Simon Snow (Rainbow Rowell) Books in Order

The Simon Snow series plunges you into the World of Mages, a version of modern Britain where magic is powered by the phrases people say every day. At the center is Simon Snow, a boy raised among non-magical Normals who grows up to be the most powerful and least controlled mage anyone has ever seen.

When Carry On opens, Simon is heading into his final year at Watford School of Magicks. He is supposed to be the Chosen One destined to defeat the mysterious Humdrum, which is chewing holes in the world where magic simply stops working. Simon’s mentor, the Mage, is acting strange, his girlfriend Agatha seems ready to bolt, and his vampire roommate and sworn enemy Baz has gone missing from school.

What begins as a playful take on chosen one stories quickly becomes a character driven fantasy in its own right. As Baz finally returns to Watford, his prickly rivalry with Simon turns into a slow, believable love story. Penelope Bunce, Simon’s brilliant best friend, drags them both into schemes that range from monster hunting to political intrigue, while the wider school is caught between tradition and the Mage’s revolution.

The books never stop being funny, but they take Simon’s burnout and the collateral damage of prophecy seriously.

Wayward Son picks up after the big battle, when the world has been saved but Simon can barely get out of bed. To jolt him back to life, Penelope hauls Simon and Baz on a badly planned road trip across the United States to visit Agatha in California. The trio discovers that American magic works differently, monsters lurk at roadside motels and state fairs, and a new Normal friend, Shepard, may be in deeper trouble than he lets on.

In Any Way the Wind Blows, the story circles back to England and to the question of what comes after destiny. Simon has to decide whether he wants to stay in the World of Mages at all and what that choice means for his relationship with Baz. Baz is pulled between crises in his own complicated family and his growing comfort with being a vampire. Penelope’s attempt to fix everything with one more spell has consequences she never intended, while Agatha tries to walk away from magic altogether.

Across the trilogy, the Simon Snow books blend boarding school drama, epic magic, queer romance and quiet domestic moments like sharing a flat or baking scones. The spells are built from nursery rhymes and pop culture catchphrases, and the emotional stakes are as important as the magical ones. If you like fantasy that feels both big and intimate, starting with Carry On and reading straight through gives you a complete, satisfying arc, with bonus short pieces set in this world scattered through Rowell’s story collections.