One star not because I detested it but because it's fairly bad and falls short of two stars. [book:Carry On|32768522] read like a really good fanfic---thoughtful about the source material, plot-oriented, original. Wayward Son is a mediocre coffeeshop AU of Carry On. Even if I liked coffeeshop AUs, I wasn't that invested in any of the characters.

A timeline of listening to the audio book:

5%: Uh oh, I really hope this develops a plot soon.

14%: Just finished the scene where Baz tries to teach Simon to drive. Seriously considering ditching.

The only person whose growth I'm at all interested in is Agatha, and it sounds like she just keeps making the same old mistakes? Sigh. The next time she gets a chapter is at 22%.

~60%: OK, I figured I'd "flip through" the audiobook and hear Agatha's chapters (which are too few and too far between); I started listening again at ~45% because there was a new character, and then the plot showed up, and now I think I might finish it? I don't feel like I missed anything important, lol.

100%: Nope, I finished it, still bad.

The only thing that I missed by skipping everything except Agatha between 14% and 45% was however they met The Muggle, and what a Quiet Zone is. The callbacks to something funny about skunks and carhenge were just as good OK without actually reading them, which was something Carry On got very right.

Agatha doesn't get the character development I hoped for, and we don't even find out if her dog is possessed or not. I don't *like* Agatha as a person, but she interests me more than the other characters. She's got all this uncertainty, disillusionment, and teenage white feminist schtick bubbling under her skin, and that's before we even get to her maybe being queer.

But no, she doesn't get to stretch her wings and figure out what she's actually interested in, she just gets kidnapped again and gets to fight back briefly this time and that's supposed to be cathartic. (It's not.)

Nobody in this book grapples with the effects their issues have on other people, they just marinate in them. Ugh. ( )

What's that, you say? A paranormal coming-of-age novel featuring two traumatized teenagers who have serious intimacy issues and would rather fight monsters than Use Their Words? Yes please.

Wayward Son is episodic and uneven (I actually quite like roadtrip stories, but they do come with perils). Still, it's a super fun read and Baz really comes into his own in his book. I don't know what I loved most, his sweet getup of couture button-down shirts vintage driving scarf, or all the gross-out vampire scenes, or the painfully realistic depiction of his messy relationship with Simon, or my favorite chapters in the entire novel, in which Baz explores the vampire underworld of Las Vegas and really reckons with his identity.

Like I said in my review of Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me, more complicated and flawed teenage relationships in novels, please? Thx.

A wonderful sequel to "Carry On"! It's a bit slow in spots, but the beginning and the second half are quite wonderful, and overall I just really liked it. Really looking forward to book 3! ( )

What I liked about it:

- THE ANGLE OF FRIENDSHIP AND THAT THEY WILL DO ANYTHING TO MAKE YOU HAPPY AND KEEP YOU SAFE WAS WELL EXPLORED.
- I IMAGINED IAN SOMERHALDER A LOT WHILE THEY SPOKE OF THE AMERICAN VAMPIRES AND THAT CAN NEVER BE A BAD THING.
- THE LAST FEW CHAPTERS WERE THRILLING AND THE REASON WHY I RATED THE BOOK A 3!


What I did not fancy:

- SO CONFUSING TO BEGIN WITH
- TOOK ME A LONG TIME TO GET INTO THE BOOK
- FELT HIGHLY UNNECESSARY BUT THE ENDING WAS GOOD
- IT WAS REALLY RANDOM AND I AM UNABLE TO SEE IT AS A SECOND PART OF THE SERIES! IT RATHER FEELS LIKE A SPIN OFF. ( )

I realized as I started to read this that I had almost no concrete memories of the first Simon Snow novel. Yes, I remembered the basic premise, but that was about it. And maybe for that reason, or maybe just because that’s how it is for me with Rainbow Rowell’s books, it took me a little while to get into this one. Simon and Penelope and Baz make their way to America to rescue their friend Agatha from some vague danger, picking up a strange magic fanboy along the way. The danger Agatha has found herself in turns out to be much more acute than anyone thought, and extricating her requires serious paranormal ass-kicking. There is no doubt this is more urban fantasy than Harry Potter, though it is also a coming-of-age story of the sort that Rowell excels at. Simon is adjusting to an existence without magic (though not without power), Baz is forced to explore some vampiric realities, and Penelope, well, Penelope just has to grow up and learn she might not have all the answers, but that might be okay. Classic YA, but with a definite fantastical twist. ( )