So what happens after the hero vanquishes the villain and wins the heart of the fair maiden? They live happily ever after right? Well do they really? Anyone who has ever seen the Musical Into the Woods knows that yea, fairy tales don’t always live happily ever after. A better comparison might be the Play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, that doesn’t exactly portrays Harry in the best light. I mean seriously, no Harry kinda grows up to be a dick but I digress. Simon Snow didn’t really believe he would survive the HumDrum but he did and to so he gave up his powers and has wings and a tail. He moved into a flat with Baz and Penelope and went to college. Baz and Simon are together and Penelope is still her best friend. Agatha is off living the good life in California. Everything should be good. They won! So, why is everyone unhappy. Penelope’s solution is a road trip. She thinks that Agatha is in trouble and what better way to get everyone out of their funk then go on a mission to save her and drive across the Great US of A. The problem is they have no idea how big the US really is or how things work here. It seems the US is kinda like the wild west of the Magical world. Anything goes and no real formal organization. Our heroes found themselves in so funny situations thanks to cultural clashes and well underestimating how weird the US really is. One of the funniest scenes is when they stumbled on a Ren Faire in Omaha and our flabbergasted to see people dressed up in Medieval garb as it’s regular wear. I guess they don’t have Renaissance faire’s in Britain? Along the way, they meet my new favorite character, Shepherd who is just too nice and too curious for his own good. I love him and I can’t wait to read more of them. In a way Penelope is right, they needed this road trip. Baz discovered that there is more to being a vampire then he knew. Simon still had fight left in him. Penelope is still a clever but maybe not as clever as she thinks and needs to learn to trust others and Agatha was in trouble but she also was the damsel in distress this time. She ultimately found a way out and helped save them all. When I started it, I didn’t realize that there was going to be another book. Rainbow Rowell doesn’t right series. This is actually her first sequel but when the book ended on a pretty big cliffhanger, I screamed there better be another one! Thank goodness their is. I can’t wait to read what happens next. This series is just too much fun to let go.
In July, one of favorite authors, Rainbow Rowell announced her next project would be writing a new series of Marvel’s Runaways, we were intrigued. True I was hoping she would be releasing a new novel. It’s been over a year since Carry On came out. I wasn’t all that familiar with Runaways. I knew of them from all the years shelving graphic novels while working at Barnes and Noble but never really paid much attention. Well, the Runaways are having a moment. Not only are they being revived by Rowell but next year Hulu is premiering a TV show based on them. I’m a big fan of Rowell’s. I enjoy her writing so for the first time I’m going to read issue by issue instead of waiting for Trades to come out because let’s be honest, even with a star writer and an only cult following there is no guarantee that they will come out in trade. I didn’t even know you could pre-order comic books like you can book books! It’s a whole new world for me people. I’ve decided that even though Rowell’s Runaways is a reboot so I don’t need to be a fan to runaway, I would go ahead and read the previous stories. So far, I’ve made it through the original series by Brian K. Vaughn and artist Adrian Alphona (2003-2004) and they are delightful. I can see why so many people latched on to them. It follows a group of teenagers with seemingly nothing in common except for once a year they are forced together as their parents get together to catch up and fund raise for charities. Alex, Nico, Karolina, Gert, Chase and Molly discover that their parents are not who they think they are. They are in fact super-villains and they call themselves the Pride. They runaway as they try to figure out what to do next. They also discover that some of them have powers of their own. Molly is mutant with super strength. Karolina is actually from another planet and has the ability to fly and glow. Nico is a kind of a sorceress who can cast spells. Gert has a psychic connection to a dinosaur. That’s right a dinosaur! Being a teenager is hard enough but being a teenager on the run from your evil parents while trying to figure out how to use your powers is down right stressful! It’s a full cast of diverse characters with different backgrounds and different personalities. I’m quite enjoying them. Now on to the next series.
When I Rainbow Rowell announced that her next book would be Carry On the entire internet let out a huge SQUEEEE!! For those who may not be familiar with her work (which really you should) in her 2013 novel, Fangirl, she introduced us to Simon Snow, a Harry Potteresque “chosen one” and his nemesis/roommate Baz. In Fangirl, Simon and Baz are characters in a beloved fantasy series that Cath was writing a fan-fiction for. We got a few snippets of Simon and Baz through Cath’s writing, in which she took the characters from enemies to lovers. Cath spends Fangirl trying onto finish her fan-fiction before the author of Simon Snow series, Gemma T. Leslie publishes the final book. Carry On is the final book of the Simon Snow series but it’s not Cath’s story or Gemma T. Leslie’s story it’s Rainbow’s story. I guess that’s sort of meta. Rainbow isn’t really writing her own fan-fiction. How can an author write a fan-fiction of her own work? I guess this is more canon then anything else since she is the original creator. Cath and Gemma, don’t actually exist. I would say it’s in it’s own unique category. The other thing that makes this different from Rainbow’s other book is that it’s a full fledged fantasy novel. Her other books have all been contemporary novels though Landline does have the fantastical element of having a magical phone that allows Georgie to talk to her husband Neal from the past. So this is new territory for her but she passes with flying colors. In a way, Carry On is much a love letter to the fantasy novels of her life. Obviously, Harry Potter is a huge influence but so is Chronicles of Narnia and a little Twilight among others. She’s able to give little winks and even a little commentary on other franchises while still remaining it’s own thing.
