Carry On (Simon Snow, #1)

by Rainbow Rowell

And when I felt myself slipping too far, I held on to the one thing I’m always sure of— Blue eyes. Bronze curls. The fact that Simon Snow is the most powerful magician alive. That nothing can hurt him, not even me. That Simon Snow is alive. And I’m hopelessly in love with him.

This scene was so much fun to write. At this point in the book, we’ve heard so much about Baz from Simon – he’s almost a legend. Baz is cool and handsome and possibly evil. He’s confident and untouchable. And then Baz shows up, and we’re inside his head, and he’s a wreck! I think, at the time that this book was released, many readers weren’t expecting Simon and Baz to have canonical feelings for each other. And they really weren’t expecting Baz to be the “hopelessly in love” one. Carry On is so much a book about tropes and archetypes and story conventions. I really loved flipping those conventions whenever I could. To walk a familiar path with a reader -- orphan, magic sword, etc. -- and then turn away from that path. I hope that this is a moment when readers think, “Oh, this story is headed in a new direction…”