Review: Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

Title: Carry On

Author: Rainbow Rowell

Genre: Fantasy (Young Adult)

Pages: 522 (Hardcover)

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Publication date: October 6th, 2015


Synopsis from Carry On's Goodreads page




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 the Watford School of Magicks, and Simon’s infuriating nemesis didn’t even bother to show up.
Carry On is a ghost story, a love story, a mystery and a melodrama. It has just as much kissing and talking as you’d expect from a Rainbow Rowell story—but far, far more monsters.


I absolutely LOVED this book. Every single page, cover to cover. Every word, every sentence.
All of Rainbow Rowell's books are always so well thought out, so well planned and so well written that it astounds me.
Her characters are absolutely amazing. Each and every character is so well thought out that they seem so real, with their own stories, lives, and backgrounds. Each and every character is extremely different, with conflicting and completely opposite personalities. Her characters have so much depth and so much, well, character, that it just makes the story so much more real.
Her plot line was also unbelievable. Carry On is meant to be like Harry Potter, and I will admit that you probably really need to read Harry Potter first in order to have a feeling of the amount of difficulties and problems that the characters in Carry On have been through, but even though it was so similar to Harry Potter, it was still really good. It was similar, but it wasn't too similar to seem like it was ripping off Harry Potter, or that it wasn't it's own story. The things that happen to the characters are Rainbow Rowell's own ideas, and they are very different.
The school...it was amazing how well it was described and how much detail was put into the book. As I was reading Carry On, I had a perfect picture of it in my head, and it was amazing. I felt like it was a perfect picture of it, and that it fit so well with the characters. It felt like they belonged there just as much as Harry belonged at Hogwarts.
I'm sad that this was meant to be a stand alone, and how it is supposed to be like the seventh and final book in a series. I honestly don't think that Rainbow Rowell could make another book take place after Carry On, because it felt like an ending to a story. Sadly, that story had barely begun before it abruptly ended. I really, really hope that maybe one day we will get the first six books in this series, or even just one more book, that takes place before or after Carry On. (I'm not being very picky about this - anything in this world would be wonderful).
Overall - ★★★★★