Sisterhood Everlasting
Jun. 19th, 2011 08:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
author_by_nightThis book demonstrates why there shouldn't be adult versions of teen stories unless the writer is very, very careful.
I'm not going to spoil anyone, although I'd love to vent properly so please feel free to comment (just put SPOILERS as your comment subject), but basically it's a sequel to The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series. All four girls are twenty nine. Of course there's still minor spoilers here, but I'm trying to be careful.
Part of the problem is that while we know they're adults, I didn't really feel it. It wasn't even that they still seemed nineteen years old (their age in the last book) - they just didn't seem like adults either. They have all the mechanics of being adult, but nothing told me "wow, it really has been ten years." It should have been like reuniting with your friends from high school - it was more like reading your old high school friend's Facebook posts. You know your friend's obviously older now, your age, but you don't really see them doing anything other than marrying and holding fairly good jobs that demonstrates it.
Also, in the book something very horrible happens, and I took issue with how it was handled. I couldn't see any rhyme or reason for it - it honestly felt like she just wanted something very bad to happen because it was about adults, so it was supposed to be edgier. You can have edgier, though, without a plotline that's so dark and off kilter. They suspect someone has done something, yet there is absolutely no reason to believe the character would do such a thing based on the other books.
We also find things out about a character I don't believe for a moment they wouldn't have found out. They encounter that character's family, and Ann Brashares really expects me to believe they wouldn't mention Twist? Unless the character didn't even tell her family, but I find that hard to believe without backstory. We're not really told why the character hid such a big thing from everyone she cared about.
Ann Brashares wrote another book for adults, and incidentally I had the same issues. I just feel like she believes to write about adults she has to be gloomy and dark, which she could accomplish if she didn't do it in so many cliche ways. The Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood is as dark as it gets, yet it works because I don't feel as though Rebecca Wells is shoving down every sad cliche down my throat. She's brutally honest about how messed up people can be, and that's what makes the book bearable - and there's actually stuff that's far more upsetting.
If you absolutely loved the Sisterhood series, proceed with caution when reading this.
I'm not going to spoil anyone, although I'd love to vent properly so please feel free to comment (just put SPOILERS as your comment subject), but basically it's a sequel to The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series. All four girls are twenty nine. Of course there's still minor spoilers here, but I'm trying to be careful.
Part of the problem is that while we know they're adults, I didn't really feel it. It wasn't even that they still seemed nineteen years old (their age in the last book) - they just didn't seem like adults either. They have all the mechanics of being adult, but nothing told me "wow, it really has been ten years." It should have been like reuniting with your friends from high school - it was more like reading your old high school friend's Facebook posts. You know your friend's obviously older now, your age, but you don't really see them doing anything other than marrying and holding fairly good jobs that demonstrates it.
Also, in the book something very horrible happens, and I took issue with how it was handled. I couldn't see any rhyme or reason for it - it honestly felt like she just wanted something very bad to happen because it was about adults, so it was supposed to be edgier. You can have edgier, though, without a plotline that's so dark and off kilter. They suspect someone has done something, yet there is absolutely no reason to believe the character would do such a thing based on the other books.
We also find things out about a character I don't believe for a moment they wouldn't have found out. They encounter that character's family, and Ann Brashares really expects me to believe they wouldn't mention Twist? Unless the character didn't even tell her family, but I find that hard to believe without backstory. We're not really told why the character hid such a big thing from everyone she cared about.
Ann Brashares wrote another book for adults, and incidentally I had the same issues. I just feel like she believes to write about adults she has to be gloomy and dark, which she could accomplish if she didn't do it in so many cliche ways. The Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood is as dark as it gets, yet it works because I don't feel as though Rebecca Wells is shoving down every sad cliche down my throat. She's brutally honest about how messed up people can be, and that's what makes the book bearable - and there's actually stuff that's far more upsetting.
If you absolutely loved the Sisterhood series, proceed with caution when reading this.
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SPOILERS LOTS OF SPOILERS
Date: 2011-06-19 03:01 pm (UTC)So, I read the book last week. I'm still not entirely sure what to think about it. I was a bit pissed off partly because Tibby was one of the characters I related to more.
I think my biggest criticism was Carmen's story. It seemed really flat and bland. Like, okay, the train ride made her slow down and get in touch with herself a bit more. But I found it very frustrating that she pretty much knew all along that she wasn't happy being with Jones, and all it took was the train ride to admit it to herself. And then on top of that, it was almost a repeat of the kind of relationship she had with that girl in the theatre program: she defers to the other person and it takes her a while to realize she's doing herself a disservice.
I mean, you could argue that Bridget falls into old patterns here too, but somehow Bee's story never feels contrived the way Carmen's does.
And, I'm pretty sure it was being implied that Carmen had an eating disorder or maybe just some disordered eating habits, and it bugs me that it was never addressed.
Also something that never fails to annoy me is how all four girls are just so conveniently never have money problems. They can always afford to travel wherever, blow off work to travel, and buy magical awesome houses. That's a lot of conveniently rich boyfriends.
I was also kind of raising my eyebrow at the possibly anti-choice message embedded in there. Which was sort of reinforced by the "babies are great! babies make you feel better!" kind of theme.
As for your point about it being dark, I'm not sure that's an entirely fair claim. The first book had Bailey dying, and a child dying is always a pretty dark element. IDK.
We're not really told why the character hid such a big thing from everyone she cared about.
Oddly enough, that didn't bother me. In the book where Tibby is in college and thinks she's pregnant, she seemed to fall into a kind of situational depression and blocked out Brian and other people. If she was determined to tell her family and friends in person that she was sick, but her health and the pregnancy kept her from travelling, that's the kind of thing that can build up, I guess.
It's the fact that we don't really get to see her parents' reaction to Brian and little Bailey that bugs me more, I think. Also, if she knew it was that risky, it's hard to believe she'd go swimming like that. I'm also confused about when she thought she would be dying, the way she had the letters timed and when the move from Australia was planned.
At any rate, despite my complaints, I did enjoy the book. I read it in about a day and a half, like it was Harry Potter or something.
Re: SPOILERS LOTS OF SPOILERS
Date: 2011-06-19 03:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-19 03:19 pm (UTC)