UK Publishing Date: 25 Feb 2016. 528 pages.
Did I love this or hate it? I’m still not entirely sure. In Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl the main character is a girl called Cath who writes fan fiction. Specifically Harry Potter fan fiction featuring an orphan wizard called Simon and a vampire called Baz who go to a school of magic in Watford. It’s a fun story and the characters are good but the whole time I was reading it there was a little pixie sitting on my shoulder and sniggering “Harry Potter!!” in my ear. It doesn’t help that the Warner Bros. Studio Tour for Harry Potter is based just outside Watford so every time I read the school name it just reinforced Potter in my head.
Carry on is an interesting concept – essentially writing fan fiction about a fan fiction character in your other novel based on another author’s characters. Unfortunately for me I just couldn’t suspend disbelief long enough to slip inside these new characters. I just kept thinking he’s Draco, she’s Hermione… and it ruined it for me.
It is quite a sturdy read at 528 pages and the first part of the book is a little slow with all of the back story being set up for Simon, Penelope, Agatha and Baz. Once you get past this and Baz appears properly the story does pick up pace but unfortunately I won’t be in a hurry to pick up any more iterations on this type of theme.
If you can get involved with the new characters and ignore all the Potterisms it is a fun story but it just didn’t work for me.
Supplied by Net Galley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Categories: 2 Stars Book Review
angelnet69
Prolific reader, enthusiastic theatre and movie-goer and ex-Olivier Awards judge who spent twenty years working in the music industry in London. Sharing my house with a gorgeous cockapoo called Harry who has taken over completely.
I love sharing my favourite books with friends - nearly always spoiler-free as I hate reading a synopsis of the whole book in other reviews.
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