Weigh in on Agatha in the comments! (Or anything else you may wish to discuss.In Carry On, Simon Snow and his friends realized that everything they thought they understood about the world might be wrong. And why goddamn should she! Good for you, Agatha! You enjoy your dog and your apartment! She does that, and then she absolutely refuses to be sorry for it. I guess it is because she behaves perfectly rationally and also in perfect opposition to what characters of her type are meant to do in stories of this type. And I can’t exactly put my finger on why. I was worried people were going to not like Agatha, but so far, everyone I’ve talked to (admittedly a small sample) has said Agatha is their favorite. I confess that hers was the fate I read the ending to discover, and it was so unexpected and satisfying that I have been wanting to shriek about it ever since. For a quite secondary character, Agatha was my utter favorite. Who’s going to write the longform fanfic about Agatha’s post-this-book adventures in California with her stolen-ass cocker spaniel? The internet exists for this, people, let’s get on it. Here will be some spoilers for the book (big ones!), so if you don’t want to know about it, stop reading at once.Īgatha is my faaaaaaavorite. Rowell is mightily aware of this book as both part of a fandom (Draco/Harry) and creating a fandom (y’all I am so psyched to talk about Agatha), and she’s able to be lighthearted about it without ever making her characters’ feelings and relationships less important. The other charm of the book is its winky-but-not-overly-winky awareness of the tropes it’s playing around with. I’m thinking violent thoughts at him right now. I want to pull it away, but I don’t want to look scared–and also I don’t want to pull it away. I’m thinking violent thoughts at you constantly.”
“This is why I’m going to beat you,” I say. “Why are you such a villain?” He sounds disgusted. Carry On absolutely shines on a scene-to-scene level. Where Rainbow Rowell does excel is character development, dialogue, and relationships, and she’s one of the best in the business at those things.
#READ CARRY ON RAINBOW ROWELL ONLINE SERIES#
And for a book so reminiscent of the Harry Potter series (which is painstakingly plotted), it’s particularly noticeable. The plot of Carry On, which involves trying to defeat the Insidious Humdrum and finding out who was responsible for Baz’s mother’s death, does not fit together nicely, with pieces that slot satisfyingly into place as you go along. I’m going to get my criticisms out of the way up front so we can spend the rest of this post talking about Agatha: I think Rainbow Rowell maybe just is not that good at plot. But all he can think about is finding Baz, who hasn’t come back to school this term. He’s got to get a handle on it quickly, because the magickal world is counting on him to defeat the Insidious Humdrum. His magic doesn’t work for him half the time, and when he’s in extreme situations of danger, he goes off, releasing a burst of uncontrollable magic with the power to destroy (or protect) anything in his vicinity.
Simon Snow is destined to be the world’s greatest Mage but as his maybe-a-vampire nemesis roommate Baz is constantly reminding him, he’s the worst Chosen One who’s ever been chosen. And yes, when you start out, you’ll think Gosh this is awfully Harry Potterish, but then of course you’ll find that Rainbow Rowell knows this and is playing with it, and you’ll be all right after that. Carry On is an extension of the book-within-a-book from Rowell’s last-but-one book, Fangirl, set in the world of Simon Snow where Fangirl‘s Cath chose to spend so much of her time.