Fanfiction is growing increasingly common as more and more people have easy access to writing tools and publishing sites, like Wattpad or Archive of Our Own. It stands to reason that the tropes and inspiration of fanfiction would follow in mainstream media. Carry On by Rainbow Rowell is a romance, fantasy novel, and the first book of the Simon Snow trilogy, named for the main character of these books. It is followed by Wayward Son and Any Way the Wind Blows. This series was originally a fictional series in another book by Rowell, Fangirl, and was brought to life as its own real world fiction series since the author could not bear to let the characters go, and serves as her own spin on the Harry Potter universe (being a sort of “Harry Potter fanfiction”, if you will).
Simon Snow is a terrible Chosen One, or so he and Baz think (Penny would say otherwise). He was prophesied to defeat the great evil that steals magic from the World of Mages, but it seemed impossible when he could not even control his own magic. However, through the course of the book, Simon, Penny, Baz, and even Agatha a little bit, work together to uncover the mystery of who the Insidious Humdrum is, why he wants to destroy magic, and how to defeat him. Along the way, an emotional romance develops between Simon Snow and his long-time enemy Baz. The characters encounter dragons, vampires, dryads, a cool goatherd, and more throughout their adventure.
I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. I loved the tropes and characters of the book, but some choices the author makes in writing ruin Simon and the other characters’ journeys. The book does well as a romance novel, with the classic enemies to lovers trope developed well. It has great representation of male gay characters, a person of color, Penny, and diverse personalities of females. I particularly relate to Agatha, whose desire to escape the war and magic itself reflects how I sometimes feel about having good grades or the expectations thereof.
The two things that irked me throughout the book was bisexual erasure and “telling” instead of showing feminism. For bisexual erasure, it seems that the moment Simon and Baz get together, Simon’s previous romance with Agatha is brushed off as faked, despite no evidence of him never caring about her. The word bisexual was not even mentioned in the book and no suggestions were made of being able to like people regardless of or of multiple genders. Bisexual characters are more rare in media than people attracted to a single gender, and normally, this would be fine with me, but the fact that Simon’s attraction to both a girl and a boy is not acknowledged as part of his sexuality feels like erasure. The other thing that irked me was the author trying to be more feminist but not doing it very effectively. What I mean is that throughout the book, Rowell would have characters refer to mystery people as “he--or she!”, but the mystery person in question still turns out to be male. Firstly, she could have just used the singular pronoun they, as has been used for a long time. Secondly, the way she uses it sets it up as a misdirection device but does not actually increase the amount of female representation or perspective in the book. It would have been largely more effective to just refer to those mystery characters as “she” instead of having characters self-correct or correct each other with an “or she!” There are other smaller examples of this concept that irked me throughout the book but this was the biggest.
Overall, the book was well worth the small annoyance. I would recommend it to anyone who liked the Harry Potter series or the Chosen One trope, as Carry On has a unique spin on the old cliché.
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