The YA's Nightstand: Rainbow Rowell

CARRY ON

by Rainbow Rowell

Pages: 518 (paperback)

Publisher: Macmillan

Publication Date: February 25th 2016

ISBN: 1447266943

Summary

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

Review

Anyone who knows me knows I'm a massive Rainbow Rowell fan! I can't even pretend I don't fangirl over her and when it came to Carry On I was so excited to sit down and read it. Fangirl is my all time favourite contemporary read and when it was released that Rainbow was writing the book Cath spent so much time swooning over I couldn't help but do my happy dance... yes there really is a dance. I wasn't able to get around to reading Carry On when it first came out due to uni commitments but I FINALLY get to share my thoughts on Rainbow's latest books... there will be gushing, you have been warned.

"Sharing a room with the person you want most is like sharing a room with an open fire."

Carry On follows the narratives of a group of wizards, also know as mages, as they try to complete their last year at Watford. However, Watford isn't any normal school it is a school where magic is taught and magical greatness is made. Over the last six years Simon Snow and his roommate Baz have tried to kill each other countless times and the reason for this is simple. Baz is evil and Simon is the 'chosen one' - even if he is useless at the job! However, in their final year at Watford everything changes and as in any good 'chosen one' tale there is a big bad wolf character out to blow down the world of mages... his name... the humdrum!

Okay, so to start with I wasn't actually that sure about Carry On and being a massive fan of Rainbow that is really hard to say. It felt a little on the babbley side and I struggled to get into it.

HOWEVER, it may have taken me a month to read the first 150 pages, I read the other 368 in less than twenty-four hours. I think the reason for this is that to begin with there is a lot of setting the scene (and rightly so) because as a reader we have to be filled in on the last 6 years of these characters lives before we can really get to the present day. But once I hit book two - it's in four sections - I was hooked and didn't want to put it down. I NEEDED to know what Simon and Baz where up to and that is one of the signs of a great writer.

The story does have a Harry Potter element to it, I mean HP has filled our lives - and hearts - for the last decade and a bit, so any story about witches and wizards at a wizardry school sparks comparisons. You also have the orphaned chosen one and school nemesis from a well known wizarding family. However, saying that there is a lot of originality to Carry On, especially when it comes to the way Rainbow creates magic. Rainbow plays with words, with her magical language built up of cliches and well known phrases. The theory behind the magic being the normals (that's us muggles by the way) give words meaning and the more they say certain saying the more power they give them. Things such as, Carry On, Take a Break Have a KitKat and even old nursery rhymes are spells and I have to say I loved that! Rainbow isn't an english author however, the continuity was perfect and the references were relevant which made me smile... especially the little nod to Ant and Dec!

The parts I really want to swoon over are total spoilers so I'm not going to say too much more. What I do want to talk about though is BAZ. Keeping in mind I'm now 24 it feels a tad strange gushing over an eighteen-year-old vampire but thats just what happened. Baz is one of the funniest and most sarcastic bastards I've ever read. He's a hat tilt to all the misunderstood baddies we've come to love to hate and he's just this bundle of sarcastic yummieness.

Overall though I really did love this book, yes it had a rocky start in my opinion but once I got into it it was perfect. Carry On is a love letter to fan fiction and just reading it you can see how much the author loves books. The references as perfect and the little nods to other well know books are effortless and respectful. I'm so happy Rainbow decided Simon and Baz's story needed to be told after Fangirl because as well as being a great stand alone book I also now understand Cath from Fangirl better. Mostly because I'm now fangirling with her!

"I know Simon and I will always be enemies...
But I thought maybe we'd get to a point where we didn't want to be."

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Rating: 5 out of 5

Summary (From Back Cover)

Cath and Wren are identical twins and until recently they did absolutely everything together. Now they're off to university and Wren's decided she doesn't want to be one half any more - she wants to dance, meet boys, go to parties and let loose. It's not easy for Cath. She would rather bury herself in the fanfiction she writes where there's romance far more intense than anything she's experienced in real life.

Now Cath has to decide whether she's ready to open her heart to new people and new experiences, and she's realising that there's more to learn about love than she ever thought possible...

Review

I think that pretty much sums up how I'm feeling right now! Holey Moley that was a good book - yes I said Holey Moley! In fact I think it was one of my favourite contemporary reads ever. Fangirling for Fangirl, seems to be the common tag line for this book, although I think I'm fangirling for Levi! Yes that's what's happening... I'm fangirling for Levi. I'm also going to stop saying fangirling now as it's starting to sound really weird.

The story is about Cather, and it's a true coming of age story, where she has to figure out who she is and how she fits into college life, away from all the comforts of home. And she has to do all this without her other half, her twin, Wren. She has to find a place where she can be happy, but with so many tangled ties to her past can she really move forward into the adult world alone?

"Underneath this veneer of slightly crazy and mildly socially retarded, I'm a complete disaster."

I adore Cather! Full stop, end of story. She has her moments where you kind of want to shake her into doing something, but at the same time you always understand where she's coming from. Why she makes the decisions she does. I'm not a huge lover of fanfic but throughout this story you start - if you didn't already - to develop an admiration for these writers. I also found the way in which Rowell uses Cath's Simon and Baz tales to emphasise the struggles that parallel in the twins lives a really nice touch. Especially the idea that the end of a story doesn't actually mean the end. There's never an end if you keep believing in something, or maybe, someone.

I think that one of the biggest story plots of this book is the twins mother - or lack of one as the case may be. They both deal with the whole 'mum' situation in different ways which pulls them apart, leading them down two very different paths. I found that even when they weren't specifically referring to her, the fact that she abandoned Cath and Wren seemed to seep into every inch of this book. I couldn't say what I would do in that situation, but I think I would be team Cather.

SWOON ALERT! Levi... he's our obvious fictional crush, he has a couple of layers to him but in the end he is what he is. Which in my opinion? Makes a refreshing change from all the male leads where you spend half the book figuring out if they're a decent human being or not. And apart from a dodgy middle section, I really like the way he treats Cath! But to be fair was that really his fault?

Character to look out for... I think it has to be Reagan! She's blunt and honest and real and I love her. Simple as.

Overall this is a really interesting read. It had my attention from the first chapter. It's real and gritty at times, not shying away from reality or sugar coating it. But at the same time it doesn't ever take it too far, it's still a sweet and enjoyable story that will have you pestering all you friends to read it just so you can talk about it! Or maybe that's just me... Either way, if you haven't read this then you need to! It's the perfect YA Contemporary Romance.

So, before you lovely people rush out to buy a copy of Fangirl I wanted to leave you with one of my favourite quotes of the book, and a little something that I think this story deserves!