City News
Carry On by Rainbow Rowell
Reviewed by Sasa
In this #1 New York Times Bestseller, an 18 year old boy named Simon Snow is the most powerful magician in the magic universe, he also is an orphan that was taken from the normal world and transported to the World of Mages where he goes to a magic school called Watford. Watford is a school open to all creatures that possess magic. Each magician has a special, personal artifact that helps them cast spells. The story takes place at the beginning of his eighth and final year with his quick-witted best friend Penelope and his beautiful girlfriend Agatha, but things take a strange turn when his charming, cunning roommate/ nemesis Baz goes missing.
While searching for Baz, a much bigger problem arises, the Insidious Humdrum. A creature that goes around creating invisible black holes for magic, it is a threat to the entire magical world. Simon, being the most powerful magician, has all the danger attracted to him, even his roommate Baz.
All I can say is “wow”. This book was a fantastic read. For the first time in a long time, I felt butterflies while reading a book. I was on the edge of my seat during the battle scenes and swooning over the unexpected romance. Carry On flows really well, in the sense that it makes it entertaining to follow the protagonist’s journey. First of all, the writer behind this book, Rainbow Rowell, is an amazing author, her books never fail to put a smile on everyone's face. I completely recommend reading her other books, such as Eleanor and Park and Fangirl. The book Fangirl, is actually where this story started; the main character writes fanfiction about a book series with the exact same characters by the author, created by Rainbow Rowell, Gemma T. Leslie. Rowell talks about her decision for taking this imaginary book series and turning it into an actual book saying this, “ after I finished writing Fangirl, I kept thinking about Simon and Baz and the World of Mages… I wanted to write more about them”, she felt that she owed them a their own story after the success of Fangirl. The book Carry On is definitely for all those Harry Potter fans out there, it was very much like Harry Potter, which I liked, but at the same time it is it’s own story. It has the perfect amount of action, romance and plot twists. Something I found interesting and really liked about Carry On, is that the book itself has no chapters, only changes in characters perspectives, which made it enjoyable to see the scenes unfold through different perspectives. This book, aside from taking place in a magical world, deals with modern issues that some of this generation faces. It was amazing to think that Rainbow Rowell created this whole magical universe from scratch, in one edition of the paperback copies there is a fold out map. I have only positive words to say when I describe Carry On, it was truly magical and I couldn't put it down.