User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
Someone tweeted at Rainbow Rowell, asking “on a scale of 1 to 10, how romantic will AWTWB be?” and she replied with something like “61”.
After the rampant miscommunication in Wayward Son… I am here to happily announce that
she did not lie !! Not only did Simon and Baz get to experience happiness together, but Penny, Shepard and Agatha also got their fair share of romance.
“I thought we had the sort of love that you can’t set down or walk away from. An undying fire. The love that you hear about in the old stories.”As the final book in the greatly beloved
Simon Snow trilogy,
Any Way the Wind Blows had big shoes to fill. While I do think this installment showcased the best character development of the three, I also think it suffered from the weakest plot. (Yes, this is coming from me, miss “I don’t need a good plot if I love the characters enough”)
After
Wayward Son, I was looking forward to further exploration into the world of vampire gangs and river spirits and pretty much
anything that took place in that book. Instead, most of what happened in America is scrapped as everyone gets back to Watford, replaced by something entirely new. Don’t get me wrong, the storyline in AWTWB isn’t
bad by any means. It kept me really entertained. It was just hard not to notice how big of a book this is, and how not a lot happened plot-wise in comparison. Relationship-wise is a different story; if you’re reading solely for Simon and Baz and their romance, I’m sure you’ll be very happy with this book. Above all else, the entire cast got their fairytale endings, so who would I be to ask for more?
“I know I'll never love anyone like I love Baz. I know he's the love of my life. Of all my lives.” 03/07/19
At this point SnowBaz is my life source, my soul food and my happiness.Let them be happy, Rowell, I beg you.
Rating: really liked it
i am just waiting for my finals to end in november so i can read this
never ever thought carry on would get a sequel and now it's a trilogy (!!!!!)
Rating: really liked it
after wayward son, please let this entire book be rainbow rowell putting snowbaz's relationship in rice.
Rating: really liked it
I will be back to write a full review later when my full rage has set in.
Im back with my full review, SPOILERS AHEAD, but I don’t recommend reading anyway so I’d say read this anyway.
I think the thing that made me the most frustrated when reading this book, was how utterly pointless it was in the first place.
They never talk about the events of the second book, or about the vampire gangs, and they never tell anyone about it either. So why did it exist in the first place, my first thought was “oh to introduce Shepard into the plot” but as much as I love Shepard, he does absolutely nothing for this book. He gets his problem solved. He just serves as a stand in for Penny to distract herself from Simon, so that Simon and Baz can…I don’t know, have almost-sex in the most inappropriate places?
Rainbow created something I like to call, The Simon and Baz Problem. Where she made it almost impossible for them to stay together. I was expecting for them to break up, what I wasn’t expecting was for them to dump eachother and then GET BACK TOGETHER TWENTY PAGES LATER. At that point what has changed? Why even breakup in the first place? And I know, it’s Simon realizing he has to “actually try” in his relationship with Baz, but did this issue really need to take up the first 200 pages?? Especially if their breakup is essentially IRRELEVANT.
Pretty much everyone’s losing their shit for the first 250 pages, to the point where it’s not even fun anymore, you’re just watching them all fall apart. Another big problem I had was how out of character a lot of these interactions felt. You’re telling me Simon couldn’t even bring himself to hold Baz’s hand in the second book, but now he’s trying to dry hump him in the Watford library? Good god.
They’re both just weirdly out of character, and also very…I don’t know how to phrase this…pervy? I did not need to read as much smut as I did, especially because half the time it was confusing as hell. They would be in the middle of a sweet and romantic moment and I’d go “that is so sweet I- and one of them has their dicks out again, great…” THIS HAPPENS MULTIPLE TIMES.
I really was rooting for this third book, I was so excited for it, but it just feels so random and disconnected with itself. Every single character is doing their own thing and not communicating, but I’d argue that the character interactions and everyone working together, were the best part of Carry On. And even though this was supposed to be the “final book” there was a lot of unanswered questions, and a lame ending. I’m just so upset because it feels like there didn’t even need to be a second or third book.
Any Way The Wind Blows finally gets good at around the 300 mark, but what am I gonna tell people “yeah, just stick it out for two thirds of the book, I promise it’s worth it” all the good stuff happens at the end, and the main villain in the third book, is just a carbon copy of The Mage. I don’t know, maybe that was the point? I just wish I didn’t spend so much time being made to read about Simon and Baz’s weird kinks, Christ. I’m so disappointed, I felt really represented by Simon in Carry on, now what am I gonna say, yeah I relate to the guy whose constantly trying to chew the hell out of his boyfriend? I know they had to touch on Simons issues with intimacy, but they did it in such a sexual way, and it’s frankly weird that only Simon and Baz got this treatment.
Anyway, I doubt anyone’s read all this, I’ll see you in two years when she says she’s making a fourth book.
Rating: really liked it
a little disappointed this one isn't called "there'll be peace when you are done"
Rating: really liked it
I'd have signed a marriage contract with a demon for Rainbow to have gotten these two married, but I'm pretty happy with this ending too.🕺
Rating: really liked it
i hope this is 500 pages long
Rating: really liked it
Ahhh, the silly angst turned up to eleven.
“I just want to be with you,” I say. “And this is where we are now. I’m a broken-down mess, and you’re a rat-drinking monster.”
This series started as a fluffy wizarding school archenemies-turned-lovers fanfic-cubed that was my guilty pleasure, went on an angsty detour through middle America and now came to the angst-filled conclusion that has me a bit torn. Because no matter how much I love Baz (and tolerate Simon), I could not overlook the flaws.
I liked the world Rowell created in the first book, with the deconstruction of the usual Chosen One story, with interesting magic system, and class clashes between the old wealthy families and revolutionary bloodthirsty reformers, the wrongs and rights intermixed in the world outside of the usual paradigms set firmly by Harry Potter standards, the glimpses of arrogance of magicians who seem to ignore or actively oppress those magical beings different from them. I found the world of the second book interesting as well, with the glimpse of magical craziness and differences in the US, with introduction of more vampires with their plans for domination, and more threats to magic, and different magical creatures highlighting the shortsightedness and narrowness of the society that became familiar to us from the original story.
But book 3 left all those plot threads hanging, choosing to focus on the relationships almost exclusively,
with the “main” plot of the book resultantly anemic (and not because it was sucked dry by vampires!), the new villain lacking any substantial malice
(being named Smith Smith-Richards sounds like a weird stutter), and the resolution happening almost as an afterthought, with what seems to be an attempt to draw parallels to the resolution of the first story.
“I thought maybe Snow didn’t want to share a bed with me because he was afraid I’d bite him in my sleep. But apparently that’s fine! Bloodletting is fine—intimacy is the real taboo!”
It seems that the point of this book instead was to explore further and solve Simon/Baz relationship struggles — those that come from a combination of PTSD, depression, poor communication, and a boatload of emotional immaturity
(yes, that’s Simon I’m talking about. Baz is a godsend to boyfriendhood). In this book Simon finally learns to communicate in words rather than growls and learns to discuss problems instead of running from them.
(He also apparently develops a strange fetish for biting — a bit funny since he’s NOT the vampire one in this relationship — and adopts crying and panic attacks as a foreplay tactic). “I’m not lying! I don’t mind comforting you, Simon. Or holding you. I don’t mind giving you what you need, whatever it is you need. I prefer it to you pushing me away. Or ignoring me.”
I look up at him. “But you could date anyone you want. You could date everyone you want. And none of them would start bloody crying during foreplay.”
Baz shrugs. “You don’t always cry … Sometimes you go glassy-eyed and nonresponsive.”
But the relationship struggles, interspersed with sudden need to find coupling up happily-ever-after for more peripheral characters
(no singles are left standing by the end of this story!) and have everyone indulge in
unhealthy amount of saliva-swapping managed to sideline and eventually completely bury the plot and any hanging plot threads under the weight of young hormones.
“We haven’t talked about it yet—the fact that there are vampires trying to steal magic, and vampires running cities. None of us have talked about any of it since we got away from them.”
Yeah, you guys were too busy kissing, biting and not having sex.
Yes, I’m glad that emotional scars and PTSD and depression are not swept under the rug, but after the 100th scene of kissing/biting/freaking out and not having sex I need a bit more plot and resolutions.
Declarations of love would be fine punctuating the plot, but here it’s plot occasionally punctuating angsty love, and plot threads have no room to grow or develop or be resolved. With Simon/Baz angst completely overwhelming the book — all 500+ pages of it — all the side characters arcs are kinda there, barely intersecting with each other, giving it strangely disjointed feel. About 400,000,000 pages of Baz/Simon scenes could have been cut and condensed to allow the plot to show up. Keep it raw, keep it emotional, but spare us the bajillion reiteration of the same scenes.
“In the early days after the Mage was gone, when I was still having video calls with that American therapist, she used to tell me to break life into bites you can swallow.”
Oh dear, is that biting/swallowing metaphor the reason for your sudden biting obsession, Simon???
I kept wanting those two to talk about their feelings I’m the first two books. You gotta be careful what you wish for —
by page 800,000,000 of talking about feelings I wanted them to shut up, go back to lovesick glaring and get on with the rest of the plot.
————
This is supposedly the final book in the trilogy that needs to be followed by a *proper* final book, where angsty issues have been solved and we can get some resolution to the actual plot points — American vampires, mages’ prejuduces against other magical species, the results of rolling back Mage’s reforms, the dead spots, British vampires and their role in society, Simon’s magic, and so on. There needs to be more, not only happily-ever-afters for everyone*.
* Especially Agatha. There’s no point to her story. And that goats bit was ridiculous. Really.
————
The saving grace of this book for me, as always, was Baz Grimm-Pitch who holds my heart in his weirdly devoted long-suffering fashionista snarky snootiness barely hiding his heart of gold and helping me even through irritated frustration feel those warm fuzzies that won my heart in the first place. I still think that the audio narrator Euan Morton creates a perfect Baz.
And I still like the silly humor that manages to pop up between the angst.
Maybe I’ll go reread Carry On to bring back the warm fuzzies, and pretend it ended there. It worked nicely as a standalone. Not every book needs to spawn itself into a trilogy.—————
I’m sad to give this only 2.5 stars, with no amount of Baz fangirly love saving it.
But I’ll definitely read book 4 if Rowell decides to *properly* wrap up this trilogy.
————
My review of “Carry On”: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
My review of “Wayward Son”: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Rating: really liked it
OMG!!!
OH JEEZ!!!
DAMN!!! AKDFLASDJFASKDFJASKFDJA!
THERE'S GOING TO BE A THIRD BOOK!??
A.
THIRD.
BOOK!!!!!!__/\__/\__/\___/\___/\_________________
P.S: I really thought the next book would be named "There'll be peace"
No more Kansas as it seems. *sniff* XD
Rating: really liked it
SIMON HAD A SWORD AGAIN I REPEAT SIMON HAS A SWORD AGAIN THIS IS NOT A DRILL
this was everything I could've asked for and more.
I LOVE THAT RAINBOW GAVE THEM EACH TIME TO WORK THROUGH THEIR ISSUES AND DIDNT JUST LUMP THEM ALL TOGETHER.
SIMON AND BAZ'S RELATIONSHIP AND THE WAY THEY WORKED THROUGH ISSUES *MWAH*,
AGATHA AND NIAMH AND THEIR GOATS YES YES YES.
PENNY AND SHEPHERD STOLE MY HEART, HIS ENGAGEMENT TO A DEMON HILARIOUS.
THIS WAS SO SO GOOD.
ALSO BAZ RETURNING HER PIPPAS VOICE, FIONA AND NICODEMUS, BAZ NOT BEING IMMORTAL AND SO MUCH MORE AAAAAA
AND SIMON FINALLY GETTING A FAMILY, SURE HE HAS A SUPPORT SYSTEM BUT HE FINALLY HAS A FAMILY AMD THEY WERE SO HAPPY TO FINALLY HAVE HIM. NO UR CRYING AT 4.29AM
also kinda liked that he never got his magic back, because magic doesn't define him.
Rating: really liked it
4.5 THANK FUCKING GOD RTC
Rating: really liked it
i am crying
-----
well. i finally FINALLY read this and. eh. that's all i can say.
its not that this book is a //bad book// i just feel like it was pointless and that makes me very sad.
i LOVE carry on. my favorite thing about it was how lightheaded and easy to read it was, and obviously the tone changes in the two following books. i do love the idea of exploring the chosen one's life once he's lost everything, once he isnt needed anymore. its something new and very interesting, but it wasnt executed properly. maybe Rowell should've focused on simon's feelings and self-exploration instead of making up a storyline that was lacking in so many ways.
im gonna start with agatha because what the FUCK happened to her 😭😭😭 she was so insignificant to the story. you could write her off and NOTHING would change, the actual plot wouldn't be affected at all. was she with penny in any scene of the book? i think they didn't interact at all. she met with simon twice, and once with baz... im sad that the lesbian character ended up being the most useless one, and im also heartbroken because i found her so intriguing in the previous books when she rejected the magickal world. she ends up linked to it here, working for it. im not sure how i feel about that yet.
penny.... god im so upset because my FAVORITE thing about the two previous books was the friendship dynamics. on the first installment, i loved her relationship with simon. on the second one, with baz. that time baz cast a family spell on her and it WORKED? best scene of book 2. here, rowell sent her off on a side plotline just so she could have baz and simon trying to fuck every 10 pages. we didnt get to see the three together until what? page 300 of 500??? surprisingly, i didnt dislike her dynamic with shepard, even though it will always annoy me how authors seem to think EVERYONE needs to end up in a relationship (even fiona lmao). their relatioship was fun and light-hearted and easy to read!!! i thought shepard would bore the hell out of me but he ended up growing on me. that being said, they didn't need a whole side plot that would take up half of the book.
and simon and baz... don't get me wrong, i love their scenes together. i just wish rowell wouldn't have turned simon's struggles with relationships and intimacy into something so inherently sexual. it always came down to that. it was so frustrating. surprisingly, i liked simon more than baz in this book. i think, for once, he's the character that i liked most because he feels the most human. maybe that's why im so sad, he deserved better. also, his family issues??? "resolved" in the last 5 pages? he DEFINITELY deserved better.
i could complain about a lot more, but im getting tired of typing. i won't even waste my time on the villain because he isn't worth it. a disappointment.
[edit on 04/09/21]
I REMEMBERED SOMETHING ELSE.... the way baz and simon broke up just to get back together THE VERY NEXT DAY??? at first, i was excited because I thought they could TRULY use some time for themselves. simon had so many things to figure out, not only about relationships but about himself as a non-magikal human being... i wanted them to end up together, of course, but it just felt rushed.
Rating: really liked it
I don't understand... are we
NOT getting any more books after this one??? How can that be, when this doesn't feel even slightly finished??? I'm deeply confused.
Rating: really liked it
remember that day and a half of being terrified this wouldn’t be a thing hahahaha
___________________________________
@ that review saying baz/simon’s relationship needed to be put into a bowl of rice… SHE FUCKING DID IT GUYS
initial thoughts:
- this was absolutely everything I thought Wayward Son was going to be but because WS was like *that* I didn’t believe this would happen
- it was so so funny!
- I’m so happy that this was how I wanted it to be and so sad there are no more books coming (but… come on, Agatha and Niamh spin off?????)
brb, now having a crisis at the fact that I first read CO when I was 13 and now it’s over 🙃🙃
Updated thoughts:
Going into this I wanted to see Simon (and Baz) recover and heal… I didn’t really know how the recovery would happen and I also didn’t want to think about it too much in case it didn’t lol
I LOVED this book so much because it did happen!!!
THERE WAS COMMUNICATION AND HEALING, BUT REALISTICALLY DONE!!!
I’m seeing a few reviews saying it felt unfinished- in my opinion for it to be a realistic portrayal of healing nobody couldn’t have ended this completely okay. And I think now that what I should have wanted from AWTWB (and what I did get) was the fulfilment that everyone isn’t 100% okay but at least they’re not 0% okay either, recovery is a non linear process and they are on it.
Baz’s last line at the end of the book is one of my favourites and though I was surprised and haven’t quite figured out why the epilogue was just Agatha, I thought that….
- simon understanding the shit reality of his circumstances
- simon sharing them with baz
…was the perfect end to the book because it shows that Simon is understanding what has happened to him, is learning how to cope healthily with the trauma, and recovery isn’t all rosy- all SUCH important points.
ANYWAY I guess this is what happens when none of my friends read the book on release day so I’m just left to think about this by myself until someone eventually gets around to it
Rating: really liked it
i will close my eyes and pretend Carry On is still a stand-alone
