Reviews with content warning for Biphobia - Carry On

Reviews tagging 'Biphobia'

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

15 reviews

bumblebree1903's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

The only thing stopping me from really liking this book is that one of the main characters is an unapologetic bigot and this is never addressed or treated with the seriousness it should be.

SO, on to my more in-depth thoughts on the book. I thought the beginning was fairly strong. I really liked Simon’s POV and while the world-building could be a bit of an info dump, I didn’t fully mind it and thought Simon’s inner monologue made it rather funny. I thought Simon’s break from the traditional chosen one of selflessness and martyrdom was a nice change, I like that he wanted to be selfish and have his own life. I liked the women characters in the book for the most part, but it didn’t feel like the book could quite decide if being fem was a good thing or something to be shamed. The relationships felt realistic and I enjoyed getting into their dynamics. As for our other leading man, Baz, I thought his POV was hilarious. He’s so wildly dramatic is was fun to listen to. He’s funny and sarcastic, but more aware of his feelings and (mostly) how to handle them as opposed to Simon, which was a nice change. I thought the foreshadowing of the book was extremely well done and none of the twist were particularly dissatisfying and I thought every one made sense.

While the world building isn’t really something you can look at too hard, I don’t mind it, especially when it lends to interesting dynamics between characters and (sometimes) nuances in their world views and the conflicts happening. It made me wish the nuance could be carried into more things and when it wasn’t it fell short. A handful of things in the book were presented as shades of grey, but others were stark black and white with no variation in between and that felt like a bit of a let down.

Finally, there were a handful of more problematic things that made me dislike the book and kinda cemented for me that I wouldn’t be continuing the series, which is disappointing because I think the books have a lot of potential. To start with, Baz and his family are horribly bigoted and this is never addressed. It’s mentioned a few times, but this never gives Simon pause in making out with Baz nor does he bring it up as a sort of “hey this is a really shitty way of thinking and I want to see it change because I’m not going to date a bigot.” It’s largely swept under the rug by the end of the book unless Baz wants to angst about being a vampire. Furthermore on the topic of Simon and Baz’s relationship, I hated the way Simon’s sexuality was treated. Every character seems to drive home he HAS to either be straight or gay as if sexuality isn’t a spectrum and there aren’t other sexualities out there that he could be. As someone who themself is queer and is attracted to multiple genders, it was upsetting to read about these characters ignoring that and insisting Simon must be one or the other. Finally, there’s the book’s inconsistent treatment of femininity. It was strange to me the only opening feminine character was often depicted as a mean girl who did very little to help or care for her friends and it was never clear if Penny’s blatantly misogynistic views on felinity and women who want to be feminine were being supported by the author. Perhaps some of these are remedied in the later books, but they just left a sour taste in my mouth for the first one and have deterred me from continuing the series.

Overall, I think the book was just okay, but was held back by a handful of iffy writing decisions and the seeming pushing of some questionable views.

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snackattackisback69's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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bornachoker's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

This was a cute read. I felt like the pacing was a little off, but I enjoyed the characters and the humorous tone. Also, is bisexuality not a concept in this book at all haha.

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squinnittowinit's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book reads at first like an excellent Harry Potter parody, lightheartedly poking fun at the plot holes and loose worldbuilding moments of the HP series as the main character, Simon Snow, recounts his misadventures (a humorously self-aware reskinning of many HP plot points) at his magical school during years 1-7.

I was ready for this book to be a Harry Potter parody and nothing more the entire way through (and would have loved every minute of it), but I was very pleasantly surprised to find an actual, original plot that played very well with the humorous setting and premise. The plot and the surprisingly complex characters took this book from parody to a genuinely gripping Harry Potter rewrite that successfully delivered a more complex (and plausible) plot, alongside characters that were more flawed yet more understandable at the same time.

I felt like this book was wholly satisfying as a standalone. I don't really feel any need to read the sequels, though I'm sure I'll get to them someday. For now, I'm left with that same soul-satisfied feeling that I get when I've just finished a 100k word fanfic with no tags and I can't remember what it was like to have ever not known about something so wonderful.

4.5 stars because of complete bi erasure and minor racism (not the inclusion of it in the world but rather minorly problematic descriptions/inconsistent descriptions of poc by the author)

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vaka's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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marciafelis's review

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adventurous emotional funny tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Someone recommended this book to me as (in short) "Harry Potter but better and gay", and it did not disappoint on those counts. I love the way magic works in this book, and the characters were vibrant and most of them were very relatable. As some other reviewers have pointed out, the story does feel like very elaborate (and well-written) fanfiction at times. For me, that's more of a feature than a bug, but some people might be a bit exasperated by the tropes employed.

One minor gripe is that apparently none of the characters know bisexuality is a thing. It would be fine if it was just that

Spoiler

Simon

hasn't thought of it (with emphasis on how

Spoiler

often "doesn't think") or doesn't want to define

Spoiler

him

self/use that label (yet), but someone (at the very least

Spoiler

the psychologist Simon starts seeing in the epilogue

) could have brought it up. I'll see how it's going to turn out in the next book, though, as I'm going to Carry On reading!

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vaguely_pink's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

nerdydreamer107's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

So much bi-erasure.

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inkyinsanity's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No

1.0

Before I start this review, I would like to point out the absolute frustration I have suffered trying to mentally and verbally distinguish Rowell and Rowling. I know the difference. But when you’re in the middle of a rant, it’s really easy to say the wrong name.

Since Carry On is a parody/riff-off/published-fan-fiction of Harry Potter, originally created as the Harry Potter stand-in for Rowell’s main character of her YA contemporary <i>Fangirl</i> to write fan-fiction of, and then turned into an attempted original novel, mixing the authors’ names up is exceptionally irritating.

Five short disclaimers:
1: I have not read Fangirl, nor do I plan to.
2: I actively disliked the vast majority of contemporary fiction I ever read, and so generally avoid it.
3: I adore Harry Potter and fantasy fiction is my favorite genre.
4: I have read, and continuously read, a lot of Harry Potter fan-fiction. I like fanfiction as it’s own genre, fan communication, and/or literary analysis, etc.
5: I can count the number of romance-centric stories I like on one hand. Similarly to contemporary fiction, I tend to avoid them.

I knew Carry On was parodied meta-fiction inspired by fictional fanfiction when I got into it. I tried to be a cautious buyer: I read reviews and an excerpt before getting the book. I expected mediocre writing; tongue-in-cheek copy/pasted characters, world building, and plot; a cliché slash (m/m aka gay) romance between pseudo-Harry and pseudo-Draco (not a ship I like, but whatever—I expected it to be somewhat original); and I expected it to be ridiculously, hilariously cheesy.

I expected to have fun.

I laughed occasionally, but that’s not the same at all. I’m still debating if the rating should be dropped another star. (I decided on yes.)

First of all, this is not actually Harry Potter fanfiction. This is <i>Twilight</i> fanfiction dressed in a Gryffindor uniform, waving a wooden stick.

The “i know what you are—say it!—vampire!” scene was literally word for word. It’s just as ridiculous in here as it was in Twilight, except this adds the insult of plagiarism. Mockery is not an excuse, because Rowell played it straight. (Pun unintended.)

For all that I’ve seen other people in the reviews complain about the Harry Potter plagiarism, I have to disagree a little. Yes, Simon Snow is clearly a riff off of HP, but Rowell does change characters, world, and plot enough that the ideas are actually full of potential: The mentor might be the antagonist, the bad guy literally eats magic, spells are made from common vernaculars, do the ends truly justify the means, why don’t traumatized fictional kids ever get therapy, etc. It’s poorly written trope parody, but I can understand why it gets the legal pass.

But she literally takes the Twilight scene word for word.

Twilight is an apt comparison. Both boys were continuously described as gross, which is the opposite of how I thought romance is written. I naively assumed one should find their love interest at least somewhat physically attractive and intellectually/personally stimulating or whatever too.

It isn’t until over 400 pages in that Simon even remotely considers Baz good looking…and it only happens once or twice. Baz, at least, finds Simon attractive, (I don’t know how), but the descriptors given are really pretty nasty.

Examples: (Simon about Baz)

“He has these droopy dog eyes…it’s like his face was designed for pouting.”
“Today, [his eyes] are the color of wet pavement.”
“He looks like he’s been in some American terror prison.”
“He’s got a cruel mouth. It looks like he’s sneering even when he’s happy about something. Actually, I don’t know if he ever is happy. It’s like he’s got two emotions—pissed off and sadistically amused. “

(Baz about Simon)

“Snow blusters like no one else. But! I! I mean! Um! It’s just! It’s no wonder he can never spit out a spell.”
“He’s half a f*cking numpty [ogre] himself.”
“...he says through a maw full of roast beef.”
“…Simon Snow is standing there like a lost dog. Or an amnesia victim.”
“Snow’s table manners are atrocious—it’s like watching a wild dog eat. A wild dog you’d like to slip the tongue.”

Forget attractive. Those are disgusting. They should not be used to describe the love interest from the other love interest’s point of view. Worst of all, there’s a lot more. That’s just a selection of my personal worst offenders.

It’s one thing to portray an average-looking anybody as a love interest. That’s not my problem. The problem is when the person supposedly attracted to the love interest repeatedly describes the love interest as disgusting.

Regarding the actual writing quality, it is literally all tell and no show. Worse, there’s no explanations ever given. We get 500 pages of words talking about nothing.

We don’t get action. We don’t get even flashbacks! We just get told some things, sometimes. Mostly, we get talked at and told nothing. Every other sentence could be removed and it would probably be for the best. It was sometimes fun, but mostly I remained bored and disappointed.

“Is this how you usually plot my downfall?”
“Yes. With multicolored chalk. Stop complaining.”

The magic had some very cool potential. Basically, the more often non-magical people speak phrases, the more powerful that phrase is when used as a spell. So all the spells were things like references, song lyrics, or little sayings.

Unfortunately, this often became comedic at the wrong time as characters would choose the most ridiculous phrases to shout at moments when there was supposed to be tension or drama, and it really broke the emotional beats.

Speaking of poor word choices, “gay” isn’t actually said until the last parts of the book; instead, the q slur is what the author chose to use. I can kind of see Baz using it, since his family’s homophobic and he explicitly has internalized homophobia of his own, but it’s used textually as a completely acceptable term to use instead of gay or homosexual and I hate that. So also please be aware of its presence if anyone else has issues with that slur.

Also, when gay is finally used, it’s used in reference to Simon, when what should actually be said is “bisexual.”

If the author wanted to write a gay character, she shouldn’t have had him fall in love with a girl first. She shouldn’t have given Simon literally the same exact feelings towards both Baz and Agatha, and she shouldn’t have described those feelings in the exact same way (when they were actually described).

That’s called bisexual.

I don’t think this was done with any maliciousness or intentional biphobia (I saw other reviewers being extremely paranoid about it, so clarifying my thoughts here). It is extremely difficult to change your own world view, and I think Rowell simply didn’t consider making Simon bisexual because she’s most likely attracted to only one sex, and so that’s what she assumes her characters also are, even if which sex they like varies person to person.

She wrote it in a way which made it easy to interpret differently, but to be fair, the rest of the book is also easy to see in a way I really don’t think she intended: boring.

Returning to slur usage: she uses the British word for cigarettes, which is the same as the f-slur used in America against gay men. Interestingly enough, this word was used only when Baz was involved. Again, I put it on the poor writing.

Plotwise, there’s none. The big bad didn’t do a thing until over 200 pages in, which we later find out why as we also find out that the big bad doesn’t actually mean a thing to the story. The actual antagonist is useless and mostly uses his social status as a threat, because he sure isn’t.

This is where you can tell this story is not an epic fantasy of any sort, and is actually a character-driven contemporary without either character development or likable characters.

I saw every single plot twist coming until I grew too bored to think. There weren’t many to start with. Guessing them correctly was not satisfying.

To wrap up this rambling rant so I can finally be done thinking about this book, Here are some loose thoughts and quotes from when I was taking notes during my read-through:

—•—•—

[when talking about Baz’s magic:] “Someone else’s magic never feels like your own—like someone else’s spit never tastes like your own.”

“Them’re” is not used as dialogue, unfortunately, and is used in the actual prose.

Baz: “I bloody well should marry [Simon’s ex-gf]. My father would love it. Marry her. Give her the keys to whatever she wants keys to. Then find a thousand men who look exactly like Simon bloody Snow and break each of their hearts a different way.”

Agatha’s an interesting storyline but NOT in an epic modern Fantasy, the thing this is ’supposed’ to be.

”Looks like a race...”

???

Baz rolls his eyes. “Well, it’s not like you have any family of your own.”

Oh god, Penny and Agatha have the Can Girls Like Pink Debate. Pg 310.

So manyyyy POVs

Magic or magick

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toberomanced's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

I love the characters, but there were a couple of problematic lines in here.

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