Review Detail

Simon Snow just wants to relax and savor his last year at the Watford School of Magicks, but no one will let him. His girlfriend broke up with him, his best friend is a pest, and his mentor keeps trying to hide him away in the mountains where maybe he’ll be safe. Simon can’t even enjoy the fact that his roommate and longtime nemesis is missing, because he can’t stop worrying about the evil git. Plus there are ghosts. And vampires. And actual evil things trying to shut Simon down. When you’re the most powerful magician the world has ever known, you never get to relax and savor anything.

I really enjoyed the exerts of the Simon Snow books from Fangirl, both the actual books and the fanfiction, so when this book was announced I was excited. I knew going in that my expectations were high, it was the full story of a character I already liked and it was Rainbow Rowell. Thankfully, it not only didn’t disappoint, it was a fun and addicting book to read.

For the first few chapters, I was a little worried because it felt like I was missing part of the story. There were references to events that had happened in Simon’s first six years of school that I never got to read and, to my brain so used to series, it felt like I’d skipped a few books. Once I got used to it, I got completely pulled into Simon Snow’s story.

My absolute favourite thing was the relationship between Simon and Baz. It was everything that I was hoping for based off the exerts from Fangirl. It was antagonistic and sarcastic and complicated. It was wonderful. I really loved that we got some Baz POVs because they really helped flesh out his character and made him more sympathetic. Both Simon and Baz, and all the main characters, were well developed and showed growth through the book.

This is one book I can see myself picking up again and again to read and re-read(and re-read) certain scenes. Even when things went a little over the top dramatic, it was just so enjoyable and fun to experience that I didn’t care. To pick apart the very few issues I had with the book felt too much like nitpicking and I really just wanted to preserve the happiness I felt while reading this book.