Grace Eccleston reviews Carry On by Rainbow Rowell, a light-hearted November read…
It’s difficult to describe Rainbow Rowell’s new novel, Carry On, without bringing up a confusing-sounding and very modern metatextual web of cultural references. The basics: in Rowell’s earlier book Fangirl, the main character Cath is obsessed with the Simon Snow series, the in-universe equivalent of Harry Potter, and writes fanfiction in which the Chosen One falls in love with his aristocratic vampire roommate Baz. For her next novel, Rowell decided to tell her own version of Simon and Baz’s final year, writing not as the original (fictional) author of the series but in her own voice.
“a ghost story, a love story, and a mystery”
The description on the cover describes the book as “a ghost story, a love story, and a mystery” and Carry On delivers generously on all three of these claims. The mystery revolves around an entity called “The Insidious Humdrum” which is sucking magic from the atmosphere, leaving spots across Britain where the air is terrifyingly empty of magic. As a boy born with enormous magical power, Simon Snow is destined to destroy the Humdrum, but despite this he’s still worrying about finishing school and trying to win his girlfriend back, plus freaking out about the fact that the Humdrum apparently looks exactly like Simon did aged eleven.
The author devised her own unique system of magic which underpins her World of Mages. Many fantasy writers have used the idea of writing as a metaphor for magic, and Rowell takes this and places it at the heart of spellcasting: magic can be channelled through phrases which have entered into our collective cultural memory and in doing so gained power. Thus any talentless hack with some magic inside them can cast a spell based off a clichéd phrase, but it takes real power and skill to cast a sonnet or a nursery rhyme. Obviously, a dramatic battle scene can’t really have much gravitas when the characters are yelling out well-known advertising slogans, but it makes for some very funny moments.
Carry On is not only deeply entertaining but also offers a refreshing alternative take on many of the clichés and conventions of Chosen One narratives and the fantasy genre. What does the hero’s girlfriend really think about this whole business, it asks us, and why shouldn’t the tension between our hero and his schoolboy nemesis who he constantly follows around be romantic after all? Rowell’s casual blurring of the lines separating author and reader interpretation and her bold steps towards diversity in fiction feel like an attempt to truly make good on the fantasy genre’s promise of a window to a world with greater possibilities.
If you’re looking for a light-hearted Halloween read which might have you realising you’re more of a romance fan than you previously thought, look no further: Carry On is an absolute delight.
(Five stars)