This will end in flames
June 19, 2018 4:50 PM   Subscribe

Rainbow Rowell is teasing us with a sequel to Carry On. Originally fanfiction from her novel, Fangirl, the cast of Carry On includes gay, lesbian, and questioning characters, and multiple perspectives on what it means to be a chosen one and how to save the world. posted by Margalo Epps (13 comments total) 16 users marked this as a favorite
 
I love Carry On SO MUCH this news makes me VERY EXCITED (although I can't actually get the link to work). Thank you for sharing this, Margalo Epps!
posted by hapaxes.legomenon at 5:02 PM on June 19, 2018 [3 favorites]


I saw this news on the day it came out because Tumblr, but every day I remember said news, my day improves by at least 3%.

Carry On is brilliant and I’m so excited!! Simon and Baz are cinnamon rolls of the first order. Umm... but not of The First Order. That crossover has probably been done, though. Man, have we lost the phrase “of the first order” because of Star Wars? Yikes.

Ok, back on topic! Whatever you do, don’t tweet what you want to happen in Wayward Son to Rainbow, because she has already stated that she’s contrary by nature and if you tell her you want something, she’s probably gonna do the opposite.

I also love the title. I mean, Carry On was clearly a reference to the Queen song, but she took a left turn at the bridge or something.

And lastly, I dearly hope there’s a canon explanation for Baz’s suit.
posted by greermahoney at 5:58 PM on June 19, 2018 [2 favorites]


Carry On is on my to-read list, but for some reason I had it confused with Looking For Group by Alexis Hall, and the reason I'd wavered on reading it was because while gay MMORPG shenanigans sounds fun, I am a terrible, terrible fantasy junkie and never found myself in the mood for realistic fiction even if it was fantasy-adjacent. So every time I saw it I was like, "Damn, I love that cover, and I'd probably enjoy the book, but realistic fiction, man..."

But this post made me look a little closer and holy shit, I have never been more pleasantly surprised in my life. Guess what just shot to the top of my list! Now I'm seriously regretting passing it up on that ebook sale a while ago. Fuck. Shit. On the other hand, this could just be a sign to buy it at my local LGBT coffee bookstore instead.
posted by brook horse at 6:51 PM on June 19, 2018 [4 favorites]


Carry On is basically early 2000s Harry/Draco fanfic, and if you feel a burst of happy nostalgia at that thought, you should run out and put this book on hold at the library.
posted by betweenthebars at 7:55 PM on June 19, 2018 [10 favorites]


Carry On is so good! So excited!
posted by Malla at 7:56 PM on June 19, 2018 [1 favorite]


I'm getting the suspicion this has nothing to do with the British film franchise.
posted by Faint of Butt at 8:40 PM on June 19, 2018 [4 favorites]


Oh, matron!

Edit: damnit, beaten!
posted by slater at 8:43 PM on June 19, 2018 [3 favorites]


Rainbow was editor of the college paper in Omaha and jumped right in to being a columnist at the World-Herald, I think because they thought they needed a young voice there. Her columns were very young, very sheltered, and weren't taken very seriously by the crowd I knew then.

But regular writing is regular writing, it's the best way to develop as a writer, and she seems to have benefitted massively from 10 years of having the produce content. I'm glad for her. I think she still lives in Omaha, and I am always very glad when someone has a creative career outside the places we're told you have to go if you want to have a creative career.
posted by maxsparber at 8:04 AM on June 20, 2018 [2 favorites]


The spouse loved Fangirl, but I couldn't finish Eleanor and Park -- because I could tell, by the songs he played, that Park is EXACTLY the same age as me. Cut me just a little too close to the bone, that story. I've been meaning to try Fangirl for a while anyway. Maybe this will push me to it, and then on to Carry On.
posted by Quasirandom at 8:55 AM on June 20, 2018


I'm getting the suspicion this has nothing to do with the CSN&Y song.
posted by Rash at 1:02 PM on June 20, 2018


Fangirl really stayed with me, even though I was a grown-ass woman as I read it. I had read almost no other novels that seriously examine the inner life of a young woman who uses creativity to live her life for her.* And I certainly hadn't read any in which a serious fan of a media property was anything but a punchline. Before I read Fangirl, the last fanfic-writing character I remember at all in a novel was a malevolent Ignatius J. Reilly type in Robert Rodi's What They Did to Princess Paragon. That is a memorable read in itself, but pretty much all the serious media representation I was aware of.

The romance in Fangirl wasn't the kind that was supposed to solve everything. I'll never forget reading about Cath comparing her first sexual experience to the reams of gay sex she'd read about. But the relationship was so believably kind that I realized that all that was unbelievable was that the young man was kind, something I had been socialized not to expect since I was little. I had to sit and think about that for a while.

-----
* Since then I've read The Golden Notebook and the Neapolitan Novels, which certainly do that, although these are both extremely grounded in a different space and time.
posted by Countess Elena at 2:14 PM on June 20, 2018 [2 favorites]


For those of you who like audiobooks, Carry On is very well narrated.
posted by greermahoney at 10:39 PM on June 20, 2018


Thanks to this thread, I looked up Carry On on Amazon on Wednesday, and read the first chapter or two in preview. Then I ordered a (used) copy, which showed up on Friday, and I just finished today. So thank you all, that was a fun ride.
posted by fings at 5:06 PM on June 24, 2018 [1 favorite]


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