Sisterhood Everlasting
by Ann Brashares
June 14, 2011
Purchased for Kindle
Grade: B+
Summary (from publisher): From #1 New York Times bestselling author Ann Brashares comes the welcome return of the characters whose friendship became a touchstone for a generation. Now Tibby, Lena, Carmen, and Bridget have grown up, starting their lives on their own. And though the jeans they shared are long gone, the sisterhood is everlasting.
Despite having jobs and men that they love, each knows that something is missing: the closeness that once sustained them. Carmen is a successful actress in New York, engaged to be married, but misses her friends. Lena finds solace in her art, teaching in Rhode Island, but still thinks of Kostos and the road she didn’t take. Bridget lives with her longtime boyfriend, Eric, in San Francisco, and though a part of her wants to settle down, a bigger part can’t seem to shed her old restlessness.
Then Tibby reaches out to bridge the distance, sending the others plane tickets for a reunion that they all breathlessly await. And indeed, it will change their lives forever—but in ways that none of them could ever have expected.
As moving and life-changing as an encounter with long-lost best friends, Sisterhood Everlasting is a powerful story about growing up, losing your way, and finding the courage to create a new one.
Review: The 5th Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants book made me cry more than any book in recent history. That being said - I really enjoyed it. I couldn't wait for my library to get a copy in so I bought it on my Kindle and wasn't disappointed in the least.
This book's a hard one to review without being excessively spoiler-y or just copying what the summary says so let me say then that the characters have aged magnificently. If Ann Brashares wanted to tell me that they've been in her head chatting about how the past ten years have been, I'd believe it completely, but it's not often that you see characters aged this well. Bee, Lena, Carmen, Tibby: they're all definitely adults now with all of the burdens and worries that that entails. I'm sure it would've been easier to write the four as 'frozen in amber', and indeed, I worried about that a little when starting the book, but my worries weren't justified at all.
There are parts of the book that are too trite, too amazingly coincidental, but when I say that, I remind myself that the original premise was a pair of jeans that magically fit all comers. If other bits are a little too magical, it's not like we didn't know what we were getting into.
I knew the major spoiler - though I didn't know who or the circumstances - going in, and while I was wary, it still took me completely by surprise. This is a fitting end to the Sisterhood years and though there are some questions and opportunities still open, I read those more as the type that let us know that life will still be going on for these characters rather than loose ends that weren't tied up.
Oh, I know, I sobbed with this one! And yeah, the whole plot hinges on a huge spoiler. Other than not being sure I liked that spoiler, I liked the way she wrote the book. And yeah, the magic is definitely a part of it.
ReplyDeleteThe one thing that bothered me was what I thought was a loose string in Carmen's story. What happens on the train seemed significant, but it didn't go anywhere later and I wanted it to. I'm hoping for another book!
I would love another Sisterhood book! I was sad we didn't get any continuation on that thread of Carmen's too - so much time was spent on it, it seemed too important to drop. But I think I'm okay with it from the standpoint that it's external to the Sisterhood and so apart from the main focus.
ReplyDeleteThe spoiler made me sad. I was relieved though that the original thoughts about the spoiler wasn't true! I didn't want to think about the misery associated with that.