The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Series by Ann Brashares (Part 3)

Note: These are my thoughts on the entire series, so the discussion of each subsequent book contains spoilers for those previous but not the novel itself. This is a review of book 5, which may provide spoilers of the previous 4 books but will not contain any for the novel itself.  For reviews of books 1 and 2, click here. For reviews of books 3 and 4, click here. 

My entire reason for picking up the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Series by Ann Brashares after nearly a decade apart was the release of a fifth and final book in the series, set ten years after book four, Sisterhood Everlasting. Although the first four books in the series are young adult novels, as the four girls are 15 to 18 years old, this one picks up when they are 29 and is therefore considered an adult novel. While the story is more mature in the issues it address, Brashares' writing is just as accessible as it was previously, meaning that Sisterhood Everlasting fits well with the other novels and would still be easy to read for young adults, providing that they are prepared for the emotional story. What I love about this book, is that in a way I grew up with the sisters, having been a young teen when the first novel was released and now being in my early twenties, in a way I feel as if I have grown up with Tibby, Carmen, Lena and Bee.

When Sisterhood Everlasting begins, the four girls who had reaffirmed their friendship and commitment to each other at the end of Forever in Blue, have grown apart. Carmen lives in New York as an actress, and is engaged to a much older fiance. Bridget is in California and still refusing to settle down with her long term boyfriend Eric, constantly moving and giving away their belongings as her itch to not stay in one place grows stronger. Finally, Lena is working as an art teacher in Rhode Island, and although she has a quiet and content life, she still dreams of Kostos and the path she didn't take. Then Tibby, the most absent of the four, having moved to Australia, reaches out to the other girls and sends them all plane tickets for a reunion in Greece. What the girls find when they get there will surprise and shock both them and the reader. As they attempt to bridge the space, not just a physical distance but an emotional one, that has formed between them, we learn what the last ten years have meant for the Sisterhood and that way lies ahead may not be what anyone expected.

Picking up Sisterhood Everlasting, I admit that I was longing for a happy ending. When a tragic event occurs early on in the novel, I realized that what I was going to get was something far more powerful, a realistic and heartbreaking story about growing up and growing apart. Tibby, Carmen, Lena and Bridget all feel like good friends to the reader, and like good friends, you only want the best for them. What Brashares provides isn't a fairytale, but a perceptive and touching story that fits the personalities of the characters, and the fact that things rarely turn out how we expected. That said, I had two main complaints about the novel which didn't quite coincide with reality. The first was that the majority of people do not end up with the first person they dated or fell in love with, especially if they met this person when they were only fifteen. I know introducing a whole slew of new characters in the final book in a series doesn't really make sense though, so I could forgive the fact that so many of the girls end up with characters from previous books, even if I didn't quite believe it. The second point is a spoiler, so if you haven't read the book skip over the next sentence (highlight it to read it). There is a huge flaw in the scientific basis of Tibby's illness, because it is a genetic disease which is a dominant allele, her having it would require that at least one of her parents have it as well, a point that is totally ignored (unless she had a random mutation in the exact right place for the disease to occur which would be very very very rare). Also, her requiring hospice care at such a young age seems a bit extreme, symptoms tend not to manifest badly until the person is in their mid-thirties or forties. Unfortunately, as a grad student in biology, this scientific mistake really bothered me, especially because it plays such an important role in the story. However, perhaps it would not even be noticed by the average reader.

In a way, it's not necessary to read Sisterhood Everlasting, the fourth book in the series ties things up quite nicely, ending on a happier note than this new book does. That said, I'm glad to have had this opportunity to see how life has turned out for the girls, and to get the chance to meet up with them one last time. As a whole, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Series provides an insightful and wonderful look into the lives of four beautiful and unique teenage girls- but what Brashares adds to the series with Sisterhood Everlasting is a reminder that although we don't always get our Happily Ever After, if we remember who are friends are, and who we are, then maybe we can get something even more meaningful.

Release Date: June 14th, 2011
Pages: 349
Source: Publisher
Buy the Book

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Series by Ann Brashares (Part 2)

Note: These are my thoughts on the entire series, so the discussion of each subsequent book contains spoilers for those previous but not the novel itself. For example, a review of book 3 may spoil parts of book 2, but will not provide any spoilers of the novel itself.  If you have not yet read any of these books or wish to begin with the first books in the series, click here to read part 1 of my reviews.

When I left off my last review, I had just finished discussing the second novel in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Series, so it's time to dive into the third, Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood. This was the first book in the series I was picking up not as a reread, but as a brand new experience, so I was eager to see how Brashares writing would stand up when the book itself didn't have any particular nostalgia attached to it. In Girls in Pants, Carmen, Tibby, Bridget and Lena are about to begin their last summer before heading off to four different colleges. This summer, Carmen is working as a caretaker for Lena's grumpy grandmother who has been forced to come to the US after her husband died, and on Carmen's repeated visits to the hospital she keeps running into the same mysterious boy, handsome and intriguing but who Carmen feels is completely missing out on her selfish and angry side. Meanwhile, Lena takes a figure drawing class during the summer with a teacher who may change the way she views art, and herself, that is if her father doesn't get in the way. Bridget is finally her old self, and that includes spending the summer working at a soccer camp, only to realize that perhaps she hasn't left the past behind as well as she thinks she has. Finally, Tibby has to learn to have the same trust in herself that her friends do when an opportunity arises to take a friendship to the next level, only to cause Tibby to feel responsible for a serious injury to her sister.

At first, I found myself disappointed. Girls in Pants begins very slowly, and there is a lot of focus on characters who had mainly been on the sidelines in previous books- for example Tibby's younger siblings, Lena's grandmother and Bridget's friend Diana- or absent all together, like Carmen's love interest. Although I appreciate that Brashares was trying to round out the images we have of the girls, I felt like at times these side plots took away from the intimate connection I was used to feeling with the main characters, as four main characters is plenty as it is. I also didn't really enjoy the storylines in Girls in Pants quite as much as the previous two books, I felt like Carmen still had way too much growing up to do in order to be thinking about a serious relationship, and Tibby's insecurity seemed a bit over the top, as did some of the events with Bee at camp.

About halfway into Girls In Pants the pace of the story picked up and it managed to keep my interest til the end, but I admit I wasn't nearly as captivated as I had expected to be. I don't think that had anything to do with the memories I attached to the previous books, but rather that as a whole this is definitely the weakest of the bunch. My love of the characters kept me reading, but in the end Girls in Pants disappointed me, and many of the main events, especially the way things worked out for Lena, Tibby and Bridget, felt contrived.

Still, my feelings about the lacklustre third book certainly didn't prevent me from picking up the fourth, and was long considered to be the final, book in the series, Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood. This book was unique in that not only all the girls college students, having just finished their first year, but at eighteen, nearly nineteen, they are finally starting to feel like grown up, which means their problems are more grown up too. From the first page of Forever in Blue Carmen is conspicuously missing from her home town, not even being around when the girls try to have their annual summer friendship ceremony. Everyone wonders if, having been used year round, the pants are beginning to lose some of their magic and ability to hold the four girls together, as they seem to have drifted apart over the year.

This summer, Carmen is in Vermont working on a theatre production with her new friend Julia. College hasn't treated Carmen well, and she's become a shell of the outgoing, vibrant, person she used to be. Still, she's thankful she has Julia, a girl who seems far too perfect to be friends with her. Julia has been with Carmen through her terrible year, but will she still be there if for once, Carmen is happy? Meanwhile, Bridget has run off to Turkey when Eric tells her he's spending the summer in Mexico. Working an archaeological dig, Bee has her eye on a handsome young professor, and the fact that she has barely seen Eric over the last year means that her feelings of abandonment and longing are in full swing. Lena is in Rhode Island taking a summer art course, but the only thing more surprising than finding herself attracted to one of the other students, is when Kostos unexpectedly shows up. Lastly, Tibby is taking a film class at NYU and working at a local movie store, and with Brian planning to transfer to be closer to her, and her life would seem to be perfect. That is, until they take their relationship to the next level and the consequences of that action are more than Tibby bargained for.

The issues that Brashares takes on in Forever in Blue certainly felt both mature and realistic, and it was a welcome return to level of perception that I had grown to expect and love in this series. I had a few issues, but they were pretty minor. For what was such a big storyline in the previous book, Win is barely mentioned in this novel except for Carmen to say they went out a few times. That said, I wasn't very entranced by him so his absence was not particularly missed. He was replaced instead by Julia, who seems like an amazing friend to Carmen until the reader realizes just how imbalanced their relationship really is. I really loved this storyline for Carmen, I loved watching her come out of the shell she has created for herself after moving away from home, and seeing how she came to realize the truth about the relationships in her life, both with her friends and her family.

I appreciated how Brashares discussed the ramifications that having sex can have on a relationship through Tibby, as it is certainly an issue that increasingly younger girls seem to be facing. Bee's storyline felt perfect for her, I loved the acceptance she came to and how she tried to share some of her sunshine with her family, secondary characters who had been mostly neglected so far in the series. I always wondered how her twin brother Perry must feel with such a star for a sister, and Brashares definitely gives insight into what life is like for him. The last storyline belonged to Lena, and to be honest it felt a bit repetitive and whiny at times, but that is also my general feeling about Lena throughout the novels. Like Carmen, Lena comes out of her shell in Forever in Blue, but in a way that felt forced and like a huge change from her previous personality.

Overall, I was so glad that I decided to dive back into the world of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants for the first time in nearly a decade. Though there were moments of disappointment, particularly in the third book, these are easy and remarkably perceptive books on the teenage experience. Still, even though the series wrapped up smoothly, I was definitely excited to see where ten years later would find the girls, in the fifth book in the series, the recently released Sisterhood Everlasting.

Click here for Part 3 of my reviews.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Series by Ann Brashares (Part 1)

Note: These are my thoughts on the entire series, so the discussion of each subsequent book contains spoilers for those previous but not the novel itself. For example, if you haven't read any of the series then reading my review of book 1 is safe, however the section on book 2 may provide spoilers to book 1. Be warned. 

I first fell in love with The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares nearly a decade ago when it was originally released. As a young teen, I saw parts of myself in Bee, Lena, Tibby and Carmen (especially the last two). When the sequel, The Second Summer of the Sisterhood, was released, I dived right back into Brashares believable, yet slightly magical, world. Somewhere along the way, maybe distracted by high school and friends and other things, partially due to hardcover releases too expensive for a teenage budget and long library wait lists, I never finished the series. So when I learned that a fifth and final book in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series was about to be released, set ten years after the fourth book, I knew this was just the excuse to both rediscover, and delve into for the first time, these incredibly touching books.

The first book in the series, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, introduces the reader to four fifteen year old girls, born within a month of each other and friends since birth (their mothers met in a prenatal yoga class) they are about to spend their first summer apart. One of the girls, Carmen, purchases a pair of secondhand jeans without trying them on and when the girls discover that the jeans magically fit all four of them despite their very different body shapes, they know this is just the thing to keep them together during their time away. Thus, the sisterhood is born. Throughout the summer the jeans will be passed from Lena, the shy, artistic, and beautiful girl who is spending the time in Greece with her grandparents, to Tibby, the independent-minded aspiring film-maker who is stuck at home and working at Wallmans, to Carmen, feisty and passionate, who is spending the summer with her father for the first time since her parents divorced at a young age, to Bridget, an athletic and outgoing girl who lost her mother to suicide and is spending the summer at a competitive soccer camp in Mexico. As the jeans travel from sister to sister, Brashares includes letters that they write detailing their lives, and manages to capture the important moments in the lives of four very different teens.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is incredibly perceptive, and reading it again years later I can still remember the feelings that Brashares captures so perfectly, the longing to belong, to be loved, to trust, the angst and the anger and the changes that we go through as we grow up. Each of the characters have their own quirks, and even the secondary characters like Lena's sister Effie are rich and dimensional. Brashares switches smoothly from the life of one girl to another, and for a novel with multiple storylines there isn't one that I would consider boring or that I dreaded her returning to. Instead, I think the whole book in enchanting, and there are just enough twists and turns to keep you turning the page without making you doubt that this could happen in real life. When the sisters finally reunite after their summer apart, you end the book knowing that they have grown up a lot, and more than that, as a reader you feel like you have grown with them.

Next up in the series is The Second Summer of the Sisterhood, when Brashares reunites with the girls a year later and the reader finds many of them in unexpected situations. Most unexpected for me was Bridget, who has dyed her hair black and quit soccer, still reeling from her experiences with Eric the previous summer. When Bee finds letters from her Grandma that her father has been keeping hidden since her mother's death five years ago, she decides to head to Alabama with her new appearance as a disguise and see what she can learn about her mother. But learning more about her mother's life, also means that Bridget will have to remember her death. As for Tibby, she's attending a film-making workshop in Virginia, where she finally has the opportunity to connect with people with like-minded interests, but in order to belong does she have to give up part of who she really is? Carmen and Lena are both at home this summer, and both dealing with romantic dilemmas. In Carmen's case she's most concerned about the fact that her mother is dating again, and worried she will be left behind in the process, something she plans to avoid even if it means sabotaging her mom's relationship. Lena is trying to get over Kostos after breaking up with him, but despite being the one to end the relationship, she can help her jealousy when she learns Kostos may have moved on. It's another eventful summer for the girls, but no matter what happens, they know that their sisters, and the pants, will be there for them.

Reading a new book in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Series is like reuniting with old friends after too long apart. Luckily, now that the entire series has been released, I could immediately start on the second novel after finishing the first. Even though both were rereads, I still felt my heart drop when I realized how poorly Bee was dealing with loosing her virginity to Eric, and how Lena continued to deny her relationship with Kostos when it seemed like she had finally admitted her feelings for him. That's the truth in life too though, even when we want only good things to happen, sometimes things don't go according to plan- like Carmen feeling like her mother is starting a new life without her. Brashares takes the reader on the ups and downs in The Second Summer of the Sisterhood, and although like The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants the novel tells a complete story, it also builds on the experiences and knowledge that has been gained in the first book. Sometimes it feels like the girls haven't really learned anything in the first book, especially Lena, but then you realize that is exactly how it works, sometimes we need to be hit over the head in order to really learn the necessary lessons and Brashares provides a perfect reminder of how important those lessons are.

In The Second Summer of the Sisterhood Lena, Tibby, Carmen and Bee are a year older, but no less relateable. Even rereading the novel in my early twenties, I recognize so much of myself in these young woman and their struggles. The story is touching and funny and unpredictable, and in some cases maybe even a bit heartbreaking. With the first two books in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Series, Brashares created a world which resonated with me when I first read it, and has no less power reading it again all these years later. Simply put, there's magic in the pants but there's also magic in the girls that wear them.

Click here for Part 2 of my reviews.