For years Rainbow Rowell’s name has haunted me. According to second-, third- and fourth-hand accounts, Rowell was touted as a great popularizer of Young Adult as a genre. Her novels Fangirl, Landline, and Eleanor and Park simmered in the push for not only non-white, disabled, and non-cishet characters, but also these characters penned by authors of the same minority status. In 2020, Rowell announced a movie adaptation of Eleanor and Park. This announcement re-ignited discussions of anti-Asian racism in the book, and the complicated history of “I’m glad there was a biracial Korean character in 2012” VS “I wish the author treated him more like a human being.” In any case, Rainbow Rowell’s back on my radar. My sapphic book club needed assignments for April, and we decided to shift focus temporarily onto the achillean romance in Carry On.

Hidden among us are magicians, vampires, and all sorts of magical creatures. After a childhood of foster homes, Simon Snow found out he’s the magical chosen one. From age eleven, he’s been protecting magical communities from all sorts of threats. Now in his final year at Hogwarts Watford, Snow knows his final battle is on the horizon. And it’s not the dragon on the front lawn, the ghosts loose in the halls, or his missing vampire roommate. It’s himself—and his mysterious past.

One quippy way to describe Carry On, and the Simon Snow Trilogy in general, is “Harry Potter but Okayer.” From the first page, the reader can tell this is Harry Potter fanfiction with the serial numbers filed off. And that’s not a bad thing. Carry On began as a media playground for Fangirl to orbit around. Rowell literally states that Carry On is a chosen one story about chosen one stories, with Harry Potter as a touchstone. Her art is clear on this intent. I enjoyed the derivative aspects—the boarding school, the intricate magic; the teasing “what if” scenarios. Overall, I was swept away by the epic romance, the fascinating magic system, and playing with tropes. I felt compelled to read the sequels.

However, Carry On has tons of unaddressed problems: some inherited from Rowling; others entirely Rowell’s creation. Rowell would have these obvious, little remarks that seemed to be a “wink wink nudge nudge” that she knew what racism is. Then, the natural consequence of the racist tableaux would be pushed aside, glossed over, or otherwise not played out. For example, Simon makes a couple racist micro-aggressions against Penny, who is British Indian. There is on-page acknowledgement that what he said is terrible. During their first meeting, Simon says a micro-aggression, and Penny…decides to be best friends? That’s not what happens when someone says a micro-aggression. If you say something racist to a brown person’s face, you get told to fuck off.

Speaking of racism, there’s soooo much fantasy blood quotient and white supremacy in this book. The Mage (aka Dumbledore) runs a police state, but is also anti-blood purity. I have no idea how he double-thinks his way out of that conundrum. Our romantic lead, Baz, is from a “pure” family, and he parrots their harmful ideology in his narration and to low-magic people’s faces. His racism is never addressed, or fixed, and he still believes in white supremacist nonsense by the end of the Trilogy. Which is a true shame, because he’s a compelling character and romantic lead otherwise. I really empathized with his struggle with homophobia. His utter lack of familial support yet the burning way his family needs him—that’s some good, relatable queer story stuff.

The queerness, of course, is the main draw of Carry On. Drarry—in the form of Simon and Baz—is canon. Yet Rowell stumbles here too. If she did any research into the queer community, it was minimal. A lesbian character dies. I didn’t need to read that awful cliché for the nth time. In narration, Baz describes himself as queer, but others verbally call him gay—which is it? Was his narration referencing the queer community, or himself? If queer is the identity descriptor he likes, then the other characters are being seriously rude to him. After seeing Baz as an intense rival for seven years, Simon realizes what he really wants is to kiss him—and we have the dreaded absence of word “bisexual.” I assumed Simon would realize he’s bi in later books. I’ll save you the time: he doesn’t. Instead, we get the awkward “maybe I like women and Baz, like Baz-sexual,” type of line. Incredibly disappointing to read in what is marketed as a queer-positive book. Like with racism, societal homophobia has an odd vagueness surrounding it. My partner noted that it’s never stated if general magical society hates queer people, or if it’s only Baz’s family. Does Simon’s internalized biphobia trace its lineage to regular homophobic society, or the magical community? Over three books, we never find out.

Taking all this in, what gave Carry On its three stars? The magic system tickles me pink. Rowell manages to cram seven years of world-building and character history in one book and in an engaging manner. No mean feat! There’s no house elves. There are goblins, but they’re described as both beautiful and green, and I didn’t know what to do with that. Hermione’s replacement, Penny, is very charming and badass, with realistic flaws. Once Part 1 finishes, the book’s pace is relentlessly fast, and it worked in, again, a lore-heavy story. Remarkable. Agatha’s journey was a multi-faceted discussion of the damsel archetype. The Mage as a character, and a creator of his own problems, is riveting. To her credit, Rowell does what she promised to do: dissect chosen one stories and characters.

And that’s how I got to the phrase “Harry Potter but Okayer.” Carry On is fine. If I squint, I can see why people find it a palatable replacement for Harry Potter. “Comforting” seems a strong word. I’ve read worse. I’ve read better. I read the sequels, which I suppose is all that matters to publishers.

Review of Wayward Son: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/f9975b76-637f-44ff-878e-471c2e63ebdf

Review of Any Way the Wind Blows: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/98e43c19-ad87-4d1a-846b-65d48667c627