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okragarden's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Very different vibe than the first book. It starts off as kind of a moody contemporary novel focused on the main character's emotional issues and relationship problems. They have left the magical English boarding school setting and gone on a roadtrip in America. If you love Simon and Baz, it may hold your interest. If the appeal of Carry On was mostly about the Harry Potter-eqsue setting, plot, and tone, it may not.
About halfway through, magic and action start showing up again and there is some interesting world building and a likeable new character. Similar to the first book, the ending resolution feels like it came and went too fast. Unfortunately, the relationship drama from the first half doesn't really get resolved at all. I got the sense that it's meant to carry over into the third book.
Over all, I'm glad I read it because Baz and Simon are characters I love and who have lived in my head for years and I'm always going to want to hear more about them. But this novel feels like a somewhat weak bridge to get to the third one which is reviewed more highly.
About halfway through, magic and action start showing up again and there is some interesting world building and a likeable new character. Similar to the first book, the ending resolution feels like it came and went too fast. Unfortunately, the relationship drama from the first half doesn't really get resolved at all. I got the sense that it's meant to carry over into the third book.
Over all, I'm glad I read it because Baz and Simon are characters I love and who have lived in my head for years and I'm always going to want to hear more about them. But this novel feels like a somewhat weak bridge to get to the third one which is reviewed more highly.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Vomit and War
emilyg0663's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
This book is dark! Be prepared to be at the edge of your seat the whole time, and be desperate for the third book afterwards.
Wayward Son shows Simon, Baz and Penelope in a new light, and a completely different world! If the first book, Simon and Penelope have magic and can hold their own in a fight, Baz too. But here, they are completely unmatched but extremely lucky!! Every situation, every fight, they are either completely defeated or won but beaten up to exhaustion. They are broken and depressed and dragging their feet as they travel through this book, which made me feel helpless. Even the finale was crazy because they completely got lucked out with the Talkers just randomly showing up. It wasn’t completely random as it’s all Agatha was talking about in the book, but damn! They are all bleeding and in pain at the end, which doesn’t make it feel like a victory at all!!
This makes me extremely nervous for the characters, as they are not good heroes anymore. They can’t do anything right, and even Penelope has no plan which is completely a left field! I actually don’t feel as strongly attached to the characters anymore compared with the first book. <Spoilers> Penelope is an arrogant ‘know it all’ who actually is just a child who knows nothing, Simon is a broken human who has lost his reason for life but is brash and jumps into trouble every second he can. I was absolutely furious with Simon for this, wanted to smack him and tell him ‘sit down!’ And Baz did the most growth as to finding about more about himself, but he’d tided down to my most hated troupe; strained relationships over miscommunication……..
Other thing that stressed me out was the fact that every group hates eachother for biases that they created. Everyone is doing wrong things and blaming the other groups for their misfortunes. It made me realised that there is no good guy in these books, that I don’t root for the vampires, the mages orange creatures. I don’t even root for Simon!
I can’t wait for book 3
Wayward Son shows Simon, Baz and Penelope in a new light, and a completely different world! If the first book, Simon and Penelope have magic and can hold their own in a fight, Baz too. But here, they are completely unmatched but extremely lucky!! Every situation, every fight, they are either completely defeated or won but beaten up to exhaustion. They are broken and depressed and dragging their feet as they travel through this book, which made me feel helpless.
This makes me extremely nervous for the characters, as they are not good heroes anymore. They can’t do anything right, and even Penelope has no plan which is completely a left field! I actually don’t feel as strongly attached to the characters anymore compared with the first book. <Spoilers> Penelope is an arrogant ‘know it all’ who actually is just a child who knows nothing, Simon is a broken human who has lost his reason for life but is brash and jumps into trouble every second he can. I was absolutely furious with Simon for this, wanted to smack him and tell him ‘sit down!’ And Baz did the most growth as to finding about more about himself, but he’d tided down to my most hated troupe; strained relationships over miscommunication……..
Other thing that stressed me out was the fact that every group hates eachother for biases that they created. Everyone is doing wrong things and blaming the other groups for their misfortunes. It made me realised that there is no good guy in these books, that I don’t root for the vampires, the mages orange creatures. I don’t even root for Simon!
I can’t wait for book 3
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Grief, and Classism
Minor: Kidnapping