Hi Everyone!
I think it's important to start this post by saying that I read very little fantasy, especially in the last few years. When I first started reading, fantasy was all I would read but I fell out of love with it and struggled to find well-written, engrossing books that weren't just full of battles, fighting and descriptions of firing spells at each other with blinding green light. It wasn't new and exciting anymore so I just stopped reading it. I gravitated, and still do, towards more realistic books.
One of these more realistic books is Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. I read it at the start of the summer holidays so it is all documented in my summer diaries. You can view them here and here. In Fangirl, there is a fictional book series that the main character, Cath, is obsessed with. It is a Harry Potter style saga called the Simon Snow series. Cath writes fanfiction about it, and calls it Carry On. Rainbow Rowell then wrote Carry On to accompany Fangirl but also be it's own story in it's own right.
It's quite confusing if you haven't read the book but basically, it is linked to Fangirl!
It is about Simon Snow, the Chosen One to defeat the beast that has been sucking the magic out of the air, causing havoc in the magical world. He attends Watford School Of Magicks, where he only really has one friend, Penelope and his girlfriend Agatha. Then there's his infuriating nemesis Baz who Simon is sure is a vampire.
But as he enters his last year at Watford, things aren't going his way: his girlfriend broke up with him, his mentor is avoiding him and his Baz didn't even bother to show up to school.
This book is SO GOOD and I maybe even prefer it to Fangirl. I just love it so much! This whole world is just AMAZING and there is a spoilery part of the novel (which I found out about in Fangirl) which just makes the entire book so much better. It involves a romance and that's all I want to say but obviously if you read the book you will know what I mean! Just thinking about it gives me shivers!
I found this world more believable than Harry Potter in the sense that the magic world was more connected to the Normal world and the characters (especially Agatha) still had friends who were Normal. I really like this aspect and it made the novel feel so real and alive, which is something I often miss in fantasy.
There are battles, but these are few and far between and the way they are described I really liked. I'm not sure exactly why but it's something to do with how the fighting was done and why, but also how it wasn't the kind of battle where it goes on about this person firing sparks and this person shooting back before screaming a curse and killing someone.
I also thought that the way it is written from multiple perspectives was so clever and wasn't just put in for the sake of it, which is another things that often annoys me in books: when there are different perspectives but they don't add anything to the story and are completely unnecessary.
Agatha would probably annoy me if I knew her, but I think Penelope would be my best friend. Maybe she can be my best friend anyway?! She'd have to join The Paper And Hearts Society!
I think this is a book that is best to go into pretty blind and just enjoy the ride. It's one of my new favourite fantasy books (if not my favourite) and I want to convince lots of you to read it too!
Let's chat!
Do you read much fantasy? Do you have any recommendations for me?
Happy Reading!
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