And if you can’t forget about the elephant you’re left with no choice but to make, probably, unfair comparisons. But in a novel that references pop culture, taking place in contemporary London, it is just not possible to ignore that elephant while reading. Fanfiction is a glorious tradition and having an author as talented as Rowell pay homage to Harry Potter is a viable concept. Carry On never quite reaches those heights.Īnd it’s not because of the elephant. Those books were, simply, impossible to put down, stay up until four in the morning to finish, crying most of the way types of books. But Carry On, while a wonderful book wonderfully written, an interesting story interestingly told, is not Landline.
Or Eleanor & Park or Fangirl, that might have been possible. Dumbledore, The Mage, etc.įor all the glory of Rainbow Rowell’s writing, for all the beauty and the talent, Harry Potter weighs constantly on Carry On, begging the reader to ignore the elephant and try to just enjoy the book. It’s impossible to ignore the cultural and literary impact that J. Given new life in his own novel, Simon Snow and Carry On are on their own, and therefore it’s virtually impossible to ignore that elephant for long.Įven in this review, that elephant is obvious to anyone who’s been reading popular literature over the last 20 years. In Fangirl, it was possible to ignore the elephant when talking of the Wizarding World of Simon Snow because it was a fictional construct/conceit within the fictional world of the novel Fangirl. Taking place at Watford, a magical boarding school for young mages, Carry On finally takes Rowell into the world of magic that she always managed to create in her non-magical tales. Those “visitings” start the whole ball of wax rolling.
A giant literary herd of them let loose and haunting every single page like the ghosts which are an integral plot point to Carry On. With that said, however, it is impossible not to mention the elephant in the room.Īnd not just an elephant. While not quite as lyrical or heartwrenching as Rowell’s previous works, Carry On is nevertheless drenched in the immediacy and intimacy that are her hallmark. In Carry On, Rowell (re)introduces the characters of Simon Snow and the world that started Cath’s obsession in Fangirl. In Fangirl she managed to not only create beautiful characters but, in Simon Snow, the object of the main character’s fangirl obsession, Rowell even managed to create fictional characters that were equally fascinating. In magical books such as Landline and Eleanor & Park, Rainbow Rowell has proven herself to be a writer of exquisite lyricism and heartbreaking characterization.