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Title: Wayward Son
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Sub-genre: Fantasy/Urban
Alright, so I was super stoked to find a basically brand new copy of Wayward Son just sitting on the shelf at my favorite used bookstore (months ago, obvs). I freaking loved Carry On so so much, and have been anxiously awaiting the sequel (can we for a minute just appreciate the brilliance of these titles?). Carry On actually came about via Fangirl, which is my favorite Rainbow Rowell book. Cath writes fan fic for a Harry Potter-esque series of books, so Rainbow being brilliant, decided to write the actual book she bases her fan fic on. It’s basically my dream as a writer. In Carry On, Simon (think of him as Harry) and Baz (Draco) have to team up to take down the big bad (kind of a cross between Dumbledore and Voldemort) with the help of their friends Penny and Agatha. Simon and Baz actually fall for each other after years of being enemies, they vanquish the evil, and everything seems all good.
Enter Wayward Son. In the aftermath of their triumphant battle, Simon has lost his magic and has fallen into a deep depression. He and Baz skirt around each other and it’s all very awkward. Agatha has moved from England to San Diego and Penny gets the bright idea to visit her, mostly so she can swing by Chicago and see her long distance boyfriend. She convinces the boys to go with her under the guise of it being good for Simon to get out of town. When they arrive in the States, they find Penny’s boyfriend has been trying to break up with her for months, and San Diego is actually a long ass way from Chicago. So they rent a car and head out, this time with a real purpose as Agatha seems to have disappeared. Along the way the gang falls in with some random magical creatures, and one not so magical friend, but they manage to make it to California in time to rescue Agatha from a weird vampire cult. Everything seems like it’s going to be okay, but the end of the book definitely leaves room for another book or two.
So not going to lie, I was expecting this book to be a rousing conclusion to this story, which is definitely was not. I was hoping for some more magic and fantasy-esque adventures, but this book is definitely rooted more in the real world. But honestly, none of those tiny gripes even matter. I am in love with Rainbow’s voice and these characters and I will read any book she writes about them because she’s just that brilliant. I hope there are ten more books coming in this series (though hopefully a little faster than this one). I love that she takes magical tropes and turns them on their head, and I love how she always hearkens back to HP but at the same time makes everything totally new and different and wholly her own. I read this one in one day because I just couldn’t stop.
Overall Rating: 4.5 stars