I absolutely adore this book! I read it a few months ago and am currently listening to the audiobook. I think I am even more in love with this story, if that is possible! ( )

I was bored to tears with this book. I know many people love it, so I kept reading, hoping it will get better - for me it didn't. I had a problem with all the past adventures that were mentioned in the book, I had this feeling, that I started reading a series from the last book, very disturbing for me. Plus, I didn't really like Simon and I hardly liked Baz. Definitely not for me and I'm not going to read the rest of this series. ( )

This book is so much fun. Draws you in by riffing on Harry Potter, and then keeps you with the characters and some genuinely clever worldbuilding. Will definitely reread. ( )

I honestly feel kinda rotten about not liking this because I know SO many people love this book and rave about it. The whole time I was listening to the audiobook I kept having to force myself to keep going, even when it wasn’t interesting- which was a lot of the time. 😕

The only character I liked was Baz, everyone else was either trope-y or just plain boring. Simon was basic af and a terribly unoriginal protagonist, Penny had potential but felt like she never grew beyond the cliche “brains of the operation” trope (which is ironic), and Agatha’s whole bit about not wanting to be part of the magic world just got old after she whined about it about a dozen times. I desperately wanted to like both Penny and Agatha but I just couldn't; as people they are just fine, but as characters they were lackluster and ultimately failed to hold my interest.
As for everyone else? I still barely know who Davey and Lucy are...their portions were so utterly boring that I had to rewind their chapters multiple times to try and pay attention, and then I just gave up and my eyes sorta glazed over whenever there was a chapter of theirs. I know they are central characters to the main plot, but I just couldn't bring myself to care. They were both written in ways that gave me zero reason to want to try and understand their points or to sympathize with them.

The plot overall was drier than a piece of beef jerky left out on a road in the middle of the summer. During a drought. In the Sahara desert. While all the elements (magic school, a mysterious evil being, big cast of characters) SHOULD have made a fun read, none of these bits were written in ways that intrigued me or gave the world much character. The plot was nothing less than inevitable. I was never surprised by any turn of events, which was incredibly disappointing especially given how much hype this book has! It felt like the most cookie-cutter magic school YA story someone could have had paired with a half-baked romance and given weird spell names to make it “quirky”.
Speaking of which: although I liked the explanation behind why the spells were created how they were, it was bordering ridiculous hearing characters screech Queen lyrics or nursery rhymes or “Scooby Dooby Doo” or whatever throughout the entire book. It gets annoying very quickly.

Finally, I feel like there was SO much lead up for so little payoff!! The audiobook is 13 hours and nothing “heavy” started happening until there were only 3 hours left, and even then it wasn’t until the final hour and 1/2 that the climax occurred. It felt like a huge letdown, and there were no twists or turns to really engage me in those final moments.
Before that, the beginning of the book consisted entirely of a) info dumps on everything that had happened in the past several years, and b) really boring angst of Simon obsessing about Baz and where Baz was and what Baz was doing and how evil Baz must be. This goes on until Baz finally shows up, and then there is a LOTTTTTT of sitting around, making plans by drawing on blackboards, more obsessing about Baz, and MORE long-ass chunks of time spent sitting/lounging/laying around while "planning" and "researching".

I was trying to convince myself the whole time that this was a good book and that it was fun, but about 75% in I realized there has been maybe 3 things I had liked (which I’m having trouble remembering) and the rest had felt like a chore to listen to. 😓 “Carry On” just wasn’t for me, and I definitely won’t be reading the sequel. ( )

In Rowell’s Fangirl, the main character writes fanfic for a HP-like series about a school of magic and a Chosen One. Carry On is the first book in a trilogy that is Rowell’s version of that fanfic. So it’s fake fanfic of a fake series, and it is amazing. I adore it. And in fact I love it more than HP these days, what with Rowling being a turd. Think Harry and Draco as roomies with an enemies-to-lovers story arc and as much more interesting characters as well. ( )