In Rainbow Rowell’s queer fantasy romance, the most powerful mage in the land is forced to live with his brooding roommate, who is also presumably a vampire.

In 2013, Rowell released “Fangirl”, a novel about Cath Avery, a freshman navigating college life for the first time.

Cath is obsessed with the fictional “Simon Snow” series. She loves it so much she writes a fanfiction about it, titled “Carry On.”

“Carry On,” released in 2015, follows “Simon Snow,” an orphaned magician, and Basilton “Baz” Grimm-Pitch, the son of the former Headmistress Natasha Grimm-Pitch and Simon’s roommate and enemy. 

The unlikely pair return to the Watford School of Magicks for their final year but are met with magical havoc.

Simon is different from the rest of the students. He was deemed “The Chosen One” in a prophecy, but he was also given magical power so strong that he struggled to control himself.

Around the same time as Simon’s birth, magical “dead spots” appeared around England, leading them to the Humdrum, a magical entity that takes the form of Simon to torment him.

Simon is the only one who can defeat this creature. 

At the same time, the Mage, the leader of the magical world, forces Simon to protect the school with his magical ability. 

At the same time, Simon is wrestling with the balance of being a magical “weapon” for the Mage, as well as being his own person. 

However, Simon is still trying to figure out his studies and the normal trials and tribulations of being a young adult, which makes his legacy a difficult one to abide by.

The novel is interrupted with mysterious stories from Lucy, a former student who tells of her romances with Davy, a man obsessed with creating the Greatest Mage, according to the prophecy.

Baz, however, is seemingly absent for the first two months of classes. Simon, even though he hates him, can’t seem to shake being worried about his whereabouts.

Penelope, Simon’s best friend, notices how much he’s thinking about Baz and attempts to get him to focus on his classes.

That same night, Simon is visited by the ghost of Baz’s mom, Natasha Grimm-Pitch. She urges Simon to avenge her death, and to find a mysterious individual named “Nicodemus.”

Natasha was murdered by vampires as they stormed the nursery. She protected Baz until her death, but she didn’t know her only son would be turned into the very thing that led to her demise.

One day during dinner, Baz makes a dramatic appearance, after seeming unharmed and even more confident than before, much to Simon’s disapproval.

Simon’s ex-girlfriend, Agatha, is also startled by his arrival. She, like Simon, was awaiting his return, she had kissed Baz in the forest before he left. Simon, unfortunately, was a witness to this.

Simon and Baz head back to their shared dorm room at Watford, meeting each other with silence.

Rowell’s “Carry On” combines a magical world similar to “Harry Potter” with the romance of “Twilight.” 

The pair must team up to solve the murder of Baz’s mother, while at the same time navigating an unprecedented and new romantic tension.