Rainbow Rowell’s new Young Adult, Carry On, has peculiar origins. In her last book Fangirl, a character creates a fictional boy wizard called Simon Snow. He goes to a magical school called Watford and is destined to fight a villain called “the insidious Humdrum” who is chipping away at the world of Mages (as opposed to Normals).
If Harry Potter comes to mind immediately, that is the idea—this is piece of fan fiction, a tribute to JK Rowling’s work. It is saved by being called a rip-off simply because it wears its Pottermania on its sleeve.
Snow was picked up from the world of Normals by the chief Mage and called the chosen one, even though the teenager is not particularly adept at magic. Simon’s roommate and greatest enemy is a vampire called Baz (this would pull in fans of the Twilight series), while his friend and chief supporter is a half-Indian girl called Penny (her mother is called Mitali), who spends more time with him than his official girlfriend, Agatha.
Simon is obsessed with Baz and in keeping with current trends, this turns into a passionate gay love story, even as the Watford buddies pool in their magic to find and destroy the Humdrum.
Rowell knows her YA readers and is aware that many grew up on Harry Potter and probably moved on to Twilight, so she brazenly aims at them. And it worked, Carry On is a bestseller that has also made it to the lists of best YA fiction of 2015. Which also goes to show that the world has not yet had enough of wizards and vampires.
Carry On
By Rainbow Rowell
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Pages: 528
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