Alright -- it's been a few days since I finished Wayward Son and then feverishly word-vomited a review at two in the morning. I've had some time to think about it and come to some new conclusions, so I'm redoing the review. Here goes:

In some ways, I liked Wayward Son better, but then in others, I really didn't.

Carry On is a knock-off of Harry Potter. That's...the point. To be honest, it was one of the reasons I didn't love the book: I'm just too much of a die-hard Harry Potter fan to really love something that is, by design, a dupe. All the same, I didn't hold that against Carry On, because that was the point.

Wayward Son felt, to me, like a knock-off of [b:The Lightning Thief|28187|The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1)|Rick Riordan|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1400602609l/28187._SY75_.jpg|3346751]. This was not the point of the book. I worried that it might just be me -- that because I reread TLT earlier this month, I was just overestimating the similarities and seeing a weak connection as more than it was. As a test, I offered a summary of the book to my sister, who hasn't read PJO in years, and her first response was "Sounds like Percy Jackson." So I don't think it's just me. I mean, come on. A motley crew of 3 magical teens of varying types (kids in PJO but) makes their way on an episodic adventure-laden road trip across America in order to rescue a fourth person? There are obviously plot-based differences but it felt tonally and thematically pretty similar. Was this an intentional call-back to another classic middle-grade fantasy of my generation's youth? I don't know, I guess, but because this isn't something I've seen talked about by anyone else, I don't think so.

This book was pitched as "what happens after the adventure is over, when you're no longer the chosen one with a big bad to fight." So, I expected it to be more of a contemporary drama rather than just...another fantasy adventure. Which it absolutely was. Perhaps this was foolish of me -- even the Goodreads summary of the book makes it clear that it will be a magical adventure. But I think I would have been less disappointed if it had retained any of the drama I was expecting from that contemporary drama.

In the first few pages, we are made aware of two big problems in our hero's life: 1) that he has become depressed due to his drastically changed life, and 2) that because of this, and because of their changed situation, there are significant issues in Bas and Simon's relationship. This 350+ page book makes no headway in resolving either of these issues. Just as we might get some discussion about them, Penny hops in with her road trip idea, and both the characters and we as readers are expected to be so completely distracted by the shenanigans that we won't be frustrated that no headway is made on either throughout the entire book. Simon and Bas have no significant discussions about their relationship. Simon does no introspection, comes to no realizations about his mental health, and has no conversations about it with any other characters.

Fantasy is nothing but a backdrop because, at their core, all books have to be essentially about the characters. If your fantasy book is only about fighting dragons and has no relatable, human problems, it will fail. It is this balance that Rowell got wrong. A highly shippable pairing is not enough to carry a fantasy novel.

So, if you've gotten this far, I applaud you. I'll take this last paragraph to go through some of the things I liked. Road trips! They're a fun trope, and Rowell did a good job with it. Even more fun was the idea of a couple of clueless, isolated British teens road-tripping through America. Watching them discover and experience parts of a new culture was delightful. Secondly, I really liked the growth of Bas and Penny's friendship. Platonic friendship is, as a rule, underused in YA fantasy, so you've got to savor it where you can get it.