Welcome to a new school year, readers! Sorry I've been a bit MIA for the first few weeks (AP classes are apparently very hard—shocking, I know), but today I'm back with a review for none other than Rainbow Rowell's 2019 stumble of a book, Wayward Son.
I was ready to love this book. Fresh off the last page of Carry On, I immediately picked up its sequel, anticipating another fun read—maybe a little more intense than the last, but still the characters and world I love. I know about the two-of-three book curse (for new readers: where the second book in a trilogy is slow, boring, filler, or doesn't fit with the first), but I had endless confidence that Rowell would be able to manage. She created a stellar debut fantasy, after all, when all she'd done before were romantic comedies.
But this book just didn't do it for me. There were great elements, like narrative style and (some) new characters, but most of the book—character relationships, plot devices, content—gave me an unnatural amount of anxiety.
Good stuff first, though. Always the good first. Some of the writing in the individual chapters was phenomenal. Chapter 60, anyone? It's practically poetry. The little "(Through what, through what, through what?)" still haunts me. The ending chapters in general pretty much carried. It was fast-paced and character-driven—which all of these books should be, considering the original plot is a solid combination of "Chosen One moment" and "how many tropes can we fit in one book?".
Another highlight was Sheppard. Shep brought the whole mood up. Where the other characters were intense and overwhelmed (and not in a fun-to-read kind of way; in more of a sit-in-the-corner-and-cry kind of way), he made a bad joke and continued marching into death. Shep brought spirit into this book when the previous book's had been lost. His comic relief moments let me breathe and, if only a little, relax. Shep did everything in his power to create the environment I wanted and expected this book to have, and while he wasn't able to save it all, he did make my anxiety slightly less extreme.
Sadly, that was all the good I could find.
Now into the mess that was character relationships, yeah? Not quite the worst of the worst in the book, but painful nonetheless.
First, a smaller problem: Penny and Baz. I didn't realize how much I cared about this friendship until it was practically forgotten. Because adorable plotting scenes were few and far between, there weren't many opportunities for their banter to come out—because, yes, they did have banter in the first book. Plotting Penny and Baz are my favorite! When all they could focus on was taking care of Simon in this book, they got lost.
The biggest problem was Simon and Baz—or, that is, the absence of them. Simon and Baz were not Simon and Baz, not the couple I came to love. The banter disappeared, and not in an exciting but tense way. In a way that made me want to rip the book apart and reread Carry On, or the Snowbaz scenes in Fangirl, or literally anything else than what was in front of me.
The heart of Carry On was its unique mix of adorableness and angst (AKA its unique mix of Simon and Baz). When Simon and Baz both became emotionally lost in Wayward Son, the series's heart was also lost. I understand that Simon and Baz needed to get worse to get better, but their hearts and the heart of the book should be separate. A book should never so drastically rely on its characters like that.
And that's what this series is. As I mentioned before, because of the nature of the book, it should be 100% character driven, except in this one, Rainbow Rowell tried to make the plot what stood out. Books that value plot above characters are great, but to do that, you need a strong concept, and that's really not what these books were built on. Don't get me wrong, finding your own way to a Chosen One story interests me, but the Chosen One story ended, leaving Wayward Son a little lost.
To make up for this, Rowell tried using classic but annoying plot devices. Take Lamb, for example, the vampire king of Los Angeles. While it was interesting to see his betrayal, sticking him between Baz and Simon was a cheap way to bring out their insecurities. He's so completely unlikeable. And why can't Baz see that Lamb is flirting with him? He would see it. Sure, he can't understand anything about Simon's emotions, but that's a unique case for him. Most of the time, he's pretty good at reading people. It's not even like there was something blinding about him, like Baz was starstruck. Baz was a little excited to meet other vampires, but he mostly thought Lamb was not the kind of person he wanted to be because he drinks humans.
That isn't just the only example, either. Sometimes it felt like Rowell was mocking the reader. She would suggest fun tropes (one of the biggest parts of Carry On) then discard them completely. Only one bed? Just kidding, there's a couch. Cute driving scene? Sorry, Baz's face is literally burning off. There was no balance between character pain and reader enjoyment.
Even the content itself let me down. After the first book with the complicated Mage story, new vampires felt boring. Why would I care about what southwest Americans are doing? Because Agatha is there? I hate Agatha! For all I care, she could be the founder of the NowNext (Next Blood?) cult.
Maybe if there had been more creepy cult content it would have been more interesting. All we got were a few scenes with Agatha and that leader. What was up with that guy? He was so completely uninteresting that I can't remember his name (and can't find it anywhere online—that's how forgettable he was).
Overall, Wayward Son is a huge let down to fans of the first book. It's everything Carry On isn't, and not in a pleasant way. This goes far beyond the Two-of-Three Book Curse, far beyond any disappointment I prepared myself for.
Sorry about not posting for so long. School's been rough and this isn't exactly a fun review to write. There was no love-to-hate with this book, only anxiety. Hopefully the third book reaches Carry On's standards (I've already read it and, spoiler alert, it's not awful but it's certainly not good). Until next time (hopefully soon), keep reading, readers.