Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

This reads very much like Harry Potter fanfiction. I mean, I think that's what it's supposed to do. I haven't read Fangirl, but I know that this comes out of a fan and the fanfiction she writes about a series she is obsessed with. I'm a little unclear as to whether Carry On is supposed to be the last book in the series she's obsessed with, or her fanfiction version of that universe.

It's all very meta. From the afterword, it sounds like Rainbow Rowell felt like writing the book she was writing about in Fangirl, and she's got the publishing pull to do it, so...why not? Why not publish a fanfictiony sort-of commentary-but-not-really on Harry Potter? Why not put your own spin on most of the characters and conventions of those books without really adding a lot to them? (Other than a queer romance, which I did appreciate as a legitimate addition to the genre.)

But is it any good? Does it enrich my understanding of Harry Potter? Does it need to? Is it enough just to be a pulpy version with the numbers not filed off? It treads a weird line, I'll be honest, and maybe I'd be more into it if I'd read the two books in the order in which they were published, but as it is...I just kept thinking "well, this is fun, but frankly, Harry Potter did it better, so...."

I get writing fanfiction. I even know the times that, lamentably, the name has been changed and fanfiction been published. Rowell is displaying the baggage of it being, more or less, fanfiction, proudly. But I come back - is a book that is more or less "yes, I wrote fanfiction because I wanted to and it got published because I am a very popular young adult novel" enough?

I'm not sure it is. And I say that having mostly enjoyed this in an entirely superficial way. It was an easy read, it didn't distinctly piss me off, for the most part, although one of my friends who likes this book a lot had to endure me texting her at various points complaining that I was very far into the book, and there were no smoochies yet. If that's the new thing you've got to offer, and it is well written, get to it. It was well over the 2/3 mark before any such liplocking occurred, and that felt like a very long time to wait.


In this book, Simon Snow is a powerful if uncontrolled magician, living at the school for wizards in England, run by the Mage, who is opposed by many factions in the wizarding world. A foe has been sucking the magic out of many areas in England, and attacks Simon on a regular basis. Simon is aided by his best friend Penelope, who is a super-smart and talented wizard. His roommate/nemesis is Baz, a boy who was turned into a vampire during an attack on the school that killed his mother. There might, not so subtly, be sparks there because hate is just another word for desperate sexual attraction, right?

And, from there, the story more or less follows the lines you would expect it to follow given that it's fanfiction of a certain type (and/or series) of YA magical world novels. There are magical adventures, attacks, disapproving families, peril beyond that which those of tender years should face, and romance between teenage boys who find passion in their dislike of each other.

It's fine. I'm just not entirely sold on the concept. I'd probably gladly read it as fanfiction, but does it do enough to stand on its own two feet in the publishing world? I am undecided.