The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Series) by Ann Brashares
Girls in Pants
Although I gave all of the books in these series a similar overall rating, I felt book three of the Sisterhood was an improvement over book two. It starts out with what has now become a tradition to begin the summer: celebrating their friendship and bringing the pants out from their winter hibernation. In this case, three of the four are planning to be home for the summer, with Bridget off to coach at a soccer camp. Her story seems to come full circle here, with her experiences with the boys on her team as well as reencountering Eric from her past. Her story does well to highlight the growing up that she has done since the end of the first book.
Tibby’s story here was not as interesting as the ones in the previous books, but there was nothing that I specifically disliked. My feelings on Carmen’s story were similar to those from her book two plot, although a bit more balanced by adding in her caring for Lena’s grandmother. Carmen’s interactions with her mother seemed melodramatic, and sometimes borderline vindictive. While I would like to say that she made some growth by the end, I am not convinced that’s true. She seemed very aware that she was behaving badly, and acknowledged how she could be better, but was uninterested in making a change.
My favorite story here was Lena’s—and I was so happy to see that her story was not centered on Kostos! The prior books mentioned her art, but did not describe it as the passion that can be seen here. Lena’s struggle between following her dreams and following the rules of her family is captivating and relatable. I love that she is able to use her love for art as well as her talent to learn more about herself, and connect that to her relationships with her family.
Forever in Blue
Book four of the Sisterhood, Forever in Blue, provides a perfect wrap up to this series full of ups and downs for this group of friends. It starts with some uncertainty for all of the girls—they are not together for their traditional kick off to summer, and since they have all been apart at college they never retired the pants as they did in previous winters. I was happy to see some personal growth for all of the girls, and was especially pleased with the stories for Lena and Carmen (finally!!!). The ending, with Carmen’s friends showing up to support her at her play, and then the four girls coming together to search for the lost pants in Greece was a fitting end to this series of adventures and growing up. The loss of the pants fits well with the “magic” element that I was not too crazy about: they have served their purpose for the girls, and so have moved on.
There were some unique insights on both finding and forgetting oneself that struck me here. For the first time in the series, I found myself jotting down quotes that I did not want to forget. To end the series, I’ll share two of the tidbits I chose to capture for myself, I believe both of them coming from Carmen’s narrative:
“You couldn’t always know what would matter to you.”
“When you belonged nowhere, you sort of belonged everywhere.”