written after writing about a character who wrote fan fiction of that story, which might sound a little complicated. In “Fangirl”, also by Rainbow Rowell, the main character wrote fan fiction of their universe’s version of “Harry Potter”, the “Simon Snow” novels. Of course, those novels didn’t exist in our reality until the author decided to write at least one of them (by now, there’s a sequel) and end the story of Simon Snow and his destiny.
At first glance, the story seems to be a rip-off or at least a more or less faithful retelling of Harry Potter with different names and slight changes, but that changes rather quickly. It seems that Penny is a stand-in for Hermione, Baz is a stand-in for Draco, the Mage is a stand-in for Dumbledore, and Ebb is a stand-in for Hagrid. On the second glance, though, all of that is wrong. Penny is an interesting combination of Ron and Hermione who isn’t much like Hermione in any aspect but learning a lot. She gets into trouble together with Simon because she wants to, not because she tries to stop him from doing that stupid thing. Baz seems to be evil - he certainly comes from an evil family -, but he has his own troubles to work through and doesn’t actually hate Simon. The Mage is a big topic, but his behaviour from the beginning clearly differs from Dumbledore’s - he’s much more active, much less of the mentor type. And Ebb - well, she might be a goat herder, but she’s also an extremely powerful mage and thus not like Hagrid, whose magic is well below average. She has chosen not to make much use of her powers, she’s not forced to rely on other things.
There is, of course, also a Voldemort equivalent with the Humdrum, a being which seems to suck magic out of the world and which has the same face as Simon when he was eleven and started magic school. Yet, the Humdrum is not the actual problem, he’s just a symptom.
The story swiftly moves away from what you’d expect from a Harry Potter lookalike series. Simon is drawn into a mystery that is very, very personal for Baz (what happened the day on which Baz’s mother died and he was infected with vampirism at the age of five). This forces the ‘enemies’ to work together and this is where the story takes up speed. In the end, the mystery will lead to them resolving the Humdrum problem and unmasking the villain. On the way, relationships change, especially that of Simon and Baz, but also that of Simon and Agatha (who, he thought, would simply be his girlfriend and later his wife and who is sick of always being the damsel and wants less danger in her life - even if that means less Simon as well). All which seems destined in this story is not destined at all, which makes it a lot of fun to read.
On the technical side of things, the book is very well-written, the story is fluid - which is a bit of a surprise, given that there are many, many changes to the point of view, some only a few sentences long. In general, I’m not a big fan of stories with a lot of viewpoint changes and prefer those with one or two viewpoint characters only. With the clear marking - putting the name in big letters above the paragraph where the viewpoint changes - it’s not exactly hard to know at any time at which person’s head the reader is currently taking a peek. Story-wise, the viewpoint changes mean that the reader knows what people are thinking about each other long before those people know what the other one thinks of them.
It’s easy to dive into the story and just get lost there - I read it in less than a day, always curious about what might happen next. As soon as the story shows that it’s not a Harry Potter rip-off, all bets are off as well and the author manages to juggle the plots very well, keeping the reader (certainly me) interested and unsure of what might happen next.
The story is also good at giving out all the important information early; even though it’s in an information dump, it’s a well-done one. On the trip back to his magic school (a must-have for the modern magical school setting, I’m sure), Simon thinks about what he loves most about school, not having allowed himself to think about it during his summer break. Like this, he lists his friends, the magic, the general things happening around him. This gives the reader the chance to absorb all the facts and means that once the story is really starting - once Simon is attacked by a goblin -, it doesn’t have to stop for more information. What still is necessary - like the veil between the living world and the afterlife being thin for a short while - can easily be introduced through regular dialogue and action without feeling much like a dump.
The story has LGBT+ representation - which shouldn’t surprise fans of the author - and, thus, also a few same-sex relationships (I’m not going into details for plot reasons). Personally, I found that representation always lacking with Harry Potter (and, no, saying ‘that guy is gay’ after the facts and not recognizing it when you put ‘that guy’ into another story later, is not LGBT+ representation) and welcome it in this story. If you have some form of homophobia, be warned, therefore, that you can’t avoid ‘the gay’ in this book. I’m not claiming to understand people who feel threatened by other people loving someone of the same sex, but I feel it might be necessary to mention it. It’s not full-fledged male-male erotica, though, there are no detailed sex scenes in the book.
I have also read the sequel “Wayward Son”, but decided not to review it, because I can’t talk about the story of the sequel without giving away the big reveal at the end of the first book and that would spoil the reading pleasure for everyone who hasn’t read the first book already.
“Carry On” is a surprisingly good book even for someone who is far past the intended age bracket, which would be the YA crowd. It’s well written and has interesting plots playing out, characters who are not just 2D cardboard cut-outs, and a fun way of twisting the tropes people expect from the magical school setting nowadays. I’m sure you’ll enjoy reading it if that setting is to your liking, I surely have.
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