Carry On

Edit: 10/24/19
Carry On is still as boring as I remembered it — half-assed characterizations, rushed exposition on original universe while relying heavily on source material, and lack of distinct writing styles for each character. DNF at 35%


I received this copy via Netgalley provided by the publisher. Thank you.
So. Rainbow. I dislike her writing and her books so it's not a surprise that I didn't like this one. At all.
It was so boring. I didn't care about the magic, or the plot about the Humdrum, or the stupid love triangle/V with Agatha, Baz, and Simon. Honestly, while reading this, I thought to myself “good thing they're all hella straight in the ‘canon' because if this is what it is with homosexuality thrown in, it would've been trash and a horrible representative of actual LGBT+ characters.”
You are literally thrown into this magical world with terminology coming at you left and right and overused British slang to make it /genuine/ and it's so tacky tacky tacky.
She can't write from any point of view that's not a straight white girl's cliché archetype because it followed all the cliches of a teenage boy and had no depth to any characters. Penelope's weight and “roundness” was basically thrown into your face as if to say “Hey! I got some body diversity AND gay diversity! Look at me!” Like okay, I get it. She's round. Let's move on.
Rainbow Rowell should never write fantasy or a parody of one because all of the innovative ~magick~ usage in this was cheap and gimmicky. No creativity at all. Now to talk about the book as a whole. In order to make readers truly enjoy this, Rainbow relies on the reader's own experiences with Harry Potter to truly connect- and this may be a disservice to those who dislike Harry Potter or never read/watched it. So yes, maybe you shouldn't pick this book up if you're a stranger to Harry Potter because nothing makes sense and frankly, it doesn't even matter.
I didn't care about Carry On in Fangirl just like I didn't care about Fangirl.
Don't read this unless you need some quick gay fiction because this is worse than any gay fanfic I've ever read.