Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Having read The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books as a teenager, I was excited to read about the girls' lives as adults. In actually reading the book, I found myself heartbroken- not because I was disappointed in the novel, but because what I found waiting for me in the four characters to whom I had formed such an attachment was by no means a "happily ever after." It is, though, a beautiful story very much like life: full of unexpected turns, suffering, triumph and love.
Some reviewers have leveled criticism about the continuity of the characters, claiming that the Lena, Bee, Carmen and Tibby from the first four novels are not the same four women we meet in Sisterhood Everlasting. My simple responses to that is I should hope not! Ten years changes people, and growing up changes people. At their cores, the girls are still the same: Carmen has big dreams and plenty of sass, Bee is a free spirit fighting with her emotions, Lena is quiet and doesn't fully recognize her own worth, and Tibby is insightful and challenging. It is their circumstances that have shifted, and it is in this that I think some readers are struggling. The lives we find the four girls leading don't necessarily match up with what we wanted for them after reading the first four books in the series. The problem, then, is foiled expectations rather than discontinuous characterization.
The novel itself is well written and moving, and Brashares manages to capture some of the most beautiful and some of the most painful moments of life in rather stunning completeness. Despite the sadness, there is also a tremendous sense of joy, and most of all, an overwhelming sense of love. Brilliant read, highly recommended!
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